My wife's aunt bought my brother in laws 18 month old daughter a Gollywog for Christmas, I am surprised she actually managed to find one and then surprised that given that they havent been seen for years because of the connotations that she still bought it, I am not really bothered, its a soft toy but its one of those things, i.e. dont go there for the sake of a quiet life, there are thousands of soft toys available why buy one that could cause offence, my brother in laws partner can be a bit on the PC side so I think it was an ill advised purchase.

So is it just a kids toy or a racist symbol, its funny as the day before we had watched a re-run of the Ricky Gervais creation 'Extra's in which a Gollywog featured heavily, the black guy wasnt bothered in the slightest but the white girl turned herself paranoid due to a soft toy, I think that may be the issue, white people are all fussed about it a draw more attention to it than if it was just ignored.

One thing that shocked me was when she said that she had books in her youth about 'Black Sambo' and that she must dig them out !

This is the same relative that got me this for my birthday, I suppose it cant be considered racially offensive.....

 

Pretty cool though!

 

What the Owl or the Gollywog ?

Sounds like a book that.

 

excuse my stupidity here.... but ive heard the word used in a racist manner...
but what the hell is that? and why is it a racist term!?!?

 

Have you never seen a gollywog?

 

The Gollwog.

They dont feature on marmalade anymore do they?

 

I think they are now supposed to be refered to simply as a "Golly"

To be honest, I'd chuck it in the bin when she'd left.

 

There are still shops around that sell gollywogs - they don't exactly put them in the windows, though. Like the owl

 

 

Are they yours, Bubba?

 

http://www.leagueofgentlemen.co.uk/

It's all a bit Royston Vasey!!!!

 

Yes. I keep them with my collection of antique n*****-baiting equipment.

 

what else do you have Bubba - pointy hat?

 

..... or do you bid for pics of people's ex's on fleabay?

 

some friends of my sisters went on holiday to jamaica,

they were stopped at heathrow on the way out and an attempt was made to remove the childrens soft toys, 2 golliwogs.

what made it all the more laughable was that the children and the parents were all of jamacian descent, and were naturally not white so to speak

to the children it was a soft toy, its only the fact we have made it what it is.
after a heated debate with the parents, they were allowed to keep the toys,




what next banning gnomes, because short people dont like them??

why do we try to erase things we dont like?? just accept it was somthing that was there and happened. by doing the pc angle, just makes it stay at the forefront.


oh and i have a golly somwhere at home, and i think robertsons ought to bring them back too


Mart

 

 

Hello

And don't forget the one in Noddy:



Steve

 

all a load of PC crap,......... the world has far more pressing things to worry about than 'golliwogs' ffs!! like ,.... WOTS FOR DINNER???

 

Do you need matches to light your burning cross? Or is it one of them new-fangled self igniting ones?

 

Carp and Canada goose

 

but they let children play with "multicultural" dolls which the gollywog doll is!!??

Thomas the Tank Engine now doesnt have a "Fat Controller" because after years it suddenly became offensive to fat people and now he is known as "The Controller"

 

The first time I saw a black man I was about 5 and on the tube in London, my Mum tells me that I kept shouting "It's a Gollywog, it's a Gollywog" she wasn't all that amused and I'd guess the poor fella I was shouting at wasn't best pleased either. Wish I could remember it.

 

that picture of the owl ive seen on a thread before ages ago...

 

Almost as bad as baa, baa, black sheep - and I bought a BBC tape of nursery rhymes with it on for one of the girls. Way after that was thought 'politically incorrect'.

 

I painted my car in gollywog colours and people seem to love it.I always get the thumbs up.

 

It cracks me up as the word is associated with black people.

Oxford English Dictionary - Wog
wog1 wo(hook)g. slang. Origin uncertain: often said to be an acronym, but none of the many suggested etymologies is satisfactorily supported by the evidence.

1. A vulgarly offensive name for a foreigner, esp. one of Arab extraction.

 

In fact, the Golly-Wog is offensive because it is indeed a racist image. After racial emancipation in the United States when black people began to make their way in society, and to wear clothes more suited to the better incomes they began to earn for themselves, it was thought a ridiculous sight to see a well-dressed black person. The Gollywog is just that; a racist pisstake of a "nigra" in a dandy suit... a "Wog" that makes you say "Golly", in fact.

 

Alas, that may be the dictionary definition but you and I both know that definition is as old as the hills, look it up on Wikipedia, I remember my grandad telling me that it stood for Western Oriental Gentleman which sounds quite complimentary butin my 35 years it was typically used to refer to black people in a derogatory way by older white people.

BTW, I am not bothered about the Gollywog but am more interested to hear the opinions, it does however illustrate racist tendencies in the older white middle classes, but then we knew that anyway.

 

Perhaps a racist pisstake of older white posh women is in order then !

 

thats gone now, its now gobbo the goblin.. FFS it used to be the nasty golliwogs.

Enid blyton has been clobbered too, the gollys have gone there!!

Agatha Christie, has been clobbered ten little *******, are now ten little indians?

although thats bound to rasie a storm of protest

why cant they just leave well alone.


Mart