![]() ![]() For example, the colonial exhibitions through which European states celebrated their global power featured "human zoos" and "negro villages". This imagery was consistent with a tendency to represent black people through the prism of biological racism. It was taken up as a symbol by Hamleys, Harrods, Trebor and Robertson's jam. The golliwog, like many related stereotypes of "primitive" black people ("picaninnies", minstrels, "mammies" and so on), quickly found a commercial market, producing a flood of cartoons and advertising imagery. He had thick lips, unruly black hair, and his hands and feet were paws. He was clothed in the same apparel as the black-faced minstrels then prevalent in Europe and North America. She described the character as "a horrid sight, the blackest gnome". The English-American author Florence Upton invented the golliwog in a series of picture books produced at the onset of the Jim Crow laws, which mandated racial segregation in the American South. Perhaps it would be useful to discuss the tradition of dehumanising racist caricature to which these dolls belong. Where does one begin? With the dog-whistling about "indigenous white people"? With the classic solipsistic implication that because he didn't experience golliwog dolls as racist, no one else should either? Or with the invocation of childhood innocence, a typical strategy for avoiding historical reality by conjuring a past seemingly undisturbed by racism? But the next passage is a gem: "I can certainly remember as a child we had dolls of this type at home and it never crossed our minds that it was in any way derogatory to black people in the same way that similar rag dolls with white faces were not deemed to be offensive to any indigenous white people in our country." He added that it is "important that we don't become over-sensitive to situations such as this, where no evidence has been brought to me other than your letter that anyone has been offended or annoyed." Roughly translated, this means that even the ethnics are indifferent – only hysterical PC troublemakers care. I think "large" is pushing it, but there's no reason to get hung up on detail – certainly not when discussing the "ethnic communities". First of all, he pointed out that he hadn't received any other complaints, despite the fact that "large numbers of people from ethnic communities in this country" visit Whitby. I received a reply from Robert Goodwill MP, which is worth quoting in detail. If golliwog dolls aren't even considered acceptable in the Conservative party today, there's no reason why they should be accepted in wider society. I wrote to the two local Scarborough councillors and to the constituency MP, all Conservatives, and asked if they couldn't take some action over this. There, you find beleaguered mums, straining to win one for the little ones and kiddies trying to win one for the beleaguered mums. The Funland arcade on Pier Road is a main attraction, where you can win yourself a golliwog. On the West Cliff opposite the famous abbey, overlooking the river inlet from the North Sea, among the fish and chip shops and tourist traps, are the arcade games. While visiting Whitby recently, I learned that golliwog dolls are not just for sale they can be prizes too. Still, shops in small towns all across this land are overstuffed with the dolls. ![]() Last year, two prospective Tory councillors were expelled for posing with said items as a joke. And even the redoubts of reaction have decided to part ways with this ugly commodity. Carol Thatcher with all her charms couldn't avoid the sack from the BBC's The One Show when she referred to a black tennis player as resembling a golliwog. ![]()
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