Golliwogs/Gollies

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Rob Houghton
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Rob Houghton »

I know the golliwog debate will rage on and on, but i'm interested to know how people first became aware of the racist link between golliwogs and black people? I'm wondering if suddenly 'you' (meaning anyone reading this, not any individual in particular) looked at your toy golliwog and thought 'You look like a black person - I hate you!' or words to that effect! I'm trying to understand why some people hate golliwogs and see them as something totally different to how I see them.

I have a theory that people who dislike the golliwog never had one as a child and have never known the feeling of owning a golliwog and not realising the supposed racist intent it represents. I'm presuming that generally those of us who had golliwogs as a child never thought of them as racist until someone told them so?

Is there anyone here who once had a golliwog as a child and suddenly realised (of their own accord without being told) that the golliwog is a racist symbol?
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I had a golliwog as a child and never thought of him as a black person. He was just a golly - a soft toy who belonged to my family of soft toys, all of them much-loved. I first found out that some people regarded gollies as racist caricatures of black people when I read a handful of newspaper articles on the topic in about 1986-7. They included the news that the golliwogs were being removed from Enid Blyton's Noddy books. I was amazed!

Deej, it's clear that you're a genuine Enid Blyton fan and it's always good to read your posts. As you say, gollies weren't invented by Enid Blyton and they make up only a small part of her oeuvre anyway, so it's perfectly possible to be an Enid Blyton fan while disliking golliwogs. After all, I find Noddy wearisome but still consider myself a Blytonian!
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Deej92 »

Anita Bensoussane wrote: Deej, it's clear that you're a genuine Enid Blyton fan and it's always good to read your posts. As you say, gollies weren't invented by Enid Blyton and they make up only a small part of her oeuvre anyway, so it's perfectly possible to be an Enid Blyton fan while disliking golliwogs. After all, I find Noddy wearisome but still consider myself a Blytonian!
Thanks Anita, exactly my point :) Disliking golliwogs isn't really that different to disliking ''Five Are Together Again' in the FF series or Banshee Towers in the Find-Outers books, and plenty of fans aren't keen on them. We're all fans but that doesn't mean we're going to like every single aspect of her work, just as is the case with anything else in life.
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Rob Houghton
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Rob Houghton »

Deej92 wrote: Disliking golliwogs isn't really that different to disliking ''Five Are Together Again' in the FF series or Banshee Towers in the Find-Outers books, and plenty of fans aren't keen on them. We're all fans but that doesn't mean we're going to like every single aspect of her work, just as is the case with anything else in life.
But can you tell me when you first disliked them? Did you realise they were meant to represent black people before anyone said so? Just interested in people's reasons - because apart from 'they're racist' there don't seem to be personal opinions on golliwogs?
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Deej92
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Deej92 »

Rob, to answer your question, I never had a toy golliwog. I remember my parents had a golliwog antique though and as a child, I accept I thought nothing of it.

It wasn't until I was older and read various articles, books and programmes that I formed an opinion about the golly and started to dislike it and see it as representing black people in a negative manner. So thinking about it, I can understand you when you say that as a child you saw the golly as a cuddly toy and nothing else.
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Rob Houghton
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Rob Houghton »

Thank you for your answer - it helps me to put people's views into perspective. :-)
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Deej92 »

Glad to be of help to you and I can understand your view point as well :) People certainly are influenced by what they read and watch.
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Courtenay »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:After all, I find Noddy wearisome but still consider myself a Blytonian!
Oh no... now THAT is pure blasphemy. :twisted: :twisted: :wink:
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Liam »

I always promise myself not to get involved in this debate, but I always end up joining in. I’m blaming Rob for asking pointed questions! :)
Rob Houghton wrote:I have a theory that people who dislike the golliwog never had one as a child and have never known the feeling of owning a golliwog and not realising the supposed racist intent it represents. I'm presuming that generally those of us who had golliwogs as a child never thought of them as racist until someone told them so?
I myself never had a golliwog, and am neither for nor against them. But I don’t think the arguments against them exist on a personal level.

If I had to give an explanation, it would go something like this.

African-American black people claim all blackness as their own. They figure they have a right to blackness in all its forms, and so reserve the right to define it in all its aspects (They are Americans after all, and join with their white counterparts in dividing up the world among themselves - a bit like the Pope dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal! And also a bit like whites deciding the fair color of the Chinese should fall under whiteness).

The golliwog is a form of blackness that was created by whites for whites. That scares African Americans because of the past where blackness was defined by whites to the disadvantage of blacks - I mean stereotyping it. It’s like the word and identity “Negro”. That is a “foreign” word to African Americans (who are English-speaking), a word given by whites, so they rejected it for ones of their own choosing, and which are comprehensible to them - “black” and “African American”.

People are right when they say the golliwog does not represent black people. Precisely. African Americans want that blackness to represent them in a more “accurate” way, that is, in a way that they define. The golliwog’s blackness is unnatural in that it is a combination of features associated with a variety of populations. Its facial features look Caucasian, so more like blacks in East Africa or South India, its hair is more characteristic of mulattos, whose hair - midway between tightly curled and straight - is more likely to stand straight up.

This mismatch of features is seen as a caricature of the West African Bantu type, which African Americans identify more with. And seeing themselves as owners of blackness - more so than any other black population - they demand exclusive control of it.

Interestingly too, the golliwog is a kind of mixed type, but African Americans have been rejecting the idea of mixedness, even as they become more and more mixed themselves. So they also rejected the name “coloured”, which included mulattos, for identities of pure blackness.

The golliwog would not be so much of a problem if African Americans had greater ownership of the media - television, movies, newspapers, etc. - where they could promote their own images of themselves.
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Rob Houghton
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Rob Houghton »

...and yet golliwogs aren't a 'thing' in America...so I'm surprised that American's don't like them...
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Liam
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Liam »

I should have related America to Britain in the argument. I would say that Britain’s racial conscience to day comes from the American situation. That is, it’s the American racial experience which is driving the British debate. The black British population - West Indians, Africans and South Indians - seem less offended by golliwogs. Hence the point often made here that it is whites who are saying that golliwogs are racist. In America it would be, and is, African Americans who are saying that.
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by KEVP »

It more and more seems like an example of what I call "Speedy Gonzalez syndrome". Speedy Gonzalez was a cartoon character from Warner Brothers Cartoons, who also make Bugs Bunny. He was a mouse who ran very fast, hence his name "Speedy". He was also a Mexican, so spoke English with a heavy accent and wore Mexican national dress.

White people in America often take Speedy Gonzalez cartoons off the air. Because they believe the character is offensive to Mexicans. However, the fact is that Mexico has always loved Speedy Gonzalez, and most Mexicans consider the character a positive portrayal of their nation.
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Daisy »

I'm not sure under which heading this should be...
I have just been reading some of the short stories in my recently acquired Foxglove Story book and came across this:
"Nigger-bugs" - described in the story as the offspring of the ladybird which will gobble up all the greenfly on your roses. I had always thought it was the ladybirds themselves who ate greenfly, but the story suggests that the eggs the ladybird lays, hatch out as these tiny brown bugs.
On Googling the words I find that they are mosquitoes but can't find anything referring to ladybirds.
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Viv of Ginger Pop »

Wow – I’ve been missing out on some debate here!

In the comments book outside the Ginger Pop Shop I have been accused of being some sort of white supremacist Brexiteer. In fact I am mixed race and voted (and campaigned!) for Remain. However it was the Referenda (EU and Scottish) that got me thinking about English identity.

The “English Freedom” words were inspired by my lovely assistant, who you can see in action in the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdcHI80MMXs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Artwell then did a radio interview with a black professor who held that Golliwogg was the same as a Minstrel character, (negative and stupid etc.) and was rendered speechless to find that not everyone with a black skin agreed with him. Some of my highest spending customers are also black skinned. I don’t think it does anyone any good to be told they are being picked on when they are not.

Here is part of a leaflet that was outside the shop for most of the summer.

The English Freedom Tea-Towel
I believe English Freedom is a balance of our Rights with our Responsibilities.
The Ginger Pop Shop is dedicated to the world of Enid Blyton and her era, central to which was the Second World War. Every day I sell memorabilia of that time and think of the values of Freedom for which Britain and our Allies were fighting.
In the light of BREXIT we urgently need to think of what it is that defines us as a nation and how to face the future.
Despite what some thugs might think, the English do not have the right to incite hate or abuse strangers on the street. Yet a fear of unleashing some sort of stifled native xenophobia has too often stopped the decent English from having any sort of public debate about what sort of a nation we are and what we could become.
The red words on the tea-towel are amongst the best the English aspire to be. We don’t always get it right but it is about an outward looking attitude, fairness, the Common Good.
The grey words are what may threaten our open society and some ways we let ourselves down.
Why the Golliwogg? Some people look at my tea-towel and can only see the “racist” Golliwogg. In recent years a political correctness culture has developed whereby Racism Trumps All, whether the racism was real or imagined. It has closed down much legitimate Public Debate, as exemplified in 2010 when Gillian Duffy tried talking to Gordon Brown.
The Golliwogg is a “good” toy, yet because a small number of bullies used him to taunt Caribbean immigrants he was demonised. It is awful that some people now assume that just because he is black he must somehow be “bad”. Find out more about his history on YouTube. Je suis Golliwogg; the toy that dare not speak its name.
Allowing thugs and bullies to define the agenda about our nationhood has not done The English any favours. My English Freedom tea-towel design is to help stimulate that debate
Viv Endecott, Ginger Pop Shop, Corfe Castle, July 2016


Boy – did it stimulate debate! What I hadn't planned was for the advert to come out the same time as Brexit - which I had no more inkling that Messers Johnson or Cameron - the timing was not good. One young man came in to tell me that the tea-towel represented everything he hated about this country.

Liam – I was particularly struck by your explanation. As someone who is mixed race I find that Golliwogg represents me, someone with two legitimate stories and who shouldn’t be made to choose between them. In England “mixed” is normal and always has been. I’ve got some Viking in the DNA I’m sure.

Best wishes

Viv
The Ginger Pop Shop closed in Feb 2017
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Golliwogs/Gollies

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I passed this truck the other morning and thought of this thread!

Image
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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