The Golliwog

Stansgran The term wogs came from the shortened version of Working on Govenment Service when Egyptians worked for the British Army and the letters on their armbands where marked with the letters wogs.It is facinating the History to the term golliwog I have learnt a lot over the past few days.

whenim64 -'politically incorrect' indeed. We understand what they're up to, by selling these things, and it's nothing like the selling of home-made golliwogs as Dorset spoke of (unless, of course, the person selling them belongs to the BNP )

I know the BNP pinched the English flag a few years ago, but football seized it back for the World Cup and it doesn't have the same BNP connotations now. The comments from some of the people at the bottom of that page don't lead one to think that their intentions regarding the golliwog are anywhere near as honourable.

How do you blow up a website?

And they call their stuff "Excalibur"!

I don't think so.

Jingle

I have read through this thread with some interest - not least because yesterday absentdaughter and I were looking in an arty-farty shop in the local mall (in New Zealand) and I was surprised to see a display of gollywogs. She told me that, on another occasion, she had remarked that it was unusual to see them these days. In response, the manager replied, defensively in absentdaughter's opinion, "We've generally had a very good response". I was surprised to see them as I haven't seen them in the UK since the 1960s and because it seemed that there was a general agreement that they could be regarded as offensive. My own feeling is that they are best consigned to history.

Presumably Gransnet has black as well as white members and, obviously, no one is expected to state their ethnicity before posting. However, it would have been interesting to hear from black grannies whose perspectives would have been different from that of those of us who are white. It would have been especially interesting to hear their comments about the "well-meaning white liberals and racism".

Sometimes it is possible to be inadvertently racist.
Here are my anecdotes .

A good family friend , who lives in Bermuda told me that her best friend is also a best friend with Viv Richards, the famous cricket player.
After I expressed my surprise at this, knowing that Viv Richards was not overly keen on white people, there was a little silence, and then she said:"My best
friend is black".
Imagine what a p.... I felt.

Our local cricket club, which the male side of my family is involved with, has a strong youth policy and one of those guys was a black lad known as Louis.
Whenever I see him I say Hello Louis, thrilled with myself for at least remembering at least some of the names.
Little did I know that Louis is his local nickname after Louis Armstrong.
Fortunately he could not care less.

Do black children play with white dolls?

Is Viv Richards being racist though (not being overly keen on white people)?

I believe they do. Having watched children in nurseries, they play with dolls, colour is not important. My GD's baby doll is mixed race.
Aren't we all exactly the same, we are human beings whatever colour we are. I think make up might be a bit of a problem though if we were green.

Harri -

I thought Viv Richards was best mates with Ian Botham... or have I been misled?

johanna you weren't being racist in either of those situations.

goldengirl they do. Children don't notice.

I actually tested that theory by asking GD, whilst looking at a picture book. Pointing to the black child I asked her what she saw, her reply was that she had the nicest pair of shoes on

Well, in that case, why not just change the name from Golliwog to Golly or some other name? The doll itself is lovely I've always thought. I certainly enjoyed playing with my two Gollies / Gollys and like other little ones never thought of any connotations associated with them. It's the adults that are causing the problems!

Quite. Racism is about political clout and "blacks" are just as likely to be racist as "whites". In fact, the most racist person I've ever known (actually the only racist person I've ever known!) called herself black. Her skin wasn't much darker than mine, though she tanned more easily. Her forebears were from India. She never stopped criticising "white" people. "Whites" could do nothing right. The real problem? A huge great chip on her shoulder, that's what, in spite of Britain taking in her entire family as refugees from Idi Amin's Uganda and she and all of her siblings benefitting from the education system and health care, etc. that Britain gave them.

I pitied her resentment but I also came to the conclusion that what she was really suffering from was constant culture clashes between her muslim family's ideas and the freedom she tasted as a partly integrated British young woman. Last I heard the muslim side was winning but it cost her the custody of her child who was the product of a short marriage to a "white" man.

More than anything such stories are just sad.

Oh, by the way, the marriage to the white man was her second marriage. Her family arranged a marriage with a muslim man first. That one lasted all of two months.