As a child of the 50's I had very few toys, a 'mama' doll (Betty) a teddy (Ted) and a golliwog (Sam). I loved them equally.
Over the years they disappeared, to be replaced fairly recently. Ted and Betty were easy enough to find in charity shops, however Sam was far more allusive until I by chance happened to be in a charity shop when the manageress was putting a Sam on the shelf. I immediately picked him up, thrilled to re-find him. The manageress explained that the staff had had serious disagreements over whether the doll should be put out or not, because of it's racist connections.
I'd played with original Sam for years - to me he was a 'golly'. Since then I've spent many years working and mixing with people all colours of the rainbow, as well as black and white, and it never occurred to me that in fact I'm now classed as a racist as I had a golliwog as a child.
I do not use the word wog, as I accept it as a racist word (though 'golly' is acceptable) but I do get exasperated that visitors come in my home, see Sam and immediately de-cry me as being racist. As a 5yr old, I socially wasn't aware of different skin colours and as a 60 something, I'm still certainly not.....