Yep back when all the brown people smiled and talked like Jar Jar Binks while driving them around and scrubbing their toilets. Pepperidge Farm remembers!
“Remember when you hit that maid with your Rolls Royce? Pepperidge Farms remembers. And if you buy our Milano cookies, we’ll pretend this never happened.” (Stolen from Family Guy and rewritten in Benadryl haze.)
She doesn’t look like she’s wearing a “cute and cozy” cardigan. She looks like she’s trying to figure out what the hell exactly she’s expected to do with this racist knitted doll.
that’s a “classic Golliwog” based on a series of childrens’ books popular in the UK for many years. Doesn’t make it any less “OMG” in terms of current awareness. Wonder where she got it. I like the kid’s WTF? expression
My grandmother made me several knitted “golliwogs”, based on the (already banned by then) ‘Noddy’ books during my childhood in the 1980s (she was in her late 70s and was oblivious).
Having never been exposed to any other racist propaganda, throughout my entire childhood it never once occurred to me that the dolls were supposed to be racist representations of black people, because to me there was no resemblance at all. Golliwogs in my mind fell into the same fairytale category as elves, fairies and giants.
I was appalled when, aged about 16, I finally discovered that my much loved childhood dolls were in fact deeply racist.
I have no idea what this story shows…
Small children are free of cultural stereotypes and prejudices? My mother should have really vetted the toys my Grandmother gave me? Old ladies from Liverpool like racist knitting?
In the early 1970s we lived in England– and Golliwog toys were still quite popular then. I think there was even some brand of jam that featured the character on the jar label.
Robertsons Jam! They were still giving away golliwog pin badges if you collected tokens during the 80s. I had several and was still completely oblivious to any racism at all.
They still make the jam. It is no longer racist.
There used to be a garage down the road from us in Birmingham (er. Not Alabama, the UK) called golliwogs. Their slogan was “we don’t put jam.in jars, we our exhusts on cars!” This was the nineties, it was in a very ethnically mixed area, and it was run by black guys. It still boggled my mind every time I went past. Um. No. I have no idea what this proves.
There used to be a garage down the road from us in Birmingham (er. Not Alabama, the UK) called golliwogs. Their slogan was “we don’t put jam in jars, we put exhausts on cars!” This was the nineties, it was in a very ethnically mixed area, and it was run by black guys. It still boggled my mind every time I went past. Um. No. I have no idea what this proves.
My sister managed to convince my parents to give her a Golliwog but they weren’t happy about it (we lived in British Africa)…But what Woolly Hermit says was true of us too—we thought of them as fairytale creatures.
Echoing what others have said. As a child in the UK in the early 80s, I inherited a collection of Enid Blyton fairytales and read them avidly. In my naivete, I had no idea that Golliwogs were a representational stereotype; they seemed just as fanciful as pixies, brownies, and magical talking animals.
Totally, Woolly Hermit. My golliwog was my favourite toy when I was a kid (along with a weird turtle my mother knitted me), and never associated them with actual people, they were magical creatures just like Noddy and Big Ears. I still find it hard to see the racist elements, even now to me they look like clowns except with black faces instead of white.
On the other hand, just because I, and other people I know who had golliwogs as kids, did not see a racist object doesn’t mean no insult exists. After all, we wouldn’t give our kids sex toys or drug paraphernalia to play innocent games with just because they didn’t know what they were!
The whole danger of (racist) caricatures is that it allows one to not see the subject as a person anymore, but as an object or creature. As a child you don’t know any different, but at this point in time, adults should have a clue. I like your point, Ronovo.
Admittedly, I am ambivalent on this issue as indigenous Australians generally like golliwogs because they can supply their kids with a doll that is black instead of white. As the population is so small here, we don’t have critical mass, and stores don’t stock diverse items such as black dolls.
Personally, I think if they could be bothered to market them properly, kids here would love black Barbie as much as white Barbie. I remember hankering after one when I was a kid as I hated my own blonde hair, but loved dolls with black hair. I saw black Barbie (I think she was a flight attendant?) in a 1970s book from the US and loved her soooooo much!
I used to have no idea that golliwogs were racist when I was a kid, reading all the Enid Blyton books. My sister even had a toy one.
My Mum really likes them, she thinks they are cute, but I think that is because she grew up with the books too. I am always torn, because I know what they represent, but they never did for me.
Umm… I think you can still buy Golliwogs in the UK… I know there was a Yankee Candle shop near me who were selling them only a few years ago… But they went out of business…
To quote the tablecloth twerp, if this is racism, sign me up! Racial/ethnic sensitivity is not. That. Hard.
Fer crying out loud…If someone made stuffed toys of tiny fat white people with tiny junk, huge round eyes, and no fashion sense, you can bet there would be a storm of complaints. Could she not have photoshopped the doll out or cropped the freaking picture?
The other side there is that if she’d cropped it out, someone might have been slightly upset to receive the item as-is, complete with doll picture showing. Better that people at least know what they’re buying.
I’d like one of those knitted tiny fat white people with tiny junk, huge round eyes, and no fashion sense. Too bad alchemy request no longer exists on etsy.
Surely, Helen should be able to find someone to make us fat white people with tiny junk, huge round eyes and no fashion sense. I’d buy one or two or ten.
Secondly…good point about the cover art, didn’t think that one through. O.o Perhaps just using a picture of the pattern? Or including a warning that the sleeve contains unfortunate racist imagery?
That picture is actually a still from a little known episode of The Twilight Zone. They captured the moment just after the doll said, “What are you looking at, little cracker?” and laughed menacingly.
Well, there’s the Jim Crow Museum, which is designed to educate a modern audience on the unsavory marketing campaigns and memorabilia using racist imagery–
Me thinks Tibbycats is offloading her Victorian Nanna’s stuff.
“Raised by my victorian Nanna, I have always loved knitting, sewing and vintage items since she gave me her workbox and button bag to play with…I still have them.”
“Methinks” (sorry, sorry, I’m just quoting here…) is a single word. Written as one word, it makes you sound like a snob. Written as two words, it makes you sound like an illiterate snob. Or else Cookie Monster.
Also the price of this pattern is 9d– (about 25 cents), which means it was sold long before 1971, when British currency went to a decimal based system. (Not that it excuses it, just gives it some context.)
I really loved watching shirley temple and the black guy tap dancing. Looking back was it probably racist? yea.
But that’s still my favorite memory of shirley temple movies
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was the dancer, one of the really great tapdancers, too.
Another of Shirley’s partners was Buddy Ebsen, whose long legged loose dance style was also much admired.
Back here in Australia, Golliwogs have never been seen as a bad thing. Whenever I attend a Craft Fair, these folk always have a stand – they specialise in golliwog quilt patterns and all manner of related items: http://www.craftcubby.com.au/
But check out the replies to the article. Australia still has a racist flavour. Though I think to us, with almost no interaction with African people at all, the doll is divorced of any racial history.
Racial sensitivities in Australia are in many ways different to those in the US. The idea that we need to be educated to US racial sensitivities kind of perpetuates the idea that Americans think that other countries need to live up to their ideals.
I’m and Australian. Do I think blackface is appropriate? No. Do I think those performers were aware of how sensitive an American might be to their performance. Not at all.
Same as the kfc cricket add, which had the white australian sitting amongst the west indies supporters looking worried with his chicken. The association of chicken with black people in australia is not as prevalent and the guy looked worried because he was sitting amongst supporters of the opposing team. Race had nothing to do with it.
Like I said in my other comment, I grew up with a golliwog and never associated it with a black person. To me it was just a funny looking doll.
I guess my point is that, although our cultures are closely related, there are enough differences that certain things that are quite sensitive in the US are not so in Australia. That doesn’t necessarily make Australia a backwards country, it just means we’ve had a different history.
According to the linked article, the anti-golly protests are being staged by indigenous Australians, not Americans, so it looks like there is a cultural shift taking place similar to what happened in the U.S. decades ago, when so-called “racial innocence” stopped being an excuse for creating buffoonish caricatures of African Americans.
That doesn’t mean America is any more culturally advanced than Australia, though. Heck, there are still some white people in the states who believe that slavery was loads of fun!
I have been attempting to post a reply to this thread for several days, without success. Maybe I’ll have luck with this one.
The gist of my remarks are:
1. The article is from the UK, where they love to portray Australians as racist so they can ignore their own racism.
2. Indigenous Australians on the whole like golliwogs as they are almost the only black dolls available in this country. They do not and have never depicted indigenous Australians.
3. There are no ‘anti-golly’ protests or riots
4. It is never safe to rely on the msm to inform you about the culture of another country. You run the risk of making offensive and completely wrong assumptions.
5. Injustices have been and are perpetrated on indigenous Australians. Golliwogs are not one of them.
Growing up in Australia, my only exposure to golliwog dolls was Enid Blyton books, so for me they were just another fairyland character. I remember asking my mum for a golliwog doll but I never got one!
But now we’re older and we know what it represents, I don’t think it our innocent childhood is a valid excuse to keep using golliwog imagery. I see the quilt and doll patterns in my mum’s craft mags, and I think it’s pretty fucked.
I like to think it’s a what the fuck face. Five minutes later, she ran away from home, and now lives in a commune somewhere, raising the great grandchildren she shares with a famous cult leader. And making crochet bathing suits while smoking a little pot.
Are we seriously suggesting someone shouldn’t be selling a VINTAGE pattern of a perfectly nice jumper because the packet image has a racist doll on it? If there is no inherent intent to insight hatred i really don’t think it’s something to get butthurt about.
It’s old, those dolls are old. If we go around burning everything that is politically incorrect there isn’t going to be much left.
We’d probably have to start with the British museum, some of the stuff in there is distinctly dodgy, and distinctly stolen.
Actually, yes, returning the stolen artifacts in the British Museum would be a sign of respect to the original culture, and a great step forward for international relations. Just saying.
You call it “political correctness,” I call it “not continuing to perpetuate racial stereotypes that have tangibly, severely hurt millions of people throughout history.”
Vintage racism is still racism. It doesn’t have a fucking expiration date.
Except it sort of does. No-one is bothered by old artifacts or stories that depict racial hatred between the Romans and pretty much everyone else, or the Greeks and Carthage. But there hasn’t been enough time yet for Gollywogs.
OK, I will be the one who asks. I know this doll is a likeness of an African looking person. And I understand that different advertising showing this doll in different situations could certainly be construed as racist but can someone please explain to me, in non inflammatory language, why the doll itself is racist?
the gollywog is modeled not to be a genuine article, but a miniature version of the stock cartoon image of the “Dumb Savage”, aka black face (like worn onstage a long time ago, dark, dark show-polish colored face and almost wax-lip like ruby red lips. Compared to that idea, Archie Bunker was Martin Luther King, Jr.
1) I totally want that sweater. I’m sure a few alterations could be worked in to make it not-so bell-like in the hips… and a zip, which is better for me than those tiny buttons.
I like a long silhouette… and worn with dark jeans.
2)Fuck me sideways, you’re yanking my chain! Nope… What drunken genius thought, “Yes, every child wants a miniature black-face dancer!”
I have to say, the Golliwog is a great example of how sensitivities can differ between cultures that are otherwise very similar. Golliwogs aren’t considered nearly as racially sensitive in Australia. You can still see them sold in some stores, and in fact in recent times have been making a resurgence. I don’t support racism in any form, but growing up I never identified the golliwog I had with black people, it was just a funny looking doll.
July 26, 2012 at 12:39 pm
Love me some mammy doll.
July 26, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Wrong racist icon–that’s a golliwog doll, not a mammy.
July 27, 2012 at 9:54 am
I have the whole June and July Etsy collection of handmade to order (not vintage) golliwog items here: http://www.facebook.com/raquel.mack#!/EtsySellingHate
Check it out. They are prohibited by Etsy, but they’d rather make a profit than adhere to there own integrity standards.
July 27, 2012 at 3:02 pm
I didn’t know the golliwog thing was a thing.
The more you know!!!!
July 27, 2012 at 3:05 pm
off to google this shit
July 27, 2012 at 3:07 pm
so the difference between mammy and golliwog is one is American and the other is British?
July 27, 2012 at 3:17 pm
Well, the doll looks like it might sing “Mammy”.
July 26, 2012 at 2:14 pm
I’m sure this was in the next bin over.
July 26, 2012 at 12:40 pm
Michelle Bachmann’s unknown career as a child model surfaces.
July 26, 2012 at 12:43 pm
Britt Romney’s sis
July 26, 2012 at 12:40 pm
We really do need to take our country back to the good old days…
of cute and cozy racism.
July 26, 2012 at 12:41 pm
Wow … I was staring so hard at the girl in the sweater trying to figure out what was wrong I didn’t even notice the doll at first.
July 27, 2012 at 2:28 pm
which is worse- the sweater or the doll?!?!
tough call
July 26, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Is this the “the good ole days” all the old douches refer to?
July 26, 2012 at 1:28 pm
Life was SO MUCH BETTER back then… if you were a rich white dude of course. But who cares about the fine print?
July 26, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Yep back when all the brown people smiled and talked like Jar Jar Binks while driving them around and scrubbing their toilets. Pepperidge Farm remembers!
July 26, 2012 at 11:34 pm
“Remember when you hit that maid with your Rolls Royce? Pepperidge Farms remembers. And if you buy our Milano cookies, we’ll pretend this never happened.” (Stolen from Family Guy and rewritten in Benadryl haze.)
July 26, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Yes, bumPoo. It was a magical time when people showed more respect for each other. There was gentility, dammit!
July 27, 2012 at 12:03 pm
Yep, back when no one batted an eye if you called a polio victim a “cripple.”
July 26, 2012 at 12:42 pm
She doesn’t look like she’s wearing a “cute and cozy” cardigan. She looks like she’s trying to figure out what the hell exactly she’s expected to do with this racist knitted doll.
July 26, 2012 at 12:44 pm
Yeah, she does look she has a child-like “What the fuck is this shit?” look
July 26, 2012 at 12:44 pm
that’s a “classic Golliwog” based on a series of childrens’ books popular in the UK for many years. Doesn’t make it any less “OMG” in terms of current awareness. Wonder where she got it. I like the kid’s WTF? expression
July 26, 2012 at 1:12 pm
My grandmother made me several knitted “golliwogs”, based on the (already banned by then) ‘Noddy’ books during my childhood in the 1980s (she was in her late 70s and was oblivious).
Having never been exposed to any other racist propaganda, throughout my entire childhood it never once occurred to me that the dolls were supposed to be racist representations of black people, because to me there was no resemblance at all. Golliwogs in my mind fell into the same fairytale category as elves, fairies and giants.
I was appalled when, aged about 16, I finally discovered that my much loved childhood dolls were in fact deeply racist.
I have no idea what this story shows…
Small children are free of cultural stereotypes and prejudices? My mother should have really vetted the toys my Grandmother gave me? Old ladies from Liverpool like racist knitting?
July 26, 2012 at 1:19 pm
In the early 1970s we lived in England– and Golliwog toys were still quite popular then. I think there was even some brand of jam that featured the character on the jar label.
July 26, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Robertsons Jam! They were still giving away golliwog pin badges if you collected tokens during the 80s. I had several and was still completely oblivious to any racism at all.
They still make the jam. It is no longer racist.
July 26, 2012 at 3:21 pm
There used to be a garage down the road from us in Birmingham (er. Not Alabama, the UK) called golliwogs. Their slogan was “we don’t put jam.in jars, we our exhusts on cars!” This was the nineties, it was in a very ethnically mixed area, and it was run by black guys. It still boggled my mind every time I went past. Um. No. I have no idea what this proves.
July 26, 2012 at 3:22 pm
There used to be a garage down the road from us in Birmingham (er. Not Alabama, the UK) called golliwogs. Their slogan was “we don’t put jam in jars, we put exhausts on cars!” This was the nineties, it was in a very ethnically mixed area, and it was run by black guys. It still boggled my mind every time I went past. Um. No. I have no idea what this proves.
July 26, 2012 at 3:23 pm
Apart from the fact that doubleposting is for nitwits. Sorry.
July 26, 2012 at 8:22 pm
I’m trying to stare intently in hopes of seeing just one comment, but in 3D.
Not working.
July 26, 2012 at 1:25 pm
My sister managed to convince my parents to give her a Golliwog but they weren’t happy about it (we lived in British Africa)…But what Woolly Hermit says was true of us too—we thought of them as fairytale creatures.
July 26, 2012 at 1:31 pm
My kids would probably assume that was a gingerbread man doll, in all honesty. MOST children are clueless of hate – they have to be taught to hate.
July 27, 2012 at 10:51 am
Like that song from South Pacific: “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught”.
July 26, 2012 at 8:53 pm
Echoing what others have said. As a child in the UK in the early 80s, I inherited a collection of Enid Blyton fairytales and read them avidly. In my naivete, I had no idea that Golliwogs were a representational stereotype; they seemed just as fanciful as pixies, brownies, and magical talking animals.
July 27, 2012 at 7:56 am
Totally, Woolly Hermit. My golliwog was my favourite toy when I was a kid (along with a weird turtle my mother knitted me), and never associated them with actual people, they were magical creatures just like Noddy and Big Ears. I still find it hard to see the racist elements, even now to me they look like clowns except with black faces instead of white.
On the other hand, just because I, and other people I know who had golliwogs as kids, did not see a racist object doesn’t mean no insult exists. After all, we wouldn’t give our kids sex toys or drug paraphernalia to play innocent games with just because they didn’t know what they were!
July 27, 2012 at 10:18 am
The whole danger of (racist) caricatures is that it allows one to not see the subject as a person anymore, but as an object or creature. As a child you don’t know any different, but at this point in time, adults should have a clue. I like your point, Ronovo.
August 2, 2012 at 4:45 am
Admittedly, I am ambivalent on this issue as indigenous Australians generally like golliwogs because they can supply their kids with a doll that is black instead of white. As the population is so small here, we don’t have critical mass, and stores don’t stock diverse items such as black dolls.
Personally, I think if they could be bothered to market them properly, kids here would love black Barbie as much as white Barbie. I remember hankering after one when I was a kid as I hated my own blonde hair, but loved dolls with black hair. I saw black Barbie (I think she was a flight attendant?) in a 1970s book from the US and loved her soooooo much!
July 30, 2012 at 3:31 am
I used to have no idea that golliwogs were racist when I was a kid, reading all the Enid Blyton books. My sister even had a toy one.
My Mum really likes them, she thinks they are cute, but I think that is because she grew up with the books too. I am always torn, because I know what they represent, but they never did for me.
July 26, 2012 at 3:14 pm
Umm… I think you can still buy Golliwogs in the UK… I know there was a Yankee Candle shop near me who were selling them only a few years ago… But they went out of business…
July 26, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
July 26, 2012 at 12:49 pm
The other side there is that if she’d cropped it out, someone might have been slightly upset to receive the item as-is, complete with doll picture showing. Better that people at least know what they’re buying.
July 26, 2012 at 1:03 pm
I’d like one of those knitted tiny fat white people with tiny junk, huge round eyes, and no fashion sense. Too bad alchemy request no longer exists on etsy.
July 26, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Surely, Helen should be able to find someone to make us fat white people with tiny junk, huge round eyes and no fashion sense. I’d buy one or two or ten.
July 26, 2012 at 1:24 pm
I thought we were already fat white people with tiny junk, huge round eyes and no fashion sense? Thus sayeth the butthurt, anyways.
July 26, 2012 at 9:38 pm
We’re DRUNK fat white people with tiny junk, huge round eyes and no fashion sense. Get it right.
July 27, 2012 at 9:06 am
Hey! My lady junk isn’t that tiny!
Uh. Hrm. Ahem.
Let’s call them gaggywags.
July 26, 2012 at 1:27 pm
Someone could surely design a line of Fat Jealous Loser dolls. The results could be potentially marvelous…♥
July 26, 2012 at 5:15 pm
Maybe not dolls, but characters… Oooh, the mind reels…
July 26, 2012 at 1:53 pm
Weren’t those called Cabbage Patch Kids?
July 26, 2012 at 2:21 pm
First of all: This is why I love Regretsy.
Secondly…good point about the cover art, didn’t think that one through. O.o Perhaps just using a picture of the pattern? Or including a warning that the sleeve contains unfortunate racist imagery?
July 27, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Found the toy, but couldn’t find any complaints or controversy at all.
September 6, 2012 at 11:25 am
Umm- like Kewpie Dolls , you mean?
July 26, 2012 at 12:48 pm
That picture is actually a still from a little known episode of The Twilight Zone. They captured the moment just after the doll said, “What are you looking at, little cracker?” and laughed menacingly.
July 26, 2012 at 8:27 pm
“My name is Talky Tyrone, and you’d better be nice to me!”
July 26, 2012 at 12:50 pm
But wait, are we saying this pattern shouldn’t be sold on Etsy because it has that racist-ass doll in the picture?
July 26, 2012 at 8:06 pm
Well, there’s the Jim Crow Museum, which is designed to educate a modern audience on the unsavory marketing campaigns and memorabilia using racist imagery–
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow
and this Etsy offering.
I’d like to visit the museum. This pattern? Not so much.
July 27, 2012 at 3:08 pm
I’d love to go there
July 26, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Me thinks Tibbycats is offloading her Victorian Nanna’s stuff.
“Raised by my victorian Nanna, I have always loved knitting, sewing and vintage items since she gave me her workbox and button bag to play with…I still have them.”
July 26, 2012 at 1:07 pm
“Victorian” is code for “Proper Racist,” right?
I know a “Victorian” gent with a whole collection of mammy shit from a chain of 1950′s cafes.
July 27, 2012 at 10:55 am
“Methinks” (sorry, sorry, I’m just quoting here…) is a single word. Written as one word, it makes you sound like a snob. Written as two words, it makes you sound like an illiterate snob. Or else Cookie Monster.
July 28, 2012 at 6:38 pm
I suppose technically, if Nanna was born before 1901, she could be described as ‘Victorian’.
July 26, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Test Card F’s sister:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Card_F
July 26, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Test Card went from ‘creepy’ to ‘sweet dancing Jesus save us all’ in Life on Mars.
July 26, 2012 at 1:34 pm
I fucking hate clowns…
July 26, 2012 at 10:53 pm
I hate fucking clowns…the make-up is impossible to get out of the sheets…
July 27, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Clown…
The good news: The colors on my monitor are perfectly rendered.
The bad news: It’s now in my back yard.
July 27, 2012 at 3:12 pm
That is fucking horrifying! That was on tv?!
July 26, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Wait a second. I don’t see anything wrong with that swea-
oh.
OOOOH.
July 26, 2012 at 1:16 pm
And then…there’s this:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/76187894/stitchcraft-november-1967
July 26, 2012 at 5:20 pm
Er, yeah… at least the golliwog wasn’t the *point* of this pattern.
July 26, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Also the price of this pattern is 9d– (about 25 cents), which means it was sold long before 1971, when British currency went to a decimal based system. (Not that it excuses it, just gives it some context.)
July 26, 2012 at 1:25 pm
She’s imagining herself as Shirley Temple tap-dancing down the stairs side by side with the doll.
Oh wait, am I a racist because that image popped up in my head?
July 27, 2012 at 3:15 pm
I really loved watching shirley temple and the black guy tap dancing. Looking back was it probably racist? yea.
But that’s still my favorite memory of shirley temple movies
July 27, 2012 at 3:17 pm
I mean wasn’t that guy their servant or slave or something? It’s so wrong from an adult perspective like why would he be happy and tapdancing, lol
September 6, 2012 at 11:31 am
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was the dancer, one of the really great tapdancers, too.
Another of Shirley’s partners was Buddy Ebsen, whose long legged loose dance style was also much admired.
July 26, 2012 at 1:27 pm
Back here in Australia, Golliwogs have never been seen as a bad thing. Whenever I attend a Craft Fair, these folk always have a stand – they specialise in golliwog quilt patterns and all manner of related items: http://www.craftcubby.com.au/
July 26, 2012 at 3:50 pm
*Never* seen as a bad thing in Australia? Perhaps not in some circles, but a quick google says not everyone agrees with you:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2147372/Aborigine-rage-golliwog-doll-goes-sale-tourist-shops-Australia.html
July 26, 2012 at 7:37 pm
But check out the replies to the article. Australia still has a racist flavour. Though I think to us, with almost no interaction with African people at all, the doll is divorced of any racial history.
July 27, 2012 at 1:38 pm
Given the presence, and past treatment of the Aborigines, I’m not sure that’s true.
July 26, 2012 at 4:45 pm
Didn’t Harry Connick Jr. educate you Aussies about this back in 2009?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=styzgtxH8tI
Come on, people!
July 26, 2012 at 10:49 pm
The blackface incident was so shameful… really mind-boggling. I’m Australian and I have no idea how people thought that was ok.
July 27, 2012 at 1:04 am
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
July 27, 2012 at 1:06 am
I guess my point is that, although our cultures are closely related, there are enough differences that certain things that are quite sensitive in the US are not so in Australia. That doesn’t necessarily make Australia a backwards country, it just means we’ve had a different history.
July 27, 2012 at 9:24 am
According to the linked article, the anti-golly protests are being staged by indigenous Australians, not Americans, so it looks like there is a cultural shift taking place similar to what happened in the U.S. decades ago, when so-called “racial innocence” stopped being an excuse for creating buffoonish caricatures of African Americans.
That doesn’t mean America is any more culturally advanced than Australia, though. Heck, there are still some white people in the states who believe that slavery was loads of fun!
August 2, 2012 at 5:44 am
I have been attempting to post a reply to this thread for several days, without success. Maybe I’ll have luck with this one.
The gist of my remarks are:
1. The article is from the UK, where they love to portray Australians as racist so they can ignore their own racism.
2. Indigenous Australians on the whole like golliwogs as they are almost the only black dolls available in this country. They do not and have never depicted indigenous Australians.
3. There are no ‘anti-golly’ protests or riots
4. It is never safe to rely on the msm to inform you about the culture of another country. You run the risk of making offensive and completely wrong assumptions.
5. Injustices have been and are perpetrated on indigenous Australians. Golliwogs are not one of them.
July 26, 2012 at 10:55 pm
Growing up in Australia, my only exposure to golliwog dolls was Enid Blyton books, so for me they were just another fairyland character. I remember asking my mum for a golliwog doll but I never got one!
But now we’re older and we know what it represents, I don’t think it our innocent childhood is a valid excuse to keep using golliwog imagery. I see the quilt and doll patterns in my mum’s craft mags, and I think it’s pretty fucked.
July 26, 2012 at 1:46 pm
I wonder if the other patterns the seller is hawking includes watermelons and crows you can sew to add to your entire collection of cardigans.
July 26, 2012 at 2:16 pm
Because ugly ass sweaters and racism never go out of style?
July 26, 2012 at 2:35 pm
July 26, 2012 at 3:52 pm
July 26, 2012 at 4:03 pm
MMMMMMMHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
July 26, 2012 at 4:27 pm
The sweater actually is really cute!
I can’t tell if the little girl is offended by the doll or if the hatred on her face is pure racism.
July 26, 2012 at 11:37 pm
I like to think it’s a what the fuck face. Five minutes later, she ran away from home, and now lives in a commune somewhere, raising the great grandchildren she shares with a famous cult leader. And making crochet bathing suits while smoking a little pot.
July 26, 2012 at 5:47 pm
Are we seriously suggesting someone shouldn’t be selling a VINTAGE pattern of a perfectly nice jumper because the packet image has a racist doll on it? If there is no inherent intent to insight hatred i really don’t think it’s something to get butthurt about.
It’s old, those dolls are old. If we go around burning everything that is politically incorrect there isn’t going to be much left.
We’d probably have to start with the British museum, some of the stuff in there is distinctly dodgy, and distinctly stolen.
Fuck heritage! Political correctness FTW!
July 26, 2012 at 6:39 pm
Actually, yes, returning the stolen artifacts in the British Museum would be a sign of respect to the original culture, and a great step forward for international relations. Just saying.
July 26, 2012 at 7:03 pm
You call it “political correctness,” I call it “not continuing to perpetuate racial stereotypes that have tangibly, severely hurt millions of people throughout history.”
Vintage racism is still racism. It doesn’t have a fucking expiration date.
July 26, 2012 at 7:41 pm
Except it sort of does. No-one is bothered by old artifacts or stories that depict racial hatred between the Romans and pretty much everyone else, or the Greeks and Carthage. But there hasn’t been enough time yet for Gollywogs.
July 28, 2012 at 6:44 pm
Yeah, I’m saying that. I’d happily take it out of the sleeve, sell the pattern alone, and toss the sleeve.
I’d explain that the sleeve had racist imagery, and I got rid of it. If it lowered the price of the item by fifty pence, so the hell be it.
If your ‘heritage’ consists of pictures of small children looking at racist dolls, you need to learn more about your culture.
July 26, 2012 at 6:48 pm
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July 26, 2012 at 8:28 pm
No, they’re part of Delta now.
July 26, 2012 at 9:59 pm
“Sammy Davis Jr. doll pattern sold separately.”
Ah, the 50′s. I’m so glad I was born after you…
July 26, 2012 at 11:11 pm
OK, I will be the one who asks. I know this doll is a likeness of an African looking person. And I understand that different advertising showing this doll in different situations could certainly be construed as racist but can someone please explain to me, in non inflammatory language, why the doll itself is racist?
July 26, 2012 at 11:40 pm
the gollywog is modeled not to be a genuine article, but a miniature version of the stock cartoon image of the “Dumb Savage”, aka black face (like worn onstage a long time ago, dark, dark show-polish colored face and almost wax-lip like ruby red lips. Compared to that idea, Archie Bunker was Martin Luther King, Jr.
July 26, 2012 at 11:44 pm
Thank you. That I can understand
July 26, 2012 at 11:44 pm
1) I totally want that sweater. I’m sure a few alterations could be worked in to make it not-so bell-like in the hips… and a zip, which is better for me than those tiny buttons.
I like a long silhouette… and worn with dark jeans.
2)Fuck me sideways, you’re yanking my chain! Nope… What drunken genius thought, “Yes, every child wants a miniature black-face dancer!”
July 27, 2012 at 12:52 am
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July 27, 2012 at 7:44 am
Bless my soul… forgive my spelling screw ups. I apparently Regretsied while tripping on Benedryl. I am SO embarrassed!
July 27, 2012 at 12:35 pm
It’s not always Africans being insulted by “blackface” images:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Little_Black_Sambo