Golliwog update

Christian Spence

"It's not often that I am left completely speechless."

Living as a subject of Her Majesty in the United Kingdom in 2008 gives me innumerable occasions on a daily basis to find myself speechless. This is not one of them.

Please, Stephen, go and have a careful look down the back of your metaphorical sofa for your sense of perspective.

Move along, folks: there's nothing to see here.

Ken

I'm very happy that a shop like this exists. Dolls mirror all humanity. I suggest you stop being so prissy. For heaven's sake - we are all grown-up people, aren't we?

Ian C

I used to have a 'Golly' when my contemporaries in the 1960's had a 'Teddy'. Sadly we left him on a bench at Waterloo Station while travelling en famille and when we remembered and collected him from Lost Property someone had stuck a fag in his lips that had burnt a hole in his mouth.

I am delighted, and grateful to you, that I now know where to go get a replacement!

Having just read the original post of 25th June I am rather taken aback by your PC attitude here. There was never a hint of a racist thought that ever occurred to me as a child with a Golly. He had a blue tail coat and red trousers with spats above his smart shoes. We had very illuminating conversations and were the best of friends. You are imposing today's PC standards on something with a long tradition as pointed out by some of the posts on your original.

Arthur Gibson

Stop being offended on behalf of other people. If black people don't like this, let them say so. If you find a 'Yid' doll, get the high horse out of the stable. Otherwise, there's a perfectly good argument that all dolls shouldn't be white and blonde.

Familiar Clown

Stephen, did you know that in the Queen's own gift shop on the Sandringham Estate (not far from where I live) there's a whole basket full of golliwogs for sale. And very nice they are too I have to say.

idle

Man goes to Henley, thinks to himself: "I wonder if the teddy shop still sells golliwogs, as they did 9 weeks ago?"

Man goes to toy shop. Yup, the gollies are still there.

Man rendered completely speechless? I think not.

Man writes that he was left speechless in order to display right-on multicultiLondon credentials? Bingo!

Han Solo

I was disgusted to find on my recent visit to Toys 'R' Us that they sell dolls of Sith Lords, such as Darth Maul and even Darth Sidious. These people ethnically cleansed the Ewoks, the Wookies, the Gunguns and countless other races on their native planets, as well as killing off the Jedi. Although I'm a Correlian, and not really that involved, I still was left speechless by their insensitivity.

Ranger Smith

I have just returned from my local branch of Toymaster, where I was insensed to see that they sell toys that peddle wholly false ideas about the nature of bears. I dread to think of the consequences if any of our children are exposed to this hideous example of anthropomorphication of our ursine enemies. I have taken the precaution of placing tungsten-tipped screws on my son's so-called 'teddy bear''s misleadingly-soft and clawless paws, just so he is in no doubt about the real nature of these dangerous beasts, who in reality are more likely to maul you or steal your picnic basket than they are to say "I wuv oo".

Yours

T Smith, Ranger

Ranger.Smith@jellystone.gov.org

J Fonda (Mrs)

My husband and I were shopping in Hamleys for a birthday present for our five-year-old grandson, and were outraged to see on sale models of American combat aircraft, such as the B17 and the B25, and tanks such as the Sherman and the Lee. These vehicles were instrumental in deaths of thousands of innocent German civilians during the US invasion of Africa and Europe in 1945, to say nothing of the B29's role in the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Naturally, we looked in earnest for models of T34s, used by the heroic Red Army in liberating Estonia and eastern Germany before the brutal western Allies could instal their cruel puppetmasters; or of the MiG21s used by the brave pilots of the North Vietnamese air force in defending South Vietnam from American aggression. Alas, in vain. I was speechless.

V Redgrave (Ms)

To J Fonda - I could't agree with you more, darling. The infiltration of American imperialism through these toys is absolutely toxic! Yet one searches in vain, doesn't one darling, for peace basket-weaving kits from Africa.

And don't get me started on the heroes of man-made global warming, darling! Where are the Al Gore dolls? One despairs.

n

even my local habitat has a golliwog in the window display, it's horrific.

5 years ago i had a summer job in a toy shop. a customer came in and asked to buy a golliwog. i, fairly open mouthed, replied that neither we nor anyone else i knew sold these.

i find it a bit depressing that if he came in today, i'd be able to point him over the road to habitat...

Austin Barry

I'm with Stephen: there must be more consideration of the sensitivites of our "communities". I was travelling through Dublin airport recently and on display were hideous, red-haired dolls wearing green hats and clutching shillelaghs. They also looked drunk. I was left completely speechless.

Tiberius

Think you've lost this argument, Stephen.

Bill Corr

Hmmm - how about a golliwog equipped for housebreaking, carjacking or a mugging, a gollie with a suicide vest on what Yvonne Ridley calls a 'martrydom mission' or a kleptocrat gollie making a speech at the U.N. denouncing the paucity of Western aid. Best of all, how about a gollie headed for automatic selection for a safe Labour parliamentary seat, clutching his Imprematur and Nihil Obstat from Harriet Harperson herself.

Herbert Thornton

I always used to enjoy Golden Shred Marmalade and the removal of the logo was quite possibly the reason it lost its attraction, so that I now prefer my wife's home made stuff. But it does make me marvel that people can be so obsessed with such a triviality. Stephen obviously is, but now Clive Davis has climbed onto the rather boring bandwagon and made it even more boring.

Chris

Did you buy one so you could fight him with your rupert?

Bob Gray

Herbet: boring maybe, but also expressive of Clive's humourless contempt for the few hands that feed him.

Austin Barry

I notice that Clive has eliminated his comments section. I suspect that is because of a paucity of comment, good, bad or indifferent. Now he is condemning those posting on Stephen's blog. At least Stephen has the courage to accommodate contrary points of view. I'm disppointed in Clive.

HJ

As a child, I liked the Robinson's Golliwog. It never even occurred to me that it was anything other than a 'toy' character. Imagine my surprise when, as an adult, they renamed it the 'Golly' in order to remove supposedly racist overtones. This hadn't even occurred to me.

It's a bit like condemning VW Beetles because they originated in the Nazi era.

Jonny Mac

You're all idiots. It's clearly objectionable. Golliwogs are not dolls of black people - no-one objects to them - they are a continuation of the racist stereotypes of the 'negro'. Bill Corr's comment is openly racist, and the fact that the rest of you didn't pick him up on it is deeply revealing. Stephen, welcome to the festering, resentful dark side (pun intended)of the Spectator's readership.

Guy Incognito

@Jonny Mac: We might all be idiots, but this is a fatuous and pointless exhumation of an long-dead argument. Is there a *shred* of evidence to suggest that golliwogs in any way contribute to racism in Britain, in either thought or action? There are threats to multi-racial harmony in Britain, but those that might or might not be linked to golliwog availability are not near the top of the list.

John Meredith

Good grief! Are the commentators here really as innocent of the recent history of slavery and anti-black racism and its imagery as to oblivious as to what these dolls signify? I find it hard to imagine that you can grow to majority, know how to use a computer and remain so innocent, I must say.

Arthur Gibson

Recent history of slavery? Britain abolished slavery 200 years (or eight generations)ago. What's recent about that?

Bob Gray

John Meredith: I think you are confusing 'innocence' with being 'dreadfully pissed off', albeit expressed here, by most, with tolerable good humour. For a few hundred years we've all, more or less, rubbed along, until people like yourself took it upon themselves to point at things and proscribe them.

What was the colloquial term for the Chinese immigrants in Limehouse in the 19th century?
And also the Italians? And who said the terms were derogatory?

Now, given that you know the answers, please explain why shortening the name British, to 'Brits', should not be acceptable to me.

Everybody in the World has a surface; why do you go around intent on scratching it?

alexandrovich

"...as to what these dolls signify."

Significance is in the eye of the beholder Mr. Meredith.

naomi mayberg

what n earth are you moaning about???? - that the golliwogs are black? their tasteless clothes? please explain. first of all you complaim about the excessive reaction to Ramadna 9 AND I AGREE ABOUT THAT) AND NOW YOU DO THE SAME THINGT - BE LOGICAL

John Meredith

"Now, given that you know the answers, please explain why shortening the name British, to 'Brits', should not be acceptable to me."

Because, unless you are hopelessly naive, you will recognise that the significnce of a word is socially agreed. Some words are meant to cause offence and to wound and some aren't. Why call people by names they find offensive when there are so many other names to call them, such as the ones they give themselves? If someone called your wife a 'c*nt' , I doubt you would accept his wide-eyed defence that he considered that part of a woman's anatomy to be especially beautiful, tender and lovely and cannot understand for a moment why anyone should take offence at aving his wife described in thoose terms. That is because, although he may be right, you really understand that the meaning of a word is socially arrived at.

Jonny Mac

Bob Gray - "For a few hundred years we've all, more or less, rubbed along..." Well, apart from that whole unpleasant slavery business, Bob. Which, kind of, goes to the heart of this whole issue, actually. Ffs.

Jonny Mac

"It's a bit like condemning VW Beetles because they originated in the Nazi era." - HJ.

No. The correct analogy involving the nazis and Beetles would be if VW had inserted a swastiki into the grille of the Beetle in the 30s, and had not changed the design after the war. It's only a symbol, but symbols can be offensive, do you see?

Fergus Pickering

I want to connect golywogs with fuzzy-wuzzies. Fuzzy-wuzzies was the English name for supporters of the Mahdi (rememeber Laurence Olivier in Gordon of Khartoum) and, judging by the photograph on wikipedia, they had gollywog hair-dos. If my speculatio is correct, then gollywogs have nothing to do with slavery but lots to dowith Empire, which is almost as good for you sad lefties out there.

Kevin 'Spitfire' Maguire, Sqn Ldr RAF (Retd)

Jonny Mac: Or still calling the German Air Force the Luftwaffe, or the Bundeswehr still having iron crosses on their tanks? Yet we somehow get over it.

Tiberius

John M: I doubt that "socially acceptable" is a suitable benchmark for offensive terminology, principally because "socially acceptable" tends to be determined by the Left. PC is not a creation of the liberal Right, for example.

To illustrate, it didn't seem to matter to many that Ken Livingstone called a Jewish journalist a Nazi in anger, but it did matter that Boris used the term pikaninny in jest. Furthermore, your analogy breaks down because while it would be possible to ban golliwogs, it is not possible to ban Berkshire Hunts.

The term describing "going out of sight up one's own rear-end" comes to mind when trying to define objectively offensive words, institiutions or effigies.

Or, how about the difference in suffering caused by the mere existence of the state of Israel, compared to the democracy in the state of Zimbabwe ruled by Zanu PF? Or, Islamophobia compared to flying planes into a skyscraper?

Ultimately, it comes back to people's actions, not thoughts, that cause tangible grief. As Harry Callahan said, it's not guns that kill people, it's people that kill people.

Bill, Cheam

I think the Golly on the end is being discriminated against by those in the middle and should seek compensation.

Austin Barry

Given that we're really discussing racism here, is it ok to be empirically racist? For example, I am walking down a quiet London street late at night and see two groups of teenagers on opposite pavements: one group is black wearing hoods, the other is Jewish wearing yamulkes. If I choose to pass on the "Jewish" side of the street, which I would, am I a racist?

HJ

Johnny Mac - I am outraged that you used the term "Volkswagen" which, as everyone who knows their history knows, is a name created by the Nazis.

It's only a name, but names can be offensive, do you see?

It's funny that I, as an "idiot" knew that but you of superior intelligence and knowledge didn't.

jeff randall

Stephen: Welcome to the resevoir of bigotry that (still, even today) exists among the Spectator/Telegraph readership. Not for nothing are they the organs in which Boris Johnson wrote about picanninies, watermelon smiles, and all the rest of it. I can't believe this still goes on--even in Henley--either but reading these comments, you have to admit they're still out there, those charming folks.

Tiberius

An apology: Harry Callahan did not say that.

nicodemus31

As previous posters have pointed out, the golliwog is a caricature, a relic of a bygone era.

Why oh why do those on the (white) liberal left get so worked up on other peoples' behalfs?

I can't imagine many Scots getting similarly aerated over those, admittedly hideous, dolls of portly Highland bagpipers with ginger hair you can presumably still by in dusty tourist shops in Mallaig. Again, largely a quiant relic of a bygone era serving a niche market- not a cause celebre for the chest beating stamp out racism brigade. I trust the anti-golliwogites are just as indignant about the Scottish dolls.

Oh, bugger it, let the bloody Labour Party ban them all. Same old story, if its a minority, slighty quirky, non-conformist thing on the fringes of society, but not really doing anyone any harm then you can be sure our masters on the left will do everything in their power to crush it in their path.

Augustus

I also admire Stephen, and am disappointed in Clive for the same reasons as Austin Barry.

Why some people pick on golliwogs is because of the guilt they collectively feel, or purport to feel, towards the historical abuse and discrimination against the black persons of African descent by the white man. But they miss the essential point, which is, that golliwogs are dolls made, sold, and used for and by children, as they always have been. And those feelings of guilt do not manifest themselves in the young owners of these toys. they do not apportion any blame to their dolls. Therefore, that makes gollie an innocent loving doll in their eyes, not a symbol of racism. Its only people like Tony Benn and Shirley Williams who have been capable of starting that particular kind of bandwagon, and poor people like Stephen and Clive have come along later and fallen for it.

Joshua

The last time I agreed with Stephen Pollard it was 2005 and he'd just suggested it was rather warm outside (Pollard's views are far too left-wing for my tastes). About this matter, though, he is totally correct. I cannot believe some of the responses. Reading them just now, I felt as if I had been transported back in time to 1928 to a golf club in the Home Counties.

Joshua

"but reading these comments, you have to admit they're still out there, those charming folks."

Even at the Savoy with a billionaire in tow!

Bob Gray

Well John Meredith, thanks for the tip. Although I will need further guidance from you. Obviously I will now listen more intently every time I hear the term 'Brit' used and urged my mates in the pub to do the same (they told me not to be such a tosser).

But the advice I need from you is how to recognise when the term is 'socially agreed' as offensive. Will you notify me, perhaps? Maybe I should take the Guardian?

Jonny Mac: "...slavery...goes to the heart of this whole issue, actually."

Imagine, for one moment, that slavery had not taken place, but the window display above had. Are you saying that you would have had no grounds for coming over all po-faced on us?

Ian C

I think you've been 'golliwogged' Stephen!!!

Austin Barry

So where are we?

For Golliwogs = racist swine;

Agin Golliwogs = bleeding heart, white-guilt-ridden, politically correct onanists;

Indifferent to Golliwogs - just about everyone else. There are bigger rather more pressing issues in the world than worrying about these little bits of stuffed cloth.

Labour Member

Reading these comments and the references to "yids" and "wogs" you wonder why the editor of the Spectator was so daft as to publish an article accusing Labour of being the "nasty party".

Verity

The slaves were captured by their own people, who knew the terrain. They were sold to Arab slavers who put them in chains in the holds of ships and shipped them to America.

They were auctioned off and bought as slaves in New England. The only involvement of the British was, the ships that transported the slaves were British, and that was outlawed soon enough, and HM Navy put on duty patrolling the Atlantic shipping routes to stamp out the trade.

I cannot for the life of me see what any British person has to feel guilty about. This is not to diminish the enormity of the wrong of slavery, but let us place the blame on those who captured the slaves, those who bought and transported them, and those who bought them in New England.

It is so vile it scarcely bears thinking about, but we bear no burden of guilt. The Arab slavers are still at it, by the way.

Jampot

Does this shop do mail order?

nicodemus31

@Austin Barry: [re 3rd Sept 6:05pm comment]

No, you're a pragmatist

Bryan Appleyard

http://www.bryanappleyard.com/blog/2008/09/golliwogs.php

Alexandrovich

Bryan Appleyard: I followed your link - too much poncing about to post anything.

Mind you, I did tarry to read your comment - what's with the 'we'?