Thread: Seriously?

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

You're right. I used to live in Asia remember? Over there, they think whites are the poor trash of Asia, as Lee of Singapore once said. The Chinese believe they are superior. When I look at Trump and others, I think they may have a point. China is winning and the West is losing.

We have the clocks , they have the time.

Originally Posted by Arapiles

Actually, if a claim like that was brought, and wasn't simply vexatious, then it would have to be heard seriously. And golliwogs were very much designed as a method of racial vilification.

This is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia page on Golliwog.

Quote

The golliwog, golliwogg or golly is a black fictional character created by Florence Kate Upton that appears in children's books in the late 19th century and usually depicted as a type of rag doll. It was reproduced, both by commercial and hobby toy-makers as a children's toy called the "golliwog", and had great popularity in the UK and Australia into the 1970s. The doll is characterised by black skin, eyes rimmed in white, clown lips and frizzy hair. Though home-made golliwogs were sometimes female, the golliwog was generally male. For this reason, in the period following World War II, the golliwog was seen, along with the teddy bear, as a suitable soft toy for a young boy.

Unquote

This innocent character from a childrens book of the late 1800's, which was reproduced (brought to life if you like) when people made them for their children and then commercially produced, did not have any association with racism until the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Yes that's us. I think it is all to do with attitude. People these days look for offence in everyday things, actively seeking out that which MAY be seen as offensive. Some call it 'Political Correctness', I think it is getting close to insanity. And on that subject I give you this YouTube

It seems Enid Blyton is to blame, as she made some of the golliwogs the "baddies" in her Noddy books, although I think the garage owner who looked after Noddy's car is also a golliwog. However I can't understand how people view the golliwog toys as something bad. It makes no sense, as usually toys and that's what they were, are loved and cherished items, no one gives their child a horrible toy that they are scared of or hate. Even supposedly ferocious dinosaurs are loved by children.

I don't know, but I suspect that although golliwogs originated in the UK where there were (at the time) very few black skinned people, and do not seem to have been associated with race at all, the term was adopted, possibly as late as the 1960s in the USA as a put down of black people. As a result, it became a 'do not use' term in the USA as racism ceased to be politically correct.

Australia, of course, aping the USA in all respects, it seems, has followed on from there. (Not only in deciding golliwogs are politically incorrect, but also probably in actually using the word as a racist slur.)

As a child, while I did not ever own a golliwog, I was familiar with them, but it never occurred to me to connect them in any way with any group of people.

If you are offended by a Golliwog then I believe you have some other deep seated mental issues, they come from another time, a different time, and were never designed as a method vilification.

Precisely. You mean when the world was a much more lovelier place?

History of advertising: No 131: Robertson's controversial brand mascot

Teasing people because of skin colour is bullying under the Fair Work Commission.
White skinned people are unlikely to have been bullied because of their skin colour or race in Australia, so are unlikely to understand how those who are being bullied would feel.
Golliwog has definitely been used as a term to bully, harass and discriminate against dark skinned people.

Saying that people who object to golliwog have mental issues is definitely a form of bullying.
Try to imagine it from the viewpoint of those subjected to this bullying. How would you feel in their place?

I agree that racial villification is Evil But forcing everone to change the way they speak, what they wear or even the design on a bloody hot air baloon is also a form of "Bullying".
How far is this going to go? are we going to Ban Black cars or even remove the word "Black" from our vocablury just in case it MAY offend someone?