Question for Londoners/ex-Londoners reading~

[bellatrys]

When I visited England in the late 80's, and [white, British] people warned me that Notting Hill was kind of sketchy and I probably didn't want to go around there, was this a totally-not-at-all-coded way of not-at-all-racists telling me that there were black people there? Or just a nice, upper-middle-class bourgie inability to deal with the sort of

Comments

[raincitygirl]

But they HAVEN'T taken golliwogs away. They're still making them and people are still buying them. I know, because my (English) mother recently acquired two on a trip back home. I tried to reason with her, but she started going all bingo card on me, so I gave up.

Not that I think they should be legally banned or anything, but I am a little stunned that in the 21st century there's still a market for them such that making them remains profitable.

Well, no, but you know how it goes--

[bellatrys]

Anybody *saying* publically that golliwogs make them feel uncomfortable and is this imagery really something we want to be perpetuating in this day and age? IS EXACTLY THE SAME THING as banning them by law and confiscating them all and burning them and making it a CRIME to produce them.

Or so the likes of Luke Jackson would have us believe...

Re: Well, no, but you know how it goes--

[raincitygirl]

There's a place in the middle of Melbourne's CBD with a golliwog window display. Also, this friend of mine's parents have a golliwog fridge magnet which is, weirdly, surrounded by all these left wing / feminist / environmentalist ones. Does the dissonance not occur to them...?

Richie

Are they Ironic Hipsters, by any chance?

[bellatrys]

Does the dissonance not occur to them...?

Because that's usually the excuse here in the US. (Racialicious has had a lot to say on the subject of Ironic Hipster Racism, natch.)

The thing that gets me is that the same people who are all like "It's just tradition/art/entertainment/it's all in the past & we're so enlightened now can't you just laught at it?/ don't be so SERIOUS about it!" are, invariably, the same ones who are all WAHWAHWAH whenever they have to encounter a story in which there are any presentations of racism or patriarchy and these are presented critically - "How come *I* have to be made to feel uncomfortable and guilty when *I'm* not personally racist/sexist, just because *I* happen to be a white male? UR SO MEEN!" and so forth.

Which makes me think that the whole "lighten up/get over it!" brigade is somehow *not* speaking out of purest principles...

My God, that's a blast from the past

[deiseach]

I haven't seen a golliwog since I was about ten. I remember that there used to be a golliwog on the label of a certain brand of jam (can't think of the name; it was English, is all I know) and then all of a sudden there wasn't, and I couldn't figure out why.

I had no idea at the time that they were meant to be toy-caricatures of black people; living in a pure white rural backend of nowhere Irish small town where "exotic" mean the Protestants who owned the shoeshop, of course I didn't have the experience to fit the bits together.

Also, since to me they looked nothing like real black people, how could anyone say that's what they were meant to represent? It was like saying teddybears were real.

Until I got older and got a clue, that is. The same way that the ape-caricatures of 'typical Irish peasant rebels festooned with knives, clubs, guns and bombs' in "Punch" were meant to look like Genuine Irish Catholics, golliwogs were meant to look like Genuine Black People.

I am very much surprised to find out that golliwogs are still

Re: My God, that's a blast from the past

[desperance]

I remember that there used to be a golliwog on the label of a certain brand of jam (can't think of the name; it was English, is all I know)

Robinson's. They used to make badges, toys, all sorts of golliwog paraphernalia; I'd guess that collectors pay high prices for it these days. It's only seven or eight years since they stopped.

Yes, that's the one!

[deiseach]

Blimey, how this brings me back in time. I had thought the golliwogs on the labels stopped earlier than that; then again, I haven't seen a jar of Robinson's jam in the shops for ages, so that's probably why.

When I think of it... we were reared on stuff like "The Black and White Minstrel Show", which even as a child I didn't understand - why were these men painted black with white-ringed eyes?

And "The Good Old Days", which was Victorian music-hall performances done by modern performers, with the audience dressed up as well in Victorian/Edwardian gear.

Come to think of it, I had a pretty 19th century upbringing. No wonder I understand Victorian novels!

Re: My God, that's a blast from the past

[richardpilbeam]

I actually had a non-this-is-justified-because-it's-part-of-our-history toy golliwog when I was a kid in the 90s. The worst part was that, although I can't remember exactly where it came from, I'm fairly sure it was new, not a hand-me-down. Being about eight at the time, I also had no idea of the racist history of the things, and by the time I did, my dog had torn it up.