Racist and Hateful? or Much Loved Toy

[imastawka]

Ebay have removed listings, worldwide, in the last couple of days

for Golliwog/Golly citing the 'hateful or discriminatory policy.'

Aunt Jemima dolls (mammy dolls)  have also gone

The weird part is, there was a sub-category in Dolls/Bears for Golliwogs

All things Golliwog have disappeared.

Books including ones by Enid Blyton have gone. 

It's ok to sell them, just don't put golliwog/golly in the title.

I have been informed that I need to be educated on the matter,

and have been given links to things like the Jim Crow Museum

 http://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/golliwog/

My own opinion is, I love gollies.    I can see no relevance to them in Australia.

I think they are/were a much loved toy with no underlying racial tones.

A lot of people may be upset by the images, but I think Ebay has just made

them worth a lot more money on other sites.

I'm not looking for an argument, and you won't get one.

I would just like some more opinions.

It started on the Selling Boards

http://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/Item-specific-Listing-Removed-Sick-Of-It/td-p/1834945

I would hope that opinions do not run too hot,  and turn into arguments.

[imastawka]

Does make you wonder.      Isn't it part of history?

Good or bad, it's history

Mind you, ebay also banned the sale of the US Confederate flag citing the hate card

And it took me an hour to see I had misspelled 'caricatures'

[imastawka]

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@djlukjilly wrote:

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@imastawka wrote:

What about all the brown

Downing plates on eBay with

 Characteur picininis

Always on here

How is that different

Opmania.  Brownie Downing, and Peg Maltby for that matter,

Are painters of delightful aboriginal children.

They are in no way what the golly haters call 'grotesque caricatures'

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But isn't that the same thing, objectifying a race?

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It's the slave aspect and gollies/mammy reflecting the servitude in a grotesque manner.

Brownie Downing and Peg Maltby have done lovely paintings of aboriginals,

sympathetic to their surroundings

[j*oono]

I used to love the Robertson's Marmalade Golliwog badges when I was a kid.  I had the one of him playing golf I think it was.  I don't know what I did with it.

I can understand now why it's not really acceptable anymore but I still love golliwogs.  I don't think I ever thought of them being like an actual coloured person.  It was just a golliwog in my childs mind. 

[opmania]

 What may seem delightful to a white 

Person

May appear equally

Grotesque to a person

With a very dark tan

[imastawka]

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@j*oono wrote:

I used to love the Robertson's Marmalade Golliwog badges when I was a kid.  I had the one of him playing golf I think it was.  I don't know what I did with it.

I can understand now why it's not really acceptable anymore but I still love golliwogs.  I don't think I ever thought of them being like an actual coloured person.  It was just a golliwog in my childs mind. 

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Thank you Joono.    There it is.     Not a real person, just a golliwog to a child.

[opmania]

Even the fact that white people have

Painted them at all may be offensive

[the_great_she_elephant]

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@opmania wrote:

 What may seem delightful to a white 

Person

May appear equally

Grotesque to a person

With a very dark tan

---

Well said. I loved them too when I was a kid, but how I felt about them is not really relevant - it's how black children felt about them. Of course in the days when, when I was playing with dolls there were very few black children living in England so the question didn't really arise, but it certainly would do now and it must have doneeven  at that time in America. 

[imastawka]

She ele,  Opmania is referring to Brownie Downing paintings of aboriginal children,

not golliwogs

https://www.google.com/search?q=brownie+downing+paintings&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWo...

None of her paintings depicted the indigenous people as sub-servient

[twyngwyn]

[opmania]

Well I'm referring to either really

I know indigenous people don't 

Like whites to do indigenous 

Style paintings