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.

[moonflyte]

Painting "cute" and "delightful" pictures of Aborigines is racial stereotyping.

[springyzone]

Painting "cute" and "delightful" pictures of Aborigines is racial stereotyping.

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Righto, but what about the Brownie Downing collectables? The little plates and pin dishes.

They fetch a tidy sum on ebay and I have not heard of them being banned.

I see golliwogs and the Brownie Downing dishes as being vintage items.

I can't see that they would be something people would necessarily manufacture these days, times and attitudes have moved on.

But I can't see that we should get too hung up about the sale of such things as vintage collectors' items.

I suppose (to me) there is a difference between things which are sold to promote racism & things which are of historic interest.

For example, what if an autographed copy of Mein Kampf came on sale?

Now, the Nazi message is hateful but to me, that book would be worth preservation for historic reasons.

[opmania]

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@djlukjil wrote:

Painting "cute" and "delightful" pictures of Aborigines is racial stereotyping.

---

   Agree 

Even moreso than a golliwog

A  golli is as removed from an african

American 

As raggety anne is from a white

[soulart2]

Golliwogs are golliwogs, just like Gingerbread men are gingerbread men and Smurfs are smurfs.

How anyone could relate the above toys to people is beyond me.

For those who do think like that.........you do know that Golliwogs aren't real, right ?

ps......Smurfs aren't real either  (just don't tell Chuk)

[raptor_rebooted]

i miss scallywag biscuits  

i used them for a desert recipe.  anyone

else did that?

what was the point changing the name

anyway?  the picture remained the same.

[opmania]

If we ever get a visit from

Little blue men from pluto

Someone is going to have to run around

To the shops and remove all the

Smurfs

So as not to offend them

[imastawka]

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@djlukjilly wrote:

Painting "cute" and "delightful" pictures of Aborigines is racial stereotyping.

---

And do you have a problem with Anne Geddes?

I don't have a problem with either.

A baby/child of any race is beautiful/cute/delightful

[opmania]

Think about it

If all of Anne Geddes subjects were black

Then there would be a problem

Unless of course Anne Geddes is a black woman

Because she encludes all races in her works

All babies are equal

[bromad01]

My questions . . . should we stop then stop making all the "culturally inclusive" dolls of various skin tones and eye shapes and hair colours etc? Are they too considered racist? If an "African" child has a "European" doll is that also considered racist? 

[imastawka]

The subject of this thread is Gollies.

Not examples of dolls from other countries.