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1
GOLLY!
Children’s hero
or racist symbol Childrens’ hero
2
GOLLY! Children’s hero or racist
symbol
Thomas L Blair
3
What this eBook is about
“RACIAL EQUALITY
MAY BE ON THE
HORIZON,
BUT OUR SOCIETY
NEEDS A FRESH
VIEW OF DEMEANING
SYMBOLS LIKE THE
GOLLIWOG”
4
Publication Details
Golly! Children’s hero or racist symbol Thomas L Blair 978-1-908480-51-4 Published by Editions Blair e-Books 2015©
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
The greatest care has been taken in compiling this book. However, no responsibility can be accepted by the author and publishers or compilers for the accuracy of the information presented. Opinions expressed do not necessarily coincide with the editorial views of author or copyright holder Edition Blair.
Editions Blair has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will
remain, accurate or appropriate. Every effort has been made to respect all copyrights and apologise for any that may have been unwittingly
infringed.
5
Contents
Introduction
Golliwog Bans Are Headline News
Golliwog Uncovered In Plantation History And Writings Golliwog Roots In Colonialism
Golliwog Endanger Children’s Attitudes To Blacks
Golliwog Products Embed Race Differences Golliwog False Assumptions, Plain Wrong
Golliwog The Case For The Defence Golly! Victorian Caricature “No Joke” Golliwog The Call For Political Action
Golliwog Controversy can foster innovative policies
Conclusion Notes on the Author
About Editions Blair
The Thomas L Blair Golliwog Collection: Images and Descriptions
01. Golly white mug, 5 figures with cricket bat, ball and wicket, 02. Golly men white mug with 5 figures with right foot on soccer ball,
03. Golly 4-slot toast rack 04. Stylized “Aunt Jemima” style bust in repose,
05. “Aunt Jemima” style exaggerated caricature of cook 06. Sitting golly-style doll
07. Golly coffee pot with standing figure on both sides
08. Golly figure in black seated at grand piano keyboard 09. Golly-style waiter in orange and yellow trimmings uniform,
010. Golly in blue and red trousers playing bass 011. “Aunt Jemima” golly-style cook with bandana
6
Introduction
Golly! marks the journey of the innocent children’s hero whites love to a reviled racial stereotype that Blacks despise and officials
reject.
Thematically based on the author’s research and
personal collection, this eBook reveals the controversial golliwog themes in history,
literature and commerce.
Surveying the defence and opposing views, the
author provides a range of opportunities for
positive representation of Britain’s Black African and Afro-Caribbean peoples.
7
Golliwog bans are headline news
You can look at the Golliwog two ways: innocent children’s hero or racist symbol.
For most generations of British families the answer is simple: no.
Nevertheless, recent banning orders reveal the dangers harboured in the
larger than life kid-lit caricature.
In Scotland, 2015, summer fair organisers warned off people wearing
golliwog costumes.
Gala organisers issue warning following golliwog
controversy 1 August 2015 by Jamie Ross Police received a complaint about costumes at the Wick Gala Day
An organiser of one of the north-east’s longest running galas has warned people
against dressing up as controversial characters after three people were reported to police for wearing golliwog costumes at a summer fair.
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/9268478.Golliwog_toys_banned_from_sale_at_market/
8
In England, Bournemouth officials banned a golliwog trader for
fear of offending locals and foreign students.
Bournemouth officials firmly supported the ban. Reported in the Mail
Online, the council's arts development officer said the local authority could not be associated with something that might be seen as racist.
'It is widely accepted in modern society that golliwogs are acknowledged as having racist connotations’ said the council officer.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040989/Enid-Blyton-fan-banned-selling-golliwog-toys-village-market.html
Ultimately, the media trumpeted in 2009, “Race doll row hits the royals:
Queen has to say sorry”. Buckingham Palace has issued an extraordinary apology after the Queen's shop at Sandringham was found to be selling
golliwogs”. http://metro.co.uk/2009/02/05/queens-shop-sorry-for-selling-
golliwogs-431833/
23 September 2011 by Anna Edwards
Offensive: The trader had planned to teach people about the
cultural history behind the dolls
Banned: Enid Blyton fan Viv Endecott told she cannot sell her golliwogs at the fair because of their racist connotations
The classic toys could cause offence to overseas students and spark 'public order problems.'
Pasted from <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040989/Enid-Blyton-fan-banned-selling-golliwog-toys-village-market.html>
9
Golliwog: Uncovered In Plantation
History and Writings
Ironically, two facts stand out in the Golliwog controversy. Supporters like dressing up in costume and traders, festival organisers and shops make
money selling golliwogs as curios.
Ranged in opposition are officials responding to protests from Black and minority groups. What has not been appreciated, however, is that this
seemingly contemporary issue has deeper roots.
The golliwog was without doubt the birth-child of significant economic
innovation. Slave-based production enriched not only the owners but also slave traders, banks and financiers – and primed the emergent industrial
revolution.
However, something else is true. Slavery birthed the themes of racial dominance/subordination that lurk behind the golliwog stories today.
Respected author Edward Long waged his defence of the harsh 18th century regimes in a three-volume History of Jamaica (1774).
Thomas Carlyle’s The “Nigger Question” (1853) attacked abolitionists
determined to free Africans in Britain and America.
Anthony Trollope was convinced that white superiority and Black inferiority was of divine design, in his 1859 book The West Indies and the
Spanish Main.
Surely, the facts cast doubt on these white-over-black themes. New World
Africans resisted harsh plantation regimes, fiercely resisted colonial armies and created Haiti’s independence in 1804. See David Dabydeen
and eds. in The Oxford Companion to Black British History (Oxford University Press, 2007).
Furthermore, the rise of talented and successful London Blacks is proof
against euro-centric rantings. Wealthy coal merchant Cesar Picton, radical
reformer Olaudah Equiano and literary celebrity Ignatius Sancho overcame poverty and prejudice in 18th-century Britain.
http://socialwelfare.bl.uk/subject-areas/services-activity/community-development/editionsblair/black13.aspx
.
10
Golliwog’s roots in colonialism
It is no longer a secret. New evidence shows the golliwog’s portrayal
matched popular ignorance. Everyman, journalists, scholars and policy
makers all delved in the same pool of prejudice.
“Niggers are like monkeys ... [with] their subnormal sloping foreheads and large protruding lips”, wrote G W Stevens in The Land of the Dollar
(1897).
“Blacks are lazy, vicious, and incapable of any serious improvement”, said
the popular writer Rudyard Kipling in his School History of England (1911).
Such views are marvellously deceptive examples of “biological racism”:
that is, using pseudo-science to mask or justify racial superiority/inferiority. As such, they divert attention from an oppressive
“system of unfree labour”. The truth is that enslaved Africans were the labour force that worked the land that enriched the European and
American colonial powers. See Dabydeen op. cit. and Eric Williams,
Capitalism and Slavery 1944.
11
Golliwogs endanger children’s
attitudes to Blacks
“I always remember my mum tucking me into bed and sitting next to me.
It was time for a story, one blogger recalled. The books that “gripped me from a young age, were Enid Blyton’s…”.
Much loved, yes. “The earliest golliwog doll was sold at Gamages
department store in 1902”, according to the Oxford Companion to Black
British History (2007).
Thereafter, “Golliwogs were to be found everywhere, from postcards to the sixth movement of Claude Debussy’s Children’s Corner, entitled
‘Golliwog’s Cakewalk’”.
Nonetheless, the golliwog is impregnated with strands of colonialist mentality and prejudices. For example, the cakewalk derives from the
strutting plantation dance and minstrelsy. In time, this connection melds
into personal packages of race attitudes and behaviour towards “darkies”, the “others”.
Taken up by popular children’s storywriters, the grotesque Black
caricatures expressed widely accepted racial attitudes.
The Upton sisters of America described “a horrid sight: the blackest gnome” in The Adventure of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwog, 1895. Based
on a childhood minstrel doll it featured a “black face, thick lips, wide-
eyes, wild dark hair”, according to a Guardian correspondent.
The Golliwog was the first mass produced “nigger doll” to feature in English literature, picture books and popular culture. From 1895, the
escapades of the large black stuffed doll with wild hair and a wide grin dominated the leisure time pursuits of children and adults for half a
century, said world authority Clinton Derricks is his book Buy Golly!: The History of Black Collectables.
Enid Blyton, the most notable children’s writer, defined the 20th century golliwog. In her Five Fall into Adventure (1965), we encounter a character
“with nasty gleaming eyes, and it looked very dark; perhaps because it was a black man’s face”.
That white is desirable and black not worthy of association is a common
theme in Blyton’s stories. In The Little Black Doll (1937), the doll is
12
shunned by the other toys and must be erased to gain favour. When it is
washed and rosy pink, it becomes “a nice looking doll, as good as any other”.
Golliwog books read as though the clock of slave-owning England had
stopped, in 1800. Together they always produce a balance in favour of the white slave owner class.
13
Golliwog products embed race
differences
The entry of peoples of colour, service men and women, colonials, immigrants and citizens, forced a change in popular attitudes. But it was
difficult in an era when prejudices were a normal part of everyday British life.
In the 1960s, public outrage and anti-racist campaigners challenged Enid
Blyton’s story line in Here Comes Noddy Again (1951). The golliwogs’ villainous mugging of Noddy, the harmless, lovable toy man, was, they
said, likely to fuel race prejudices in perilous times.
Nevertheless, the popularity of the exaggerated caricature grew rapidly in
the early years of the 20th century. Storywriters and commerce led the way with golliwog book characters, dolls and jam labels (since replaced)
produced by the Robertson & Sons Company.
Today, golliwog dolls sell for £85 or more. Studies show that sales are booming in the collectors market, though bedtime reading is out of
fashion.
Booming Golliwog commerce can have pernicious effects, however. Only
the politically naïve could fail to see the dangers in the pairing of white childhood innocence with racialized images and texts, according to Donna
Varga and Rhoda Zuk, Golliwogs and Teddy Bears (2013). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpcu.12042/abstract
Raymond Briggs’ Ethel and Ernest, in conversation, express the
views of an ordinary family who have “become representatives of us all”.*
ERNEST: commenting on news of impending World War II: “Can you
beat it? IRA bombs in London, Manchester and Birmingham! When will it end?”
ETHEL: replying says “Oh, those IRISH! They’re like the blessed Arabs and Jews – always at it”.
ERNEST: replies “Yes, and don’t forget the Serbs and Croats. They’re
just as bad…Then there’s the Hindus and Moslems…” ETHEL: replies quizzically “Why can’t they all be like us and live in
peace?” *Raymond Briggs, Ethel & Ernest. London, Jonathan Cape, 1998.
14
The Golliwog defenders
Authentic Golliwogs are money- spinners for collectors, traders,
auctioneers and investors. Businesses they work hard to protect.
Distorted race images and commerce go together profitably. But in no way exhibit knowledge about Africans and Afro-Caribbeans.
Golliwog collector defends 'racist' museum display
Last updated at 16:53 10 January 2007
A collector of golliwog memorabilia today defended putting his
collection on display at a museum despite concerns that the items are racist.
A part-time maintenance worker, has lent 300 items ranging from badges to a teapot for the exhibition being held at the Westbury Manor
Museum in Fareham, Hants. "They are no longer called golliwogs but golly badges and I think they
are a piece of history. They are also of great interest because lots of people collect them”.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/article-427926/Golliwog-collector-
defends-racist-museum-display.html#ixzz3hssrN7Uh
Golly Dollies are an ideal size and soft material for young-ones to cuddle!
Being individually hand-made they are also completely unique and highly
collectable and would make a perfect present for any doll lover or Golly fan/collector”. http://golliwogg.co.uk/shop.htm
15
Golliwog images have defenders as far away as Australia, according to
the WA News.
WA News, Australia Search
Toodyay woman defends decision to set up golliwog museum
Date May 29, 2014, Aleisha Orr
She said she does not look at the toys as being racist and that she hopes her Golly Emporium can celebrate the positive side of “a loveable
doll”.
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/toodyay-woman-defends-decision-to-set-up-golliwog-museum-20140529-
zrrl0.html#ixzz3hstHZX2C
16
Golly! Victorian caricature “no joke”
This worldwide trade has galvanised critics into action.
British Blacks – Africans and Afro-Caribbeans – are not convinced that Golly is anything more than a
demeaning caricature.
When asked, “What ‘golliwog’ means to me”, three
prominent Black personalities recount their own experiences with “nigger-baiting” on the streets,
school bullying, ignorance and racism
“It was used against me as a child and those saying it certainly weren’t smiling”, said broadcaster and children’s campaigner,
Floella Benjamin.
“Nobody comes up to Black people and says: “Hello golliwog” because
they know what it means, poet Benjamin Zephaniah replied.
“It’s not whether someone intends to be racist”, said parliamentarian Oona King: “it's whether we allow a culture of racism.”
Most Black people feel that exaggerated stereotypes like the golliwog do
not capture the diversity of modern or historical Black experiences.
Representation of Black people is important because such images can shape the views of whites towards them and how Black people see
themselves, say authors of the Oxford Companion to Black British History.
17
The Call for Political Action
Clearly, the pendulum of opinion about golliwogs has swung between the
extremes – love and disgust. On the one hand, the golliwog toy that graces the beds of pink-faced middle class girls is a permanent feature in
every fictional nursery.
Yet, in the more liberal modern environment, teachers, parents and literary critics challenge the portrayal of the exaggerated caricature.
British campaigners targeted Blyton’s The Three Golliwogs (1946) as a prime example.
Indeed, Jamaica Kincaid, writer and critic, condemned the colonial legacy in Blyton’s work as racist; others have found the story-tellers’ works
xenophobic and sexist. In response, public institutions, the BBC, libraries and schools moved toward cautious banning of golliwog works.
Moreover, it is easy to see why the controversy continues. The golliwog is
still a favourite of storytellers and writers. For example, it is the centrepiece of novelist Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Niggers (1939).
http://listverse.com/2007/12/03/top-10-politically-incorrect-kids-books/
Again, strong protests sparked a national debate. In the BBC’s race row,
Lord Ouseley, former head of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), said the BBC and regulatory bodies must break silence on images, actual
or verbal, “offensive to a lot of people, many of whom are not black
themselves”.
Gurbux Singh, a CRE commissioner, joined the criticism. "If something is inappropriate, it has to be publicly said it's inappropriate”.
18
Journalist Michael Eboda, founder of Powerful Media, said the golliwog issue is “something that's occupying the thoughts of quite a few people
across the nation”.
London Assembly member, Labour's Jennette Arnold said: "The
symbolism of the golliwog is colonialist, racist, and harks back to time
when black people were dismissed as slave, servant, and figures of fun”.
All agree: public officials have a legal duty to promote harmony, diversity
and equality. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/feb/08/race-
row-carol-thatcher
19
Golliwogs Controversy can foster
innovative policies
Golliwogs are part of a long heritage journey: From innocent children’s hero to reviled symbol. They evoke fond and glowing childhood memories
of bedroom playthings and mother’s love. However, they are memories that have filtered out the racial connotations
There is a patterned script here. Blyton’s themes in The Three Golliwogs
1946 are familiar in slave-trading and -owning national literatures. For
example, slave-owning America has Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn (1884) and Helen Bannerman’s Little Black Sambo (1899), and Holland
has Black Peter, Santa’s helper.
The golliwog may be benign in British children’s literature as David Rudd suggests in Enid Blyton and the Mystery of Children's Literature (2000).
However, this caricature in a Victorian bedtime story became a racist slur with political implications for race relations.
Nevertheless, there are a range of opportunities to overcome limitations in knowledge and action on racial stereotyping.
Writers, traders and collectors of Golliwog curios must understand that
pandering to prejudice is not good literature nor responsible business. Investing in the emerging multi-racial and cultural markets should be
goal.
Caring families, institutions and the media must accept they are part of
the problem.
Enlightened child development practitioners must learn new skills for social inclusion and equality.
Librarians and archivists – the guardians of knowledge -- should work
dynamically with Black communities and scholars who are imaging, writing and speaking for themselves. http://socialwelfare.bl.uk/subject-
areas/services-activity/community-
development/editionsblair/decolonising13.aspx
Neuro-science communicators can gather empirical evidence to answer some serious questions:
o What are the effects of derogatory materials on modern children,
their Black neighbours, school and work mates?
20
o Do they embed acceptance of differences or foster white-over-Black
attitudes?
o What links exaggerated caricatures of Black people to the ideology
and practice of racial discrimination?
Tackling long-term effects is daunting, but we must as racial stereotypes
pile upon inequality and enmity. This makes it more urgent that government and policies build trust with people of colour in a troubled
multi-racial, diverse cultural Britain.
21
Conclusion
RACIAL EQUALITY MAY BE ON THE HORIZON,
BUT SOCIETY NEEDS A FRESH VIEW OF DEMEANING SYMBOLS
LIKE THE GOLLIWOG
Golly! marks the journey of the innocent children’s hero whites love to a reviled racial stereotype that Blacks despise and officials reject.
Based on the author’s research and personal collection, this eBook reveals
the controversial golliwog themes in history, literature and commerce.
Surveying the defence and opposing views, the author concludes with a
range of opportunities for positive representation of Britain’s Black African and Afro-Caribbean peoples.
22
Thomas L Blair Golliwog
Collection
GOLLY
Thomas L Blair
2015
23
Important Golliwog Tableware &
Caricature Figures From his personal collection
Prof Thomas L Blair regularly offers his selected images of
Blacks in western art and artefacts n select groupings for the
astute collector.
This time around, the scholar based in England, highlights a
select grouping of mid-20th century British Golliwog figures
several of which exhibit quality, condition and rarity.
Over the years, Prof Blair has sold items in the James D Julia
Toy, Doll & Advertising Auction June 2015. He also established
his reputation in the British Library, a world knowledge centre.
This presentation offers pictures, description, size and condition
of the Golliwog figures. For additional details, please contact
Thomas L Blair at Email: [email protected]
24
01. GOLLY MEN WHITE MUG WITH 5 FIGURES STANDING WITH
CRICKET BAT, BALL AND WICKET, in blue jacket, white shirt, yellow
vest, red bow tie, red trousers, black shoes. Bottom has insignia Made
by the Silver Crane Company, tel: 0202 825155. Made under licence
from James Robertson and Sons SIZE: 3 1/2H 3”diameter:
CONDITION: painted pottery composition figure as new
25
02. GOLLY MEN WHITE MUG WITH 5 FIGURES STANDING WITH
RIGHT FOOT ON SOCCER BALL, in blue jacket, white shirt, yellow
vest, red bow tie, red trousers, black shoes. Bottom has insignia Made
by the Silver Crane Company, tel: 0202 825155. Made under licence
from James Robertson and Sons SIZE: 3 1/2H 3”diameter:
CONDITION: painted pottery composition figure as new
26
03. GOLLY 4-slot toast rack, with figure standing at both ends in
costume blue jacket with Golden Shred on left sleeve, white shirt
yellow vest with logo Robertsons Golden Shred, red bow tie, red
trousers, black shoes. Figure is holding a ROBERTSONS jam jar cupped
in left arm. Bottom has signature Designed by J G Morten under licence
from James Robertson and Sons, ©silver crane SIZE: 3.5”H5”W,
CONDITION: painted pottery composition figure as new
27
04. STYLIZED “AUNT JEMIMA” style BUST IN REPOSE, with red
bandana, yellow blouse, edges trimmed in black SIZE 2 1/2“H, 3” wide
CONDITION: painted pottery composition figure as new
28
05. “AUNT JEMIMA” STYLE EXAGGERATED CARICATURE OF COOK, in
red bandana and white apron over dress with white polka dots, with
mixing bowl and spoon. SIZE: 2 ½”H. CONDITION: painted pottery
composition figure as new
29
06. SITTING GOLLY-STYLE DOLL exaggerated caricature, with polka dot
white on red dress, red shoes, red bow top front of head SIZE: 2 ¾
HT, 2 ½ CONDITION: painted pottery composition figure as new
30
07. GOLLY COFFEE POT WITH FIGURE STANDING ON BOTH SIDES
IN blue jacket, white shirt, yellow vest, red bow tie, red trousers, black
shoes, has black/blue spout and blue arm handle. Bottom has
Designed by J G Morten under licence from James Robertson and Sons
©silver crane. Size: 8 ¼”H 3”W. CONDITION: painted pottery
composition figure as new
31
08. GOLLY FIGURE SEATED AT GRAND PIANO KEYBOARD. In black,
no dress colours. SIZE: 3 ¼”H top of figure. CONDITION: painted
pottery composition figure as new
32
09. GOLLIWOG-Style WAITER IN ORANGE AND YELLOW
TRIMMINGS UNIFORM, serving coffee with cup and saucer in left
hand and towel on right arm, black shoes. No logo. SIZE 7 3/4”H 5
½”W CONDITION: painted pottery composition figure as new
33
010. GOLLY IN BLUE AND RED TROUSERS PLAYING BASS (yellow
with trimmings) with name Robertson on the plinth bottom front. SIZE:
2 ¾”H 1 ¼”W. CONDITION: painted pottery composition figure as new
34
011. AUNT JEMIMA STYLE COOK EXAGGERATED CARICATURE, WHITE
TIED BANDANA, white collar over polka dot dress, and apron tied in a bow in
back, and mixing spoon in left hand. SIZE 5”H 2 ½”W. CONDITION: Good,
different from other figures, painted pottery composition figure, scuffs, lightly
worn, no logo