GOLLY!
Children’s hero or racist symbol Childrens’ hero
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GOLLY! Children’s hero or racist symbol
Thomas L Blair
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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”
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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.
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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
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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.
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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/
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In England, Bournemouth officials banned a golliwog trader for fear of offending locals and foreign students.
23 September 2011 by Anna Edwards
Offensive: The trader had planned to teach people about the cultural history behind the dolls Bournemouth officials firmly supported the ban. Reported in the Mail Banned: Enid Blyton fan Viv Endecott told she cannot sell her Online, the council's arts development officer said the local authority golliwogs at the fair because of their racist connotations could not be associated with something that might be seen as racist. The classic toys could cause offence to overseas students and spark 'public order problems.' 'It is widely accepted in modern society that golliwogs are acknowledged Pasted from
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/
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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 .
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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.
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
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The Golliwog defenders
Authentic Golliwogs are money- spinners for collectors, traders, auctioneers and investors. Businesses they work hard to protect.
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
Distorted race images and commerce go together profitably. But in no way exhibit knowledge about Africans and Afro-Caribbeans.
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
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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
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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.
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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”.
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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
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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?
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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.
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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.
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Thomas L Blair Golliwog Collection
GOLLY
Thomas L Blair 2015
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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]
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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