In the light of the Carol Thatcher Gollywog tennis player debate, which seems to have had far too much TV and radio air time, I wonder whether John Bartram feels the TV presenter (and daughter of Satan) has been unfairly treated by the BBC. You may remember that Bartram, owner of Tonbridge High Street shop, Allsorts, raised a similar debate on a local level when he sold the Golly Dolls and refused to take them out of his shop window after a young lady of colour had complained about them saying that she found them offensive. He preferred instead to pose for the Courier grinning in a close up photo with the un-pc doll of colour and thence to milk the situation for all the publicity he could get....
7 comments:
I am going to hide my Robertson's golliwog badges that I carefully collected when I was a child by eating masses of strawberry jam. I think I'll hide them in the depth of some dark corner in case someone actually makes the mistake and thinks I have racist tendancies. However I agree it can cause conflict and this is something we should as human beings avoid if we wish to live in harmony. I am not too sure Noddy and Big Ears are quite PC either.
What about PC Plod and Mr Tubby Bear?
Whilst on the subject of books from childhood does anyone remember the name of the group of people who lived on a certain tropical island in the Rupert Bear annuals?
Why don't just make them have green faces, would save all the problems.
There's far worse examples than Noddy. Florence Upton's "Golliwog" series of illustrated books are highly sought after and, I kid you not, the "Little Black Sambo" books are virtually unobtainable, often worth hundreds of pounds each! I do think however that that is somewhat different to the blatant disregard of modern feelings on the whole subject of race that the continued production of Golly Dolls causes. Collectable is one thing but reinforcing such attitudes with producing and selling new ones is unnecessary. I'm not sure I'd go as far as banning them though, but certainly discouraging them. Perhaps a racial discrimination toy tax?!..
Oi watch it "petrolstationvillage"
Ive got a green face !
No but seriously ....
I think it's a big fuss about nothing ... If I (and I) were black, which I am not, I hope that something so trivial would not upset me !
We have to respect each other's feelings. If something offends then why not remove it? I hated the defiant flannel that Bartram trotted out, it was remarkable that his shop window remained intact.
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