Racial Harrassment with a Golly doll

[jonty]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-15429369

Very little 'meat' in the story, so I'm still thinking 'wtf'
Is it polical correctness gone wrong?


Racial harassment charges have been dropped against a
Suffolk woman whose neighbour complained about a golly doll in her window.

Jena Mason, 65, of College Lane, Worlingham, was arrested after a neighbour
complained to police.

Mrs Mason had denied displaying an item likely to cause racially-aggravated
harassment at an earlier hearing in Lowestoft Magistrates' Court.

The case against her was dropped after the CPS offered no evidence.

Mrs Mason was questioned after her black neighbour Rosemarie O'Donnell
complained to police about the doll.

Mrs O'Donnell claimed it had caused offence to her family.

Surely there's more background to it than simply putting a doll on the window sill.

[yeezus.]

There's no need to put the doll in the window in the first place is there? That woman knew what she was doing when she put it there - more than likely to try and stir up racial tensions.

Then she can sell her sad story to the Daily Mail and people can complain about "political correctness gone mad"

[Sylar]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-15429369

Very little 'meat' in the story, so I'm still thinking 'wtf'
Is it polical correctness gone wrong?


Surely there's more background to it than simply putting a doll on the window sill.

I think there was a bit of a history between the 2 parties of poor neighbourly relations (from memory of reading an article on the story a while back)

The accused had claimed she was tidying up after her grandchildren (or something to that effect) had been staying over and mindlessly left it in the window.

[--------]

Is owning or manufacturing a doll with Afro-Caribbean features more or less racist than owning or manufacturing exclusively Caucasian-featured dolls?

Is a doll with Afro-Caribbean features a racist artefact in itself, or does one have to take the owner's motivation for owning it into account?

Is it OK for someone who is themselves Afro-Caribbean to own such a doll?

Would a person of Caucasian background be in trouble if he or she owned such a doll?

Can I still spread Robertson's marmalade on my toast?



These sorts of questions are why I stick to teddy-bears. :greengrin

[Caversham Green]

Is owning or manufacturing a doll with Afro-Caribbean features more or less racist than owning or manufacturing exclusively Caucasian-featured dolls?

Is a doll with Afro-Caribbean features a racist artefact in itself, or does one have to take the owner's motivation for owning it into account?

Is it OK for someone who is themselves Afro-Caribbean to own such a doll?

Would a person of Caucasian background be in trouble if he or she owned such a doll?

Can I still spread Robertson's marmalade on my toast?



These sorts of questions are why I stick to teddy-bears. :greengrin

It's probably the marmalade that does that.

[Dashing Bob S]

In had a Golly and I loved him. His name was 'Golly'. But I wouldn't have my kids having one - we (hopefully) grow up and move on.

[--------]

It's probably the marmalade that does that.


:faf:

[RyeSloan]

In had a Golly and I loved him. His name was 'Golly'. But I wouldn't have my kids having one - we (hopefully) grow up and move on.

Apart from the previous full version of the name these dolls had can someone enlighten me as to why they are still considered racist...is it simply their past name or is something about them that is racist? Can an inanimate object be 'racist'?

I'm a bit confused as to how putting a a doll in a window can be a racist act (or even possibly considered as one) or indeed how a whole family can take offence at a doll but maybe thats simply my ignorance as to just how offensive a gollydoll can actually be...

[hibsbollah]

I hate political correctness. We cant even call ethnics 'silvery moons' anymore.

[jonty]

There's no need to put the doll in the window in the first place is there? That woman knew what she was doing when she put it there - more than likely to try and stir up racial tensions.

Then she can sell her sad story to the Daily Mail and people can complain about "political correctness gone mad"

So what if she has a doll on her window sill.
Even if there is previous, it's only a friggin doll on a window - not a banner hung across the house.

So we're now in a country where we can complain about what items people have in their own home?

It should never have got as far as it did.

Worlds gone barmy.

[yeezus.]

So what if she has a doll on her window sill.
Even if there is previous, it's only a friggin doll on a window - not a banner hung across the house.

So we're now in a country where we can complain about what items people have in their own home?

It should never have got as far as it did.

Worlds gone barmy.

I'm just saying that if the doll was in the window by chance then fine. But knowing some of the right wing nutters down south, it wouldn't surprise me if some put things like that in the window to try and provoke a reaction.

World hasn't gone barmy, we've become more tolerant.

[steakbake]

bet there's folk who go about being borderline racist, just so they can provoke a reaction then complain about the tyranny of political correctness!

[joe breezy]

They are reminiscent of the days when black people were viewed as savages or at best okay singers but oversexed and inferior to whites.

In saying that Russ Abbot's See You Jimmy hats are racist yet we lap it up and end up wearing the bloody things...

[Hibrandenburg]

My English neighbour hangs a sweaty sock on his laundry line. Blatant provocation if you ask me.

[jonty]

I'm just saying that if the doll was in the window by chance then fine. But knowing some of the right wing nutters down south, it wouldn't surprise me if some put things like that in the window to try and provoke a reaction.

World hasn't gone barmy, we've become more tolerant.

wouldnt surprise me at all if she's petty minded enough to put it there to goad a reaction. However I didnt realise that adult women were worse than school kids.
I dont think we've become more tolerant. We've become more accepting of peoples beliefs and trying to accomodate them all.

And thanks to the 'sueing' culture we've now got people who will complain and take action about the smallest thing.

Sad state of affairs really.

[Phil D. Rolls]

Golliwog dolls exaggerate the features of some black people in a "comic" manner. They come from a time when black people were viewed almost as another species. If black people are offended by them they are racist.

Like others I think there is a lot more to this story. I bet the woman doesn't even own a cat.

[--------]

They are reminiscent of the days when black people were viewed as savages or at best okay singers but oversexed and inferior to whites.

In saying that Russ Abbot's See You Jimmy hats are racist yet we lap it up and end up wearing the bloody things...



The Gollywog relates back to black-face singers and dancers commonly called '****** minstrels', the most famous of whom was Al Jolson (a 'white' Jew posing as an African American - go figure). When I was young the BBC had a very popular song-and-dance show "The Black and White Minstrels" with the men all in blackface and the women in showgirl costume showing lots of leg. You could say that that was just good clean fun, but it was pretty dire and I can fully understand why they had to take it off the air.

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/menu.htm
(http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/menu.htm)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golliwogg

I completely agree about the See You Jimmy thing - Abbot was a (very unfunny) English 'comedian' who targeted an ethnic minority with material that made that minority out to be stupid, drunk and boorish.

If Scots had had any sense of self-respect, we would have dismembered the guy. Instead the Tartan Army all started wearing the gear and perpetuated a caricature of themselves and Scots generally. My, how we laughed!

But then, we can hardly complain when we do it to ourselves....

[yeezus.]

wouldnt surprise me at all if she's petty minded enough to put it there to goad a reaction. However I didnt realise that adult women were worse than school kids.
I dont think we've become more tolerant. We've become more accepting of peoples beliefs and trying to accomodate them all.

And thanks to the 'sueing' culture we've now got people who will complain and take action about the smallest thing.

Sad state of affairs really.

Well if that's the case, I'm sick of accommodating the beliefs of the far right Christian nut cases who refuse to recognise homosexuals as humans. There is an anti-black, Islamophobic bias in the media today.

This story isn't really "news" is it? It's just a bulls*** story to get people to go "BLOODY BLACKS" etc. This story shouldn't even be on the news, it's not important.

Maybe the BBC should report in the muslims getting pasted in Iraq and Afghanistan by British and American forces.

[Dinkydoo]

This story isn't really "news" is it? It's just a bulls*** story to get people to go "BLOODY BLACKS" etc. This story shouldn't even be on the news, it's not important.


I think you're heading off down the wrong avenue with this statement. I'd imagine that the media ( I've forgotten what news paper this article is from) is trying to pander to the PC gone mad mob; rather than having an underlying racist agenda, as insinuated in your post.

[--------]

Well if that's the case, I'm sick of accommodating the beliefs of the far right Christian nut cases who refuse to recognise homosexuals as humans. There is an anti-black, Islamophobic bias in the media today.

This story isn't really "news" is it? It's just a bulls*** story to get people to go "BLOODY BLACKS" etc. This story shouldn't even be on the news, it's not important.

Maybe the BBC should report in the muslims getting pasted in Iraq and Afghanistan by British and American forces.


How about the churches that have been burned and the Christians attacked and killed in Egypt by Muslims? Or the ongoing persecution of people all over the Islamic world (Christians and those of other faiths) simply because they don't go along with the dominant culture?

As far as I can see certain areas of the media are bending over backwards to present Islam and British/European Muslim pressure groups in a more than favourable light.

[Phil D. Rolls]

I think you're heading off down the wrong avenue with this statement. I'd imagine that the media ( I've forgotten what news paper this article is from) is trying to pander to the PC gone mad mob; rather than having an underlying racist agenda, as insinuated in your post.

My experience is that scratch at the surface of the PC gone mad brigade, and you reveal a latent racist wanting to hark back to an age when it was OK to call black people Sambo. "It went on when we were kids, and it never did anybody harm" etc.

Except for the ones on here, of course who usually make well constructed arguments about how certain people have a PC agenda that keeps them in jobs. I amn't being sarcastic here, because there are some nutters who know all the rules but don't know what they mean, and don't help anybody.

[Dinkydoo]

My experience is that scratch at the surface of the PC gone mad brigade, and you reveal a latent racist wanting to hark back to an age when it was OK to call black people Sambo. "It went on when we were kids, and it never did anybody harm" etc.

Except for the ones on here, of course who usually make well constructed arguments about how certain people have a PC agenda that keeps them in jobs. I amn't being sarcastic here, because there are some nutters who know all the rules but don't know what they mean, and don't help anybody.

I agree.

I digress;

I had a recent, brief but slightly heated discussion, with a person (one who quite frequently complains 'in jest' about how "the world has gone mad" when discussions about tolerance and equality arise) who apparently had, "literally had enough with Britain's policy on immigration".

I proceeded to ask them what thier issue was with the law on immigration - although my knowledge on the subject matter is minimal, I was confident of being able to answer any response they had. Imagine my surprise when they ignored the question and started rambling on about how their friend down south "couldn't get a job because of all the blacks"....... At this point I couldn't be bothered anymore and said "Well, if your friend was any good at her job then she probably wouldn't have as much trouble in finding another one - competition for work includes all races."

My remark about their friend may not have been entirely true but I was a bit pissed off by this point.

[Lucius Apuleius]

Golly, Sambo. Two of the commonest surnames in Nigeria.

[Lucius Apuleius]

Golly, Sambo. Two of the commonest surnames in Nigeria.

[One Day Soon]

It is a great pity that neither of the two parties invovled had the christian name of Molly.

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

Doddie, I don't remember seeing many Scotland fans wearing "Jimmy" hats at Scotland games I've been at, I cannae stand them either!

[--------]

Doddie, I don't remember seeing many Scotland fans wearing "Jimmy" hats at Scotland games I've been at, I cannae stand them either!


I was thinking of a few years ago, right enough. Glad to hear they're falling out of favour.

It's like Nelson Mandela coming on a state visit and bringing out a banjo and singing "Camptown Races" or "Mammy".