Gollywogs - is this guy for real?.

[Colin]

 

Fellow comes up from Sooth and points out (in perhaps not the most tactful way) that he finds it racist. Bunch of white people tell him he's wrong. C'mon now, is this the image of Shetland you really want to give to the world? 

A fellow come up from south and points out that he finds it (gollywogs) racist and a whole buch of locals tell him he's wrong.

 

Should we all fall to our knees and beg foriveness for having the temerity to question the man's opinion and methods or, as appears to have happened, should we tell him to go get himself a life?

 

Now,  just what kind of image do YOU think that Shetland should give to the world?

[shetlandpeat]

There has been no real attempt to tackle the race side, plenty on how he went about it. Telling him he is mistaken about the way he feels.

[Ghostrider]

There's nothing that says that Shetlanders don't have a problem with racism like black face on Up Helly Aa, and Gollywogs in shop windows. It's like you're living with no concept of contemporary cultural mores.

 

Ha! Just wait until the end of January, there'll be at least one squad gotten their act out of this one.

 

As for contemporary cultural mores, how about a little perspective. This is one little rather out of the way shop selling curios and nicknacks as far as I understand it, there are few coloured folk in Shetland, and there are few coloured visitors to Shetland, neither of whom have voiced any particular problem about the shop's stock as far as I am aware. If golliwogs were as racist as a very vocal few are trying to make everyone believe, I find it hard to believe that at least one or two resident coloured people wouldn't have taken the matter up with the owner a long time ago, and I find it equally hard to believe that had the owner been approached quietly and politely by anyone with a genuine issue with seeing golliwogs displayed in the shop, and discussed the matter calmly and rationally with them, that they would not at least have reconsidered the wisdom of continuing the stock line.

 

As it is (as the public has been given the story anyway) this complainer stood in the shop and pretended to be "friendly" with the owner, while spinning the biggest pack of lies he could come up with to elicit as much information as he could, then when he'd put a bit of distance between himself and the place and people promptly stabbed the owner in the back calling her all sorts under the sun.

 

The shop owner has a small display of items, in a shop which I understand by definition of its stock is likely to be all of the weird, wonderful, unusual and possibly questionable nature, which may possibly "offend a few of a certain race", the guy complaining about it is a cowardly, lying, cheating, two-faced, back-stabbing, fly by night, con man, yet the shop owner is the big villain and the complainer is the "hero". Gerrouttahere.

[Ghostrider]

There has been no real attempt to tackle the race side, plenty on how he went about it. Telling him he is mistaken about the way he feels.

 

He can feel anything he likes, the fact is he was passing through for less than five minutes, so his feelings are rather irrelevant. If he was offended enough not to come back, I think we'll manage to live quite happily and without deprivation not to enjoy his presence here again. Especially as just about no-one I've spoken to knew he was coming, let alone that he'd been.

 

Coloured people have been resident in Shetland as long as that shop has had that stock, and he's by no means the first coloured person to pass through here since that shop has had that stock either, yet he is the first coloured person to make a fuss about it. The only conclusion that can be reached from that evidence is that coloured people who are offended to any significant degree by golliwogs are few and far between, and quite frankly, if those who are are in any way of character like this one, we can well do without both them and their extremist opinions.

[trout]

I think we'll leave name calling and the like to less educated electronic mediums and those that frequent such don't you all think? Even if such contains the fruits of everyone's current bile. Let's rise above.

 

[birses even harder on the community self moderation button]

[JohanofNess]

Fellow comes up from Sooth and points out (in perhaps not the most tactful way) that he finds it racist. Bunch of white people tell him he's wrong. C'mon now, is this the image of Shetland you really want to give to the world? 

 

I don't think everyone is saying that he's wrong, think the issue most folk have is the way he has behaved with Thelma Leask while he visited then how he portrayed her on his blog.

 

Had the exchange in the shop gone as follows

 

Mr Sissay "those dolls are racist"

Mrs Leask "I don't agree"

Mr Sissay "You're an old racist who looks like Marlon Brando"

Mrs Leask "Get out of my shop"

 

Then everyone would have been able to say ok fair enough the guy thinks the dolls are racist and he's insulted her to her face, then his blog would have made a lot more sense. Reading the blog with all the photos and his version of events seems odd though, do people not think that if he had exchanged views with her in the way he described her that she would have had more to say.

 

For what it's worth I can see why he finds them offensive, personally I don't agree that they are intended to be racist and I don't think Thelma Leask is a racist just by having them in her shop. I would say that she probably won't stock them anymore which may be for the best if she is going to get other people coming past now to give her grief about it, she is after all a 70 year old woman who just wants to run a shop not become a focal point for racial tension.

[trowie246]

Didn't he describe the shopkeeper as a bitter OLD shetland woman? or words to that effect? Isn't that ageist? Should he not have used the word elderly or better still not refered to her age at all? He might be offended by the dolls she sells in her shop but has any one asked the shopkeeper how she felt about all the nasty things he called her and worst of the lot, how he called her a racist? In my opinion there is a big difference between selling a doll in a shop and being racist,  the doll may have originally have had racist connotations but I think by the response to Lemn Sissay's blog and elsewhere people are wondering about the relevance of it today decades later.

 

If the doll itself was promoting racism I could understand Mr Sissay's views but there is no evidence that is the case.  If we all thought like Mr Sissay there would be no such thing as the Olympic games because it would have been banned.

 

 

[paulb]

weird im tempted to go and buy one. just a reminder amazon sell them. so she is not a hangover from a distant past its a doll. now a kkk teddy would be offensive. 

[owre-weel]

There's nothing that says that Shetlanders don't have a problem with racism like black face on Up Helly Aa, and Gollywogs in shop windows. It's like you're living with no concept of contemporary cultural mores.

 

Maybe a good example might be the swastika - to many Asian cultures it has a positive connotation, but in the West it reminds people of Nazism. Well, similarly, you auldjins may have good memories of your Golliwog dolls, but to contemporary culture it translates to a rather distasteful relic of the past that now seems a bit racist.

 

Fellow comes up from Sooth and points out (in perhaps not the most tactful way) that he finds it racist. Bunch of white people tell him he's wrong. C'mon now, is this the image of Shetland you really want to give to the world?

 

Weel hae less o da auldjins (-: The problem I see with your post is the term "Shetlanders" you are suggesting all are the same, with the same views and opinions. It also suggests that all replies are from Shetlanders. I think you might find a lot of the veiws posted are from people not born on these islands.

 

My own previous post, for one, did not say Mr Sissays view were wrong, just that they differ to mine. But perhaps as a Shetlander my veiws don't count and I should bow to the superior view of someone visiting the isle from the big smoke, who clearly went around his intentions in an underhand manner, name calling and being abusive. Now maybe if he had an adult conversation he may have got a bit more interest in his opinions.

 

Your attempt to suggest that Shetlanders are racist says more about you than it does Shetlanders. Don't brand a whole community because you disagree with the actions of a few.

[trout]

Now there's a skit for Up Helly Aa!!

 

Squad in Fair-Isle KKK suits chasing a man sized gollywog golly with a man-sized magpie fluttering about before setting loww to golly in the magpies nest as the ending turn. Might even have a Lemn Sissay character overseeing the proceedings.

 

You heard it here first

[JohanofNess]

Christ how can anyone do it now, the shock value is gone

[bruckbox]

This post will probable run and run, but an old saying comes to mind. Sticks and stones can brake my bones but words will never hurt me. Can we no just forget that a bit of a poet from the mainland thought he could get some free publicity and by god he needs it, Has any of you read or heard his poetry. Now this is my personal opinion nobody elses ITS sharn.. Now that's me probable in it as well..

[FinnBlack]

 

 

Fellow comes up from Sooth and points out (in perhaps not the most tactful way) that he finds it racist. Bunch of white people tell him he's wrong. C'mon now, is this the image of Shetland you really want to give to the world? 

A fellow come up from south and points out that he finds it (gollywogs) racist and a whole buch of locals tell him he's wrong.

 

Should we all fall to our knees and beg foriveness for having the temerity to question the man's opinion and methods or, as appears to have happened, should we tell him to go get himself a life?

 

Now,  just what kind of image do YOU think that Shetland should give to the world?

 

 

I think that Shetlanders are among some of the most friendly helpful folk I have met. That there are a lot of people who came from other cultures who have genuinely made a place for themselves here. But I don't feel that they have the same freedom of expression as 'native' Shetlanders. 

 

 

There has been no real attempt to tackle the race side, plenty on how he went about it. Telling him he is mistaken about the way he feels.

 

He can feel anything he likes, the fact is he was passing through for less than five minutes, so his feelings are rather irrelevant. If he was offended enough not to come back, I think we'll manage to live quite happily and without deprivation not to enjoy his presence here again. Especially as just about no-one I've spoken to knew he was coming, let alone that he'd been.

 

Coloured people have been resident in Shetland as long as that shop has had that stock, and he's by no means the first coloured person to pass through here since that shop has had that stock either, yet he is the first coloured person to make a fuss about it. The only conclusion that can be reached from that evidence is that coloured people who are offended to any significant degree by golliwogs are few and far between, and quite frankly, if those who are are in any way of character like this one, we can well do without both them and their extremist opinions.

 

 

I think that if you're part of a minority in a small community you're unlikely to start pointing out things that make you uncomfortable. I've seen it happen- folk laughing and playing along with racist comments so they don't isolate themselves, so they 'fit in'. I think it's wrong that they feel like they have to do that. But I can understand why the folk that live here might not want to make a big deal about it. 

 

Sometimes it takes someone from outside a community to point out problematic aspects. I'm not saying that Lem went about it in the best way, but I still think the general point is valid.

 

 

There's nothing that says that Shetlanders don't have a problem with racism like black face on Up Helly Aa, and Gollywogs in shop windows. It's like you're living with no concept of contemporary cultural mores.

 

Maybe a good example might be the swastika - to many Asian cultures it has a positive connotation, but in the West it reminds people of Nazism. Well, similarly, you auldjins may have good memories of your Golliwog dolls, but to contemporary culture it translates to a rather distasteful relic of the past that now seems a bit racist.

 

Fellow comes up from Sooth and points out (in perhaps not the most tactful way) that he finds it racist. Bunch of white people tell him he's wrong. C'mon now, is this the image of Shetland you really want to give to the world?

Weel hae less o da auldjins (-: The problem I see with your post is the term "Shetlanders" you are suggesting all are the same, with the same views and opinions. It also suggests that all replies are from Shetlanders. I think you might find a lot of the veiws posted are from people not born on these islands.

 

My own previous post, for one, did not say Mr Sissays view were wrong, just that they differ to mine. But perhaps as a Shetlander my veiws don't count and I should bow to the superior view of someone visiting the isle from the big smoke, who clearly went around his intentions in an underhand manner, name calling and being abusive. Now maybe if he had an adult conversation he may have got a bit more interest in his opinions.

 

Your attempt to suggest that Shetlanders are racist says more about you than it does Shetlanders. Don't brand a whole community because you disagree with the actions of a few.

 

 

 

Branding whole communities with the actions of a few- that will definitely happen. It happens all the time, just look at how Islam is viewed through the lens of extremism, when it's only a tiny percentage of the followers of that religion that do that. If you want to make your island's money from tourism, then these are things that are worth considering. Hell, if I didn't think Shetlanders weren't awesome, I wouldn't live here, but I hate people getting the wrong impression.

 

I've had visitors up from Sooth (both friends and family) and taken them for a walk along the street. When they point out the Golliwogs in the shop, I'm embarrassed. Embarrassed that I have to explain that Shetlanders aren't mad racists, they just have a couple of wee things they can't really see in a wider context. Like the blackface- I don't think that the people who do it are being overtly racist, it's just that to someone who has come from a place with a history of oppression may view it that way. 

 

That we live in a world with a lot of people, and it's not always 'political correctness', it's simply 'not being a thoughtless a$$h.le.'

[owre-weel]

You say that branding whole communities will definitely happen, as thought this is acceptable. The point is that it shouldn't. To suggest it happens elsewhere doesn't excuse the fact that it is a form of racism in itself. But I suppose we can pick and chose what we see as acceptable and question everyone else.

 

Interestingly, I've had many friends and relatives up from the mainland this year, all of who have been through the sooth end o da street. Not one made any comment about shops selling Gollys.

 

Its a pity us Shetlanders have a couple of wee things that we can't see the wider context off, perhaps were all not as clever as you, or maybe that's what makes us awesome

[FinnBlack]

Interestingly, I've had many friends and relatives up from the mainland this year, all of who have been through the sooth end o da street. Not one made any comment about shops selling Gollys.

 

Four times for me in the last eighteen months. I didn't even pause, they stopped me 

 

 

Its a pity us Shetlanders have a couple of wee things that we can't see the wider context off, perhaps were all not as clever as you, or maybe that's what makes us awesome 

 

You're awesome because you're so friendly, helpful and interesting. As well as good looking, eh owre-weel?