Gibber
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Days Won
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Look out Darwin http://bigthink.com/devil-in-the-data/the-trouble-with-darwin
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Northlink?
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Rivlins reacted to a post in a topic:
Trouble with Einstein
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caco@live.co.uk reacted to a post in a topic:
homophobia
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Clooty Cap reacted to a post in a topic:
Gollywogs - is this guy for real?.
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Speccy reacted to a post in a topic:
Gollywogs - is this guy for real?.
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Not long I would think, because there will always be some people who think that the colour of something can cause offence.
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- lemm sissay
- gollywog
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And yet, I find myself wondering why some folk don't. So gollywog has taken on an offensive element (for some reason) not present in the initial object. If that were the case then I would say an object with that name can take on the new offensive connotations of the language used to name it. Especially in this case where the doll is a caricature of a black man and the name gollywog is an insult directed at black people.
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But can you explain it anyway?
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But why on top of a black person you're using as a table. Can't you see that looks bad?
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A gollywog is a caricature of a black person. Calling a black person a gollywog is ascribing this caricature verbally. If the gollywog doll isn't offensive then calling a black person the name gollywog isn't offensive, right? If anything all the innocent positive childhood nostalgia I keep hearing being subjectively attached to these dolls would be conveyed verbally and it would be a compliment of the highest order. If I'm twisting the point then explain the differnce between the doll and the name of the doll. If you can I'll gladly give it a rest.
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So wog is an offensive term for a black person (even if the meaning has changed as meanings of words often do) and calling a black person a wog would be bad. Would calling a black person a gollywog be bad? Would calling a black person a gollynig**r be bad?
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So why are you assuming it means Afro Caribbean people now? Nobody has mentioned any connection between wog and afro caribbean as yet. Could it be you do know that this is a derogatory term for dark skinned people and are just pretending it has another less offensive usage?
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Does he know what a wog is?
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I take issue with those arguing that all historical negative racial connotations associated with an object don't actually exist. That's the core issue for me and it isn't necessarily discriminatory to argue the point that these symbols aren't attached. In the case of gollywogs on sale I would criticise the selling of a racist symbol more than the way somebody complained about it (within reason of course). If like Madmandy you don't see how dolls can ever have any negative racial connotations then the defence of a local Isles shopkeeper from a 'coloured' man from the mainland, deluded enough to think that gollywogs are offensive due to the racist connotations that historians, many lay-people and the BNP mistakenly attribute to them, would be paramount.
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Its the usual bit of business which to me expresses the aforesaid insular and defensive attitude.
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Evil Inky reacted to a post in a topic:
Gollywogs - is this guy for real?.
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From as's account the original complainant was 'threatened' more by the abusive reactions of Shetlanders living up to their stereotype. Your ire here is a case in point that when these stereotypes are arguably true, you can't recognise as such and laugh at yourself but become more defensive and insular. with attitude of 'what right does he have to come up here and tell us what we can and can't sell in our shops?' He has that right of complaint just as Mrs Leask has the right to sell dolls loaded with racist symbology. Not being 'fae Shetland' or, of course, not being white doesn't deny him that right.
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- lemm sissay
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as reacted to a post in a topic:
Gollywogs - is this guy for real?.
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Perhaps we should abandon Trout's tasteful, inclusive, nuanced and subtle Swiftian satire and instead have an Up Helly AA skit where a crowd of gap toothed carrot crunching barefoot hick yokels in Fair Isle jumpers stare baffled and confused at a well dressed black person reading The Financial Times. The payoff being that when the stereotype islanders finally get over the miracle of the printed word and the 'funny coloured uncan man', the black person knowingly asides to the audience in a broad Shetland accent, 'whit's wrang wee dis folk, dere no right'
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- lemm sissay
- gollywog
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Are you saying you are aware of the racist connotations of golliwogs?