The owners of the White Hart Inn in Essex have had a collection of golliwog dolls confiscated by the police, but are they racists or victims of woke enforcement?
I still have my gollywogs from my own childhood. Let us examine in detail the appearance and character of the Gollywog (who has changed very little since he was first introduced) . He is a black man, not African, but probably from The West Indies or the Southern States of America. Yes, he has frizzy hair and usually pearl buttons for eyes, or painted ones, this was a toy for little children and buttons or paint were safer than the glass eyes that were used in animal toys. He is very definitely human and realistic . His blue coat was a tail coat of formal English Evening Dress. He wore white gloves, a white shirt and usually bright orange trousers with yellow shoes. He was quite obviously a 'Jazz Man', a musician in a Jazz band.. There was a strict hierarchy in children's nurseries in middle and upper class homes in England. Mr, Golly was the 'boss', the 'manager' and disciplinarian of all the personality toys. He was sensible and wise as well as clever. The Teddy Bear was very beloved but rather dim. There was a Porcelain adult doll (if your family were wealthy she would have been a French Jumeau, but more likely was a French Armande Marseille. She was grown up and fashionable. There was a white baby doll and a black baby doll. These two were the most played with, their clothes washed and ironed and generally cared for by their human 'mothers'. There was , very often a sailor doll, he was always a bit of a rogue owing to his unreliability and travelling nature. These were The Lords of the Nursery that we meet in A.A. Milnes stories. Of course there were other nursery people and animals that we enjoyed as innocent children. Unfortunately Mr. Golly has now been used by cynical and unpleasant people as an icon of hate...by the despicable people who see evil in the most innocent children's friends but glory in the destruction of a simple culture and the perversion of goodness. We have destroyed an urbane and gentlemanly Jazz musician and replaced him with Drag artistes showing their private parts to little children.
A very thoughtful piece, thank you.
I still have my gollywogs from my own childhood. Let us examine in detail the appearance and character of the Gollywog (who has changed very little since he was first introduced) . He is a black man, not African, but probably from The West Indies or the Southern States of America. Yes, he has frizzy hair and usually pearl buttons for eyes, or painted ones, this was a toy for little children and buttons or paint were safer than the glass eyes that were used in animal toys. He is very definitely human and realistic . His blue coat was a tail coat of formal English Evening Dress. He wore white gloves, a white shirt and usually bright orange trousers with yellow shoes. He was quite obviously a 'Jazz Man', a musician in a Jazz band.. There was a strict hierarchy in children's nurseries in middle and upper class homes in England. Mr, Golly was the 'boss', the 'manager' and disciplinarian of all the personality toys. He was sensible and wise as well as clever. The Teddy Bear was very beloved but rather dim. There was a Porcelain adult doll (if your family were wealthy she would have been a French Jumeau, but more likely was a French Armande Marseille. She was grown up and fashionable. There was a white baby doll and a black baby doll. These two were the most played with, their clothes washed and ironed and generally cared for by their human 'mothers'. There was , very often a sailor doll, he was always a bit of a rogue owing to his unreliability and travelling nature. These were The Lords of the Nursery that we meet in A.A. Milnes stories. Of course there were other nursery people and animals that we enjoyed as innocent children. Unfortunately Mr. Golly has now been used by cynical and unpleasant people as an icon of hate...by the despicable people who see evil in the most innocent children's friends but glory in the destruction of a simple culture and the perversion of goodness. We have destroyed an urbane and gentlemanly Jazz musician and replaced him with Drag artistes showing their private parts to little children.