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Golliwog Type Dolls on Sale

Submitted by Cassy It was Easter Holiday so I took the opportunity to take my children around Barbados, not only cultural events and historical places but also to listen to some political views of the Caribbean people. It was at the Barbados museum bookshop while buying some books that one of my children asked me…

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Submitted by Cassy
Golliwog doll
Golliwog doll

It was Easter Holiday so I took the opportunity to take my children around Barbados, not only cultural events and historical places but also to listen to some political views of the Caribbean people.

It was at the Barbados museum bookshop while buying some books that one of my children asked me if it was still legal to sell golliwog type dolls. My reply was that it was in Barbados because clearly those type of dolls are right there for sale next to the books on Slavery and the effects of the slave trade.

A week later and my children are still upset that those dolls are for sale with  ” Barbados” printed on the front.

The sales lady too said that it upsets her to sell them but the white tourist love to buy them so in that case the dolls bring in money.

Anywhere else and there would have been an outcry!

203 responses to “Golliwog Type Dolls on Sale”

  1. ac Avatar
    ac

    oh..my god can,t belive that im this day and a new age where information can be retrieved at the drop of a hat that anyone… anyone would be so blindef and ignorance of the hidden truths surrounding golliwog….i am indeed flabbergasted and preturbed that intelligent people would defend this outrageous character and use a principle of laying charges against black out of chpice or preferance to buying a white doll

  2. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    AC the golliwog was the mascot of Robertson jam right up till I think 2000, trust me I didn’t even know what it was but I guess people can make anything racist if they want to. The Chinese are upset that yellow canaries are used in mines and not blue ones.

  3. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    Lawson………i bet you that was an inside joke at Roberson jam….lol

  4. Timbuktu Avatar
    Timbuktu

    I don’t know for certain but I bet if a proper investigation into its history was done it may reveal that the golliwog dolls was actually something that was made by slaves for their children given the absence of the ‘nicer’ dolls which white children on the plantation had to play with.

  5. Timbuktu Avatar
    Timbuktu

    It maybe that its ‘crudeness’ was not the result of racial mocking but simple do the lack of availability of material to make such a ‘beautiful’ thing as a doll.

  6. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    lawson | April 25, 2014 at 12:34 PM |

    Well Well the reason is I don’t let how the brits treated my ancestors get in the way of living or business ,….. reparations….. you were given an island ….nationalize it ….divide up the spoils….who cares ….just please take some accountability for your own misfortune

    Lawson…….what are you blaming me for?? I am not the one depending on England for any and everything, including tourist dollars, who gave who what island, who died and left an island for England?? it’s no use pretending that England did anyone any favors, gave an island you say, but still for some reason are more in control than the two political parties who believe themselves in control in Bim and are dumb enough to admit they are not heads of state of Barbados, shameful…… did you not know that the brits thought they would still to this day be reaping the spoils of slavery, which by the way they are, inherited slave money….but they still thought that slavery would be intact in the form it was in but as with all things of this earth, their control can only extend so far and no further…..time does that….anyway, let’s get to the present day political parties, Lawson, they still call the damn prison her ‘majesty’s’, the police force, everything that they themselves should be showing they are in control of, so you want to blame me for that??

    Further…..who told you they do not prefer it so, the blacks in Barbados, just look how they sit back and allow the politicians and public officials to sell them out to the minorities and do and say absolutely nothing about it, and allow the minorities to do as they like, not even the damn DPP or judiciary put their foot down, so you want to blame me for that too??/ they like it so, the politicians don’t want to nationalize Barbados because it would get in the way of their scams, they got Barbados by a fluke and still don’t see their good fortune……Lawson, i don’t even live in Bim…..lol

  7. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Chuckle….brings back childhood memories,one of which was …..

    Sticks and stones may break my bones,but words will never harm me….what is even more interesting is that some of us had to use google for an interpretation before takiing umbrage

    I know,who and what I am and do not need anyone or thing to define or validate me….nor a begging bowl/crutch to make a person.

    Regurgitating irrespective of melanin content,mans inhumanity to man over the millenia is an exercise in futility……History proves only one thing that we do not learn from history.

  8. Jack Bowman Avatar
    Jack Bowman

    Bitches Too, April 25, 2014 at 2:51 AM:

    “point made was Men can be Bitches too (especially smart arses)”

    Isn’t it “beeyaches”?

    Or is that the sole preserve of idiots wearing their pants around their knees with a gun and no father at home?

  9. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    Vincent…….I actually agree with you on that, really,. Keep talking about it enough and something might stick, sometimes verbally shaming people about their behaviors brings about change, it does not have to always be violent revolution to bring needed change…….does that make any sense, history has certainly shown us how many lives have been lost through violent revolutionary upheavals, i don’t feel the same can be said for verbal exchanges.

    Jack…….you will have to go every group on earth, not just only one, i see them from every stratum of the various cultures wearing their pants below their backsides, just walk down any street in NY, Toronto, London AND most of them from every culture have no father in their lives, at home or anywhere else, you cannot just pin that on one group of people.

  10. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Stig said “let me call you a black golliwog to your face…you’d be offended” – yes, I would – the tautology is gross.

    But there is a point and Lawson picks it up. I have no doubt that to call a black person a ‘golliwog’ to his face would be offensive. Much depends on the circumstances and intention of the term and time. Once upon a time it was thought racist to call someone ‘black’ and so reference was made to ‘coloured person’. Thank God we’ve dropped that. Black kids call each other ‘nigga’ – it’s a sort of trademark. But if a white person said it, other than to a black person in a spirit of friendship, it would be offensive – even though I suppose the expression in fact denotes someone whose origin was (broadly and misleadingly) from the Niger river.

    The ‘golliwog’ , as a doll, has a pedigree and, for me, a noble lineage – in a way Barbie dolls and cabbage patch kids do not. Then remember to call a girl a ‘Barbie doll’ would be intended as a slight – as also I suppose ‘he dresses like a cabbage patch kid and has brains to match’.

    Jack B’s reference to Jewish dolls with hooked noses would indeed be grotesque and insulting. But look again at the golli in this post. How is he insulting? He has character. He is warm and comforting and full of fun and laughter. He has an independent spirit and is not averse to cocking a snook at the world. He has an innocence about him which is the divine innocence of the child. He is full of wonder and completely without artifice. He says ‘I really iike you and want to be your friend – and, as your friend, I will always try to bring you joy. And I’ll talk straight to you so you will always know where you are with me.’ Now aren’t those qualities the most wonderful things for some kid who owns him? And if we choose to see in him something dirty then the problem is ours not his nor the child’s.

  11. David Avatar
    David

    The issue is now how the doll looks but what it represents based on a historical context..

    Also the doll posted is an image depicting a golliwog but Cassy makes mention of a golliwog type doll.

  12. David Avatar
    David

    Big penis, big problem in a marriage: study

    A study into marital infidelity has found that longer penises are linked to wives cheating on their spouses.

    By Times LIVE

  13. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    David …what it ‘represents’ is what we have made it…WE, US……remember Hamlet, David? “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”. I would rather see one kid happy for the owning than succumb to the 1000 vestal gripes on BU or the machinations of the human mind to make dirty something intended for joy.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    Ross some things are belong the inelastic cognitive capacity of some.

  15. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    How about suggesting to the museum to get some Rihanna or Alison Hinds dolls made in China to sell to the Tourists.

    http://www.naturalgirlsunited.com/natural-hair-dolls.html

    http://www.pattycakedoll.com/black_dolls

    http://blackgirllonghair.com/2011/08/turning-barbies-into-natural-hair-dolls/

  16. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ David*
    “Ross some things are beyond(?) the inelastic cognitive capacity of some.”
    ++++++++++++++
    …..”Inelastic cognitive capacity”…..
    When is the regular David(BU) going to be back….? 🙂
    ….cause this “David” tonight ain’t easy….
    Either a young bright spark from the BU household sharing some licks tonight (and Vincent and Bushie tek some too..) or Dompey is beginning to impact on BU editorial policy…..
    LOl. Ha Ha

    @ Ross
    What inelastic cognitive capacity what!? LOL
    …you just talking a roll of shiite as usual….and looking to call Bushie a “golliwog” while playing innocent…….
    ……two can play that nasty game hear…? 🙂 H$@€^#y!

    @ J Donkey Boremann
    These extra 🙂 🙂 🙂 are just for you …..
    …what?!. Your own blog too lonely..?

    Bushie bedtime gone – and the bushman just cranky….. Ha Ha Ha

  17. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ robert ross | April 25, 2014 at 9:02 AM |
    “And what of “curly headed” – as in the Robeson ‘Oh my baby, my curly headed baby, your Daddy’s in the cotton field….” which I sang to my infant boys.”

    Come on Robert, whom do you think you are fooling? For you to be even remotely acquainted with Robeson repertoire you would have to be of PODRYR’s father generation.
    You certainly can’t be from the same plantation with that “Fat Little Fella With His Mamie’s Eyes” unless living in the big ‘white’ house and feeling like a “Motherless Child” being raised by a Lucretia Borgia (LOL!!).

    Just a way of measuring the level of racist snobbery that innately lies in us all, here is a foolproof litmus test in the form of a question to you:
    Would you consider watching a replay of Al Jolson’s pantomime performances a “black (and white) minstrel “ with old black Joe on the plantation?
    How about D. W Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” on the silver screen?
    To put your mind at ease, I would. Out of sheer intellectual curiosity to see how the world has or hasn’t changed in its attitudes towards the issue of ‘Race’ in just under 100 years.

  18. Islandgal246 Avatar
    Islandgal246

    Bushie good morning and I hope you slept well with your Dollie.
    Peoples get over the stupid thing about the golliwog, some have adopted the white baby Jesus as their god and saviour and celebrate every December and see nothing wrong with that. So turn the negative into a positive and adopt the golliwog. This doll is a comfort to many children, I am sure both white and black. If we keep listening and believing that we must discard these dolls, then we must discard the chains, necklaces and bracelets that many wear today which were once fashioned to keep us as captives. Good grief little children don’t care if it is a goat or cow doll or golliwog they have as a toy. It is the adults who have a problem with this.

  19. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Miller

    As you know very well, there are certain defining moments in everyone’s life in relation to this or that more general aspect of it. For example, as a kid I lived for cricket (and still played well into my ’40s) and still have the first bat, a harrow, my Dad got for me. It was a Lilly White Froud (sp?) bat signed by Jack Robertson of, I think, Middlesex. I became a batsman who regularly batted No 2 unless they wanted quick runs in which case I’d drop to No 7.

    You may have noticed that part of my character suggests I am an incorrigible defender – and that is right. As a 14yo I went to a meeting where the building of a school for mentally challenged kids was being discussed. I was appalled at the sheer nastiness of those who opposed the school, got up and mouthed off. I remember the rector, who supported the school but who was in a difficult position because his own kid was autistic, turning to me, beaming and putting his thumb up. Now that should tell you two things I suppose – one that I couldn’t give a monkey’s what the majority of people think and, secondly, that I have some kind of conscience. But, for me, that was probably a defining moment which validated the ‘mouthy muscle’ I’ve always had – derived from being born in a backstreet of working class parents where you really did have to ‘mix it’.

    Now Paul Robeson was, for me, also a defining moment. As a child we had a 78 of him singing ‘Oh my Baby’ and ‘Mighty Like a Rose’ which was played regularly for me when I was being got ready for bed. And so Robeson’s voice and those two songs are ingrained in me. …and that is how I came to sing them to my kids. The song which begins ‘My Little Black Doll’ I learned from a tape. They are all on an Amazon CD I have somewhere. The other thing about Robeson is the pitch of his voice. I suppose when my voice broke I copied him and was known at school as ‘the growler’. Beloved Doris tried to change all that and tried to turn me into a Hans Hotter. I think she was wrong – but I suppose I would settle for Chaliapin.

    So there was no ‘come on’ in my reference to Robeson. Indeed, I have a signed photo here of him which says simply ‘Thank you’ as I thank him.

    As for Al J…I have to say I have never been fond of the ‘black and white minstrel’ stuff and so I probably wouldn’t watch unless YOU, or some other significant person, really wanted me to.

  20. David Avatar
    David

    @islandgal

    Agree with your last commet, the second part 🙂

    Who are buying the dolls, children?

    Black people are the ones buying at the museum?

    To your first comments, why are White people slow to buy golliwog like dolls in a dominant White USA?

  21. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Island

    Your last post was entered while I was writing mine – and I ABSOLUTELY agree with you. Anyone who knows anything about kids knows you are right. It was we nasty adults with all our scars, spite and spleen which sows sour seeds in their fresh and wondrous young minds.

  22. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Oh and Island…since you and BT are a sort of couple, do tell him that his last post, which I saw early this morning, made me laugh

  23. ac Avatar
    ac

    yes it is always easy to turn focus away from the problem..there are always those in society ready and able to excuses wrongs using babble to interject what history has deemed inappropiate and inflammable use of images such as the golliwog to defamed peoples character

  24. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    What a museum displays or offers for sale should have some relevance to the character and history of the country. Even the plunderer nations have been nudged to return historical artifacts from other countries which are on display at their various galleries although it will be a cold day in Athens before the Brits return “Lord Elgin Marbles” to Greece.

    I don’t see any connection between these dolls and Barbados but my knowledge of history may be lacking, next time I’m in Bim I’ll saunter over to the book dept. and pick up my copy of “Sambo of the Cotton fields”.

  25. David Avatar
    David

    @Sargeant

    Your flawed intervention is exposed by the fact the socalled horror deals are being sold and NOT a display item.

  26. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    @David
    Your flawed intervention is exposed by the fact the socalled horror deals are being sold and NOT a display item
    ++++++++++++
    Help me out here, isn’t that my point when I wrote “offer for sale”? Did I not write that I didn’t see any connection to Barbados? Where did I support the sale of these items?

    Does the real “David” have the weekend off? Is the junior varsity running the blog?

  27. David Avatar
    David

    Good one Sarge, a colossal misread.

    On Saturday, 26 April 2014, Barbados Underground wrote:

    >

  28. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Islandgirl .. I got ah even better idea .. Why not sell the gollywog with a noose around its neck … and tell the children that it was only a neck tie tat was made popular back in the day when gollywogs were first introduced …

  29. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Thanks David no harm no foul

  30. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Islandgal246 | April 26, 2014 at 9:13 AM |
    ” Peoples get over the stupid thing about the golliwog, some have adopted the white baby Jesus as their god and saviour and celebrate every December and see nothing wrong with that.”

    Very interesting view expressed here.
    We wonder what psychological tsunami would occur among black Bajans if as part of the reparations package of truth & reconciliation whites are induced to present little baby Jesus in a “fairer” light of equal opportunity by portraying him as an androgynous golliwog.

    To compensate for this rebalancing of mythical events King Herod- one of the biggest killers of little children of all times- could be portrayed as the King from Rwanda.
    But such a twisting of events would lead one to ask if Father Golliwog in heaven would still allow the slaughtering of the innocent to take place just to save one black child to be the redeemer of humankind through its subsequent self-sacrifice.

  31. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    Wifh respect – red herring – bullshit.

  32. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ David | April 26, 2014 at 11:49 AM |

    So is the whole Jesus story. Ask Pachamama if you are in doubt.
    For that matter, ask the average British person. Few can tell you the story written down in the book of Jewish tales and genealogies by publishers appointed to the Queen and her predecessors. Hal Austin can corroborate.

  33. ac Avatar
    ac

    ha…ha…try all u want..the ha..ha. moment .not going to change the sorry truth and the racist saga of the despicable golliwog..had not for people with the intellect to bring awareness of all that is wrong with the golliwog the white capatalist pigs and the originators family and beneficiares would be living high on the hog while dehumanising a raceand giving the newer generation of racist a right to exploit blacks with image acceptable negative images

  34. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    This doll would not have been banned in England if there was nothing wrong with it, it was meant to demoralize a whole race of people, but of course people who sell the doll see nothing wrong with that, small island mentality, but as i said the great equalizer would be to leave the same features on the doll and use white crochet thread/wool instead, see how popular they remain then

  35. Islandgal246 Avatar
    Islandgal246

    some of wanna real ignorant and real stupid to let a black cloth doll get wanna temperatures up. Loll well well I agree to get a white version and sell it next to the black ones. Baffy lol not a bad idea bout de necktie rotflmao. Why don’t we get some canecutter dolls, some Rachel Pringle the whore house madame dolls and some frundel dolls to sell? I wonder which ones would stay on the shelves? Loll

  36. David Avatar
    David

    @islandgal

    Trivializing concerns of others does not help to defend your position.

    On Saturday, 26 April 2014, Barbados Underground wrote:

    >

  37. Islandgal246 Avatar
    Islandgal246

    “To your first comments, why are White people slow to buy golliwog like dolls in a dominant White USA?”

    David you will have to ask them..they may want to be politically correct, may be afraid of what the media might say or don’t like black dolls.

  38. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    ac

    “turning away from the problem”

    Best will in the world ac, you don’t have a problem only an answer.

  39. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    I’ve just looked up golliwogs on ebay. There’s five pages of them. I suppose people who buy them do so to stick pins in them and mumble ‘I hate you’.

  40. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Islandgal
    Why don’t you stop typing shiite on BU and get back in that kitchen and finish Bushie’s cou cou nuh…? Yuh mean you ain’t figure out yet that being on the same side of an argument as Ross is, in and of itself, cause for a complete review of your position?

    Yuh mean after three hundred years of humiliation against blacks; after dissing calls for reparations, after the lingering self-deprivation that continues to impede their progress, you see NOTHING wrong with the blatant promotion of a clear SYMBOL of that history of deprivation? ….shiite Islandgal, even ac seems to get this one….

    …so how would YOU like it if after all the years of your father’s domineering behavior towards his family – he hung a replica of the stick or belt he used to apply in the living room as a trophy?

    Shiite woman. If one is truly REPENTANT about past misdeeds, then one does not PROMOTE the symbols of that past behavior….

    Don’t mind Ross. To him is is just a doll ….because for him the only symbolism is that those damn niggers (especially the big mouth bushie nigga man 🙂 ) get way….

    BTW, after you deliver his message to Bushie (when the cou cou done) you can ask him what the hell he was doing drawing up under old priests when he was 12 years old….and what did that ” thumbs up” really mean….?
    …cause based on what we now know about a lotta them priest, Ross may not now be a lover of soup…… LOL Ha Ha …

  41. Islandgal246 Avatar
    Islandgal246

    Loll Ross I bet you that ac is mumbling that under her breath about you.

  42. Islandgal246 Avatar
    Islandgal246

    Bushie haul your tail and get back in the kitchen and stop pretending. Keep remembering and reminding yourself of the 300years of humiliation every time you read the book your slave masters gave you to worship from. A doll will never bother me so bugger off !

  43. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Island…am sure you’re right…oh God, the holy water again…..and BT….didn’t you suck yours? (but nice – again – shit this must stop)

  44. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    I also resent the sale of these dolls because, in MY opinion, they do not highlight Black people in a positive light. It also reminds of when I was younger and saw documentaries of the movie industry to see Black people with their mouths painted white, only to realize when I got older that they were white men who painted their skin. Then I further reflected on other movies, where Black people seemed to have felt comfortable playing stupid roles… speaking and behaving idiotic.

  45. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    IslandGal246 you forget your fashionista years?

    For a black woman of such beauty I am disappointed that you would not see why dolls should look like you did in 86.

    Golliwog doll should not be sold in Barbados period.

  46. Islandgal246 Avatar
    Islandgal246

    Hants there is beauty in most things ask a child about its old tattered smelly rag doll. And thank you for the compliment however beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Something that was made to disparage someone or race can be turned around. Some people see beauty in gargoyles and some don’t. Some see beauty in fat people while some don’t. A beautiful face can look ugly to some cultures.

  47. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    As a child growing up, I remembered watching a “Tarzan” movie and found it rather strange that, although fictional, the white baby Tarzan was left in the jungle and lived with native Black Africans their children of similar ages similar to his. They lived in the SAME ENVIRONMENT and had similar opportunities. Yet the white man was able to gain abilities far beyond those of ordinary humans, was able to learn new languages within days and could communicate with any species of animals.

    Whereas, Tarzan being white had intellectual ability to make better use of the opportunities that were afforded them, the Black people were too inept to learn.

    I also remembered hearing the older folks speak with pride about going to the cinema to watch Tarzan movies. I asked some of them if they did not find it rather disturbing as black people, going to the cinema to watch a white man being portrayed with intellectual superiority over the Black people he found living in the jungle. Similar to Bush Tea [and PDC], they laughed at me and told me I was talking shiite.

    I was so “traumatized” that I never watched another Tarzan movie.

  48. Islandgal246 Avatar
    Islandgal246

    As an artist a doll can be made from anything. There are cornhusk dolls, clothes peg dolls, rag dolls which the gollywog falls under, porcelain dolls, plastic dolls and any material that can be fashioned into one. Dolls do not have to look human, those of you who lack imagination will find this difficult to digest. Get over this idea of what is beautiful based on Caucasian standards.

  49. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    We are rightfully expressing our disgust at the golliwog doll.

    But after years of the white man comparing us with the monkey… we find comfort in seeing Black men dressed up in a monkey suit “flipping ‘bout” and “skinning cuffing” all over the place, calling themselves a green monkey. And Black women dressed in plantation styled field worker clothes with big “bubbies” and a big “botsy”, calling themselves a “Mother Sally” and “wukking up” pun white men, while white women laugh and take photographs.

    But it ain’t no problem… we laugh and say it good for the tourist…. that is part ah we tourism product.

    Tourism product or not, IN MY OPINION, I find this just as disturbing as selling the golliwog dolls.

  50. Islandgal246 Avatar
    Islandgal246

    Artaxes..I hope you were also traumatized by baby Jesus and the bible.

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