# How taboo are golliwogs these days? Anybody here have/had them? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 20, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491 "2013-06-20T17:53:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/1 "2013-06-20T17:53:36Z")
See subjects. Interesting history, full of ironies, in [Wiki](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golliwogg). ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/2 "2013-06-20T17:57:15Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > See subjects. > > Interesting history, full of ironies, in [Wiki](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golliwogg). I have never seen one before today. Never heard the word, either. I can see why they’re considered taboo. There isn’t much to commend in that. Public flaunting of the old blackface stereotype has been out of favor for longer than I’ve been alive. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/3 "2013-06-20T19:25:50Z")
It was used extensively as a term of racial abuse in the UK right through to the 1980’s. For many of those years, there was a brand of Jam and Marmalades called ‘Robertsons’ that had a very long running promotion, whereby you collected golliwog cut outs from the labels, and once you had collected enough you sent them off and you would receive a little golliwog badge or golliwog ornament, these were extremely popular with children. For anyone of any colour, it was very common to be abused with the term’ Get back on your jam jar nig-nog’ I was the recipient of this abuse for years, sadly many white folks still do not even begin to understand why this is a hateful figure, many folk still think that the removal of the golliwog promotion was just the P.C brigade gone mad. The abuse was real enough, I had numerous punch-ups merely from this one promotion alone and as a result of the frequent fights I got pretty good at it too, and I’m quite prepared to go on the offensive again. I just cannot imagine how white people seem to think they have the right to use terms that are obviously offensive, use them in an offensive manner, and act all surprised to find a set of fast moving knuckles in their faces. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/4 "2013-06-20T19:31:22Z")
I’ve got a small collection of Robertson’s Gollies (like [these](http://revealinghistories.org.uk/inc/img.php/tpl/uploads/Robertson--s-golliwogs.jpg/371/1/fill)) - they were promotional collectibles up until about the 1980s from Robertsons Marmalade - I think you had to collect so many labels and post them in with a small sum of money for return postage of the figurine. They’re still around in antique and collector markets - quite desirable, in part because of their political incorrectness. ---
**Author:** ![sidecar\_jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sidecar\_jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidecar_jon)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/5 "2013-06-20T19:40:37Z")
I remember collecting the lose gollys (they used to be behind the label and latter became part of the label) and sending off and i got a sax playing golly…and i know exactly the bit of rough path i lost it on 40 years ago and look for it every time i pass. Its really sad anyone suffered insults from it and if i ts any consolation it never entered my head the figure had anything to do with black people… ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/6 "2013-06-20T20:28:11Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > I have never seen one before today. Never heard the word, either. > > I can see why they’re considered taboo. There isn’t much to commend in that. Public flaunting of the old blackface stereotype has been out of favor for longer than I’ve been alive. Ditto. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/7 "2013-06-20T20:37:40Z")
Anyone else here skim the title and wonder why the hell it would taboo to collect [immature frogs](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polliwog&redirect=no)? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/8 "2013-06-20T20:46:17Z")
Funny thing in that wiki page: It had a “citation needed” tag for the feature “frizzy hair.” Look at the picture! The “clown lips” is probably open for debate, but the hair IS frizzy. At least it didn’t say nappy. I think someone was playing around. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/9 "2013-06-20T20:46:50Z")
Well up until a couple of years ago you could still buy them in [Auckland Airport.](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10747706) Then again we have mayors who use the term ['niggers in the woodpile’](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10751155)as well… ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/10 "2013-06-20T20:53:12Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I’ve got a small collection of Robertson’s Gollies (like [these](http://revealinghistories.org.uk/inc/img.php/tpl/uploads/Robertson--s-golliwogs.jpg/371/1/fill)) - they were promotional collectibles up until about the 1980s from Robertsons Marmalade - I think you had to collect so many labels and post them in with a small sum of money for return postage of the figurine. > > They’re still around in antique and collector markets - quite desirable, in part because of their political incorrectness. Heh I remember I was looking at antique stores in the Niagra area a decade or so ago and I came across this place that was like an indoor antiques and collectibles market, where there were different rooms set up by different people who obviously rented space - each with a different type of collectible. One guy had a room that was nothing but Black characatures in the form of ornaments and objects. Some were totally innocuous and some were extremely offensive - cartoony racist caracatures of Black people. They were as I recall all pretty expensive. The man whose room this was was himself Black. I asked him outright if he had any issues selling this stuff. He said that he was fascinated by these things, and that most of his big-spending customers were other Black people who were also fascinated by these things. Go figure. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/11 "2013-06-20T21:00:36Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > It was used extensively as a term of racial abuse in the UK right through to the 1980’s. I’ve heard the term “wog” used as an ethnic term by clueless older characters in UK productions, e.g. the Major in _Fawlty Towers_, but I didn’t realize the term must be short for golliwog. I’ve only heard “golliwog” in one other place–namely, the title “Golliwog’s Cakewalk”, the ragtime-infused last movement of _Children’s Corner_ by Claude Debussy. I’ve been interested in ragtime since early high school, and never knew that by using the term Golliwog, as offensive as it is to us now, Debussy was commendably giving props to the true originators of ragtime music, at a time when most people probably thought it had been invented by white followers like Charles Krell and Ben Harney, and later, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/12 "2013-06-20T21:31:06Z")
The only thing I ever knew about the term is that “the Golliwoggs” was an early name for Creedence Clearwater Revival. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/13 "2013-06-20T22:35:53Z")
When I was a young child, in 1950s England, golliwogs were a standard cuddly toy for young children, much as teddy bears still are. I had one, as did most children. Whatever the toy’s origins may have been, by that time I am sure most of the children, and even most of the parents did not realize that it had racialist (as we used to say back then) or possibly offensive connotations. My parents were always very staunchly anti-racist, and I am sure they would never have let me have a golliwog (or to collect the labels from Robertson’s jam in order to get golliwog badges, which I also did) if tey haverhoug that there was anything racist about it. Indeed, it never even occurred to me, as a child, that a golliwog was meant to represent a black person, and when I learned about this (when I was much older and the idea that golliwogs were racist and offensive was starting to get about) I was, at first, quite surprised. After all, a golliwog does not, in fact, look very much like a real black person. Part of the reason for this, I think, is that until the later 1950s, there were almost no actual black people living in Britain. Thus, in the period (presumably before the 1950s) when golliwogs established them selves as a “standard” children’s toy in Britain, one the one hand there was nobody black around to take offense at them, and, on the other hand, most people who owned them or gave them to their children had never seen an actual black person, and probably often did not make the connection between real people and this very stylized toy. As the British black population grew, through the 1960s and '70s, the offensiveness of golliwogs came to be realized, even by people who never actually meant anything offensive by having them, and they fairly rapidly began to disappear from the toy shops. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/14 "2013-06-20T22:54:00Z")
I have seen them for sale at a local Scottish festival a few years ago. (I’'m not saying the Scots are racist or anything. I’m just saying what I saw.) ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/15 "2013-06-20T23:00:16Z")
Way back in the 60s (I think) there was a widely believed story where a schoolgirls at a grammar school wore yellow golliwog badges to signify their lost virginity. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/16 "2013-06-20T23:02:44Z")
Perhaps it is also significant that racist terms like Kike, Gyppo and Wog, as well as the ‘N’ word were widely used in the first half of the 20th century. Of course only Jews, gypsies and black people were offended so that was OK. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/17 "2013-06-20T23:13:39Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Perhaps it is also significant that racist terms like Kike, Gyppo and Wog, as well as _the ‘N’ word_ were widely used in the first half of the 20th century. Of course only Jews, gypsies and black people were offended so that was OK. Italics added. I’m blanking on “the ‘N’ word.” Is it Nigger? Or, if you can’t bear it: Is it “Nigger?” Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/18 "2013-06-20T23:16:55Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Way back in the 60s (I think) there was a widely believed story where a schoolgirls at a grammar school wore yellow golliwog badges to signify their lost virginity. Yellow golliwogs? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/19 "2013-06-20T23:36:00Z")
Robertson’s golliwog promotion didn’t actually finish until 2002 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491/20 "2013-06-21T00:14:28Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I’ve heard the term “wog” used as an ethnic term by clueless older characters in UK productions, e.g. the Major in _Fawlty Towers_, but I didn’t realize the term must be short for golliwog. > > I’ve only heard “golliwog” in one other place–namely, the title “Golliwog’s Cakewalk”, the ragtime-infused last movement of _Children’s Corner_ by Claude Debussy. I’ve been interested in ragtime since early high school, and never knew that by using the term Golliwog, as offensive as it is to us now, Debussy was commendably giving props to the true originators of ragtime music, at a time when most people probably thought it had been invented by white followers like Charles Krell and Ben Harney, and later, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin. I thought “Wog” was an acronym for Wily Oriental Gentleman. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-taboo-are-golliwogs-these-days-anybody-here-have-had-them/661491.md?page=2)