tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1926775615646909337.post427303092664395483..comments2023-10-15T10:32:17.331+01:00Comments on Tales from a Draughty Old Fen: golliwog-gate: the racism of anti-racistsFrugal Dougalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07459572116047155640noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1926775615646909337.post-67235233241545171292009-07-21T21:39:58.929+01:002009-07-21T21:39:58.929+01:00Thanks for your comment, Quidam, but if you read t...Thanks for your comment, Quidam, but if you read the Telegraph like me, you would have an idea of what is going through several Government figures' heads, because it regularly publishes articles written by them. <br /><br />Carol Thatcher compared the <i>hair</i> of a player to the <i>hair</i> of a golliwog, it's not the same as saying the person is a golliwog.<br /><br />I don't agree that defending Baroness Thatcher is a fool's errand. As Iain Dale said in an interview with George Galloway (in which Galloway turned off Dale's mike several times...Conservative-dominated media machine?), it's because if you are in a position of executive authority then some of the things you decide will be wrong. Gordon Brown's particularly good at it.Frugal Dougalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07459572116047155640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1926775615646909337.post-23744329186664199502009-07-21T18:24:00.505+01:002009-07-21T18:24:00.505+01:00>That a Guardian journalist should agree on one...>That a Guardian journalist should agree on one point with an ennobled Conservative shows the depth of public dissatisfaction<br /><br />No it doesn't, it shows that the Guardian actually presents a range of viewpoints unlike most of the conservative-dominated media machine.<br /><br />The fact is, however you want to spin it, 'golliwog' was for many years an insult used to mock black people, especially at school. Calling a black person a golliwog is racist and rude, simple as that. Saying 'she didn't call HIM a golliwog, she called his HAIR a golliwog!' is really not going to wash either, sorry. Defending Thatcher is a fool's errand.<br /><br />That said, the Golliwog itself is an innocent thing. It did not start, as you claim, in the southern US; the Golly is entirely Upton's invention, but was based on a minstrel toy she had as a child, making it "a caricature of a caricature." It is a racist caricature seen through the eyes of a child, with all the racism effaced by the innocence of the viewer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com