Is the Golly offensive?

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/6l6cwjc

Is the Golly offensive enough to cause two Prospective Tory councillors to quit, or are they victims of political correctness?

Please do not just condemn them just because they are Tories, please just debate the Golly issue.

[joggerjayne]

That's ridiculous.

The golly is a jolly little chap.

Making a fuss about gollies only serves to artificially create "racial" issues which would never have occurred to most golly owners.

[sandyRoe]

What's the full of a 'Golly' does anybody remember?

[Sqad]

A jolly golly ..no less.

[craft1948]

My golly had striped white and red trousers, and a bright blue jacket with shiny buttons, and a yellow bow tie...............he wad lovely.

[McMouse]

I don't find the Golly offensive, though some of the recent political correctness is.

[Kromovaracun]

The people to ask about whether it's offensive or not, I would argue, are black people - they're the people it lampoons. And their response, unless I'm mistaken, appears to be a unanimous 'yes'...

Obviously I'm not saying you can't comment on this if you're white. But the reason I say this is because personally I don't see the fact that I don't find the Golly particularly offensive to mean it isn't and it's hard to know how else to consider it.

[craft1948]

Now Barbies.........they're definitely offensive.

[joggerjayne]

Yes, Barbie presents an unacceptable physical stereotype of white girls.

Action man, with his perfect body is highly offensive to most ordinary white men.

All dolls are offensive. Burn them !!!

[hc4361]

I think a golly is no more representation of a human being than a clanger or a tellytubby.

[wilkesneil]

we got a golly teddy in our bedroom and have a pic of him on f/b, bring him back i say as he was an icon. shame that people claim everything as racial these days.

[joggerjayne]

wilkesy ...

Some people thrive on racism. They need it to exist. They can't live without it.

They will find racism in the most harmless thing, and then try to accuse the other person of having instigated the racism.

But, in reality ... the racism only exists in their heads.

[pastafreak]

here we go again...this crops up as a topic at least twice a year on AB.
The golliwog has been seen by some as a negative racial image since it was first depicted in a children's book over 100 years ago. It was probably based on the black-face minstrel tradition that originated in the American South-this involved white men impersonating Blacks.
So-yes-some will see it as offensive. I don't think I ever saw one til I moved to the UK....I think they are hideous things.
But-I find this 'news' story a bit OTT

[merciasounds]

my mother used to save the gollies off the Robertson jam pots when I was a kid, and sent them away I got golly badges, (one laying a guitar and one holding a microphone) and a golly doll, which I absolutely loved, and two pottery gollies about three inches high.

[B00]

oh my ,a golly laying a guitar!!!!

;-)

[joggerjayne]

Golly !

[McMouse]

Gollykins should comment on this.