The controversial golliwog: cuddly toy or racist ragdoll?

Each gollywog has its own unique personality

Did you know that if you placed one of these golliwogs in your window in England, you could be arrested?

By the least controversial definition, golliwogs are ragdolls with black skin and black hair typically dressed in blue, red, white, and yellow suits. They were modeled after the illustrated Goliwogg stories of Florence Upton, whose first installment, The Adventures of Two Dutch Girls, appeared in 1895. Inspired by Upton, Debussy wrote the Golliwogg’s Cakewalk in 1913.

Golliwoggs, a.k.a. golliwogs, were knitted and pieced together from scraps of fabric at home. They were also mass-produced by toy companies such as Steiff.

They were popular throughout the first half of the twentieth century, and notorious throughout the second. Today, over a hundred years after their initial appearance on the literary toy scene, they are at the heart of a raging controversy.

In September 2008, English mother Amanda Schofield was arrested after her daughter placed a golliwog in their window. In May 2007, Moira Pickering was instructed by police to remove the dolls from her shop window display because she was in possible violation of race hate laws. “People are far too politically correct,” she is reported to have said, “they go over the top." Police seized the golliwogs of Donald Reynolds, owner of Pettifers Hardward in Bromyard, Herefordshire, in what he called a case of “society gone mad.”

It is not just the dolls themselves that are controversial—the word “golliwog” can function as a racial slur.

Golliwog in striped trousers

In 2008, Naomi Campbell pleaded guilty of assaulting two police officers at Heathrow following an outburst on a British Airways jet. She explained that her conduct had been motivated by an offensive remark: “I was called a golliwog supermodel, I don’t think that’s really fair do you?”

On January 29, 2009, while backstage at the Australian Open, Carol Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher’s daughter, referred to French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as a “golliwog.” As a result of the remark and her subsequent failure to apologize, the BBC dropped her as host of The One Show.

Dr. David Pilgrim (pilgrimd@ferris.edu), Professor of Sociology at Ferris State University and curator of the university’s Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, makes the case against the golliwog. In an article of November 2009, he concludes that

“the Golliwog was created during a racist era. He was drawn as a caricature of a minstrel -- which itself represented a demeaning image of Blacks. There is racial stereotyping of Black people in Florence Upton's books, including The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls […]. Certainly later Golliwogs often reflected negative beliefs about Blacks -- thieves, miscreants, incompetents. There is little doubt that the words associated with Golliwog -- Golly, Golli, Wog, and Golliwog, itself -- are often used as racial slurs.”

The pro-golly stance is represented by the author (OhGolli@aol.com) of the article, “In Defence of the ‘Golliwog’,” which appears in the online newsletter (No. 11) of the International Golliwog Collectors Club. The doll originates in the stories of Upton, and should receive the same treatment as other figure of children’s literature.

“I do hope that people of all colors in this nation, once they realize that the original concept of the "Golliwogg" was not intended to humiliate anyone, least of all black people, will be able to accept this black collectible toy, along with Mickey Mouse, Raggedy Anne and Winnie the Pooh, without feeling that this character was created to insult.”

Golliwog in red tails

For those who unapologetically collect golliwogs, there is even a conference, the Gollyfest.

I came across gollywogs at two separate booths at the Healdsburg Memorial Day Weekend Antique Fair. The two Englishwomen of one of the booths, Violet Ross and her sister, Marguerite Stone, chatted with me about the history of the golliwog and allowed me to take these photos. I asked Marguerite what she thought about the golliwogs, and she said, simply,

“We used to have them when we were children in England. We used to take them to bed with us. They were our little cuddly toys. It was very popular when we were growing up, to have a golly.”

She then remarked that the perspective of an African American could be very different: golliwogs, while representing black literary figures, were toys for white children.

The issue of race and representation is always a matter of critical importance. It can hardly be made any more important that it always has been by that fact that we Americans can now say, in the words of Young Jeezy, “My President is Black.” Where does the golliwog fit in to all this?

Are golliwogs innocent playthings? Should we buy them up and give them to our children to play with along with teddy bears and Barbie dolls?

Or are golliwogs the physical embodiments of hate and discrimination? Should we look on them with disdain and distrust for their potential ability to perpetuate anti-black sentiments in the very young and impressionable? Should we buy up all the golliwogs and burn them?

A rare golligirl

Or should we accept golliwogs as historical artifacts, neutralized by the passage of time? Should we allow them to remind us of an un-integrated period of western history? Should we collect them, preserve them, and display them in shop windows and museums?

In the end, I walked away from the fair with my photographs and a head full of questions. I didn’t buy a golliwog, because I didn’t—and still don’t—know what to think.

Antiquester tip: Violet Ross (650.697.5975) and Marguerite Stone will be back at the August 30 Healdsburg Antique Fair—with their golliwogs.