Golliwog
The golliwog, also spelled golliwogg or shortened to golly, is a doll-like character, created by cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton, which appeared in children's books in the late 19th century, usually depicted as a type of rag doll.
The golliwog is controversial, being widely considered a racist caricature of black people,[4][5] alongside pickaninnies, minstrels, and mammy figures.
The doll is characterised by jet black skin, eyes rimmed in white, exaggerated red lips and frizzy hair, based on the blackface minstrel tradition.
To afford tuition at art school, she illustrated a children's book entitled The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg.
A product of the blackface minstrel tradition, the Golliwogg had jet black skin; bright red lips; and wild woolly hair.
[7] For instance, a number of Enid Blyton's Noddy and Big Ears books feature Golliwog, sometimes as heroes but often as a villain[7] or as naughty individuals.
Golliwogg's Cakewalk is the sixth and final piece in the Children's Corner, a suite for piano published by French composer Claude Debussy in 1908.
[18] In 1983, Robertson's products were boycotted by Ken Livingstone's Greater London Council due to their offensiveness,[19] and in 1988 the character ceased to be used in television advertising.
[20] The company used to give away golliwog badges and small plaster figures playing musical instruments (jazz musicians) or sports and other such themes.
[20] Virginia Knox, previously brand director for Robertson's and later Chief Operating Officer of the Culinary Brands Division of RHM, told The Herald newspaper in Scotland in 2001 that the decision to remove the Golly symbol from Robertson's jam and marmalade jars was taken after research found that children were not familiar with the character, although it still appealed to the older generations.
In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier and Volume IV: The Tempest, Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill included Upton's original Golliwog with a slightly reimagined, alien past.
[34] In January 2015, Chaka Artwell, a campaigner, had his BBC interview cancelled after he refused to remove a golliwog doll he was wearing around his neck.
[36][37][further explanation needed][38] In April 2018, a man in Prestatyn was fined £250 plus £85 costs for displaying a golliwog in a window opposite two Indian restaurants.
[40] In April 2023, the Essex Police removed several golliwog dolls displayed in the pub of the White Hart Inn in response to an alleged hate crime.
The decision achieved international media attention amidst reports that the Home Secretary Suella Braverman objected to the action.
[43] Later that month, a Norfolk café owner removed a display of golliwog dolls after police declared the exhibit a "hate incident".
The controversy began when Toowoomba man George Helon[48] spotted the dolls placed beneath the sign,[49] and circulated a picture of it on Facebook[50] and Twitter.
[51] The display was only in one store, as a franchisee can "stock and sell products at their discretion"; however, Terry White Chemists banned the sale of the doll in any franchise afterwards.
[54] Griffith University lecturer Eddie Synot has said that the dolls perpetuate a "narrative of the inferiority of black people" in Australia, and that the country should try to engage in "difficult conversations" about the toy.
