Why are golliwogs illegal

THE Royal Adelaide Show sparked fresh controversy after displaying three golliwog dolls in its handicrafts division. But why are they so offensive? THE Royal Adelaide Show has been forced to remove three award-winning golliwog dolls from a display of handicrafts following a racism outcry on social media and will review whether they will be accepted at future events.

Following the intense social media backlash, the controversial dolls may now be banned from future exhibits. An advert for this shop has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority. I have never met anyone who aspired to be a racist soft toy. It is telling that those who are nostalgic for the time when everyone proudly displayed their golliwogs refuse to accept the history of these figures.

Created by Florence Kate Upton in , the golliwog grew out of caricatures of minstrelsy: big white teeth, frizzy hair, all one skin colour, large lips. Female characters are usually in servant costume. There is little ambiguity about these dolls; their literary presence spells it out. These harmless toys for white children fully dehumanise black people to such an extent that someone such as Carol Thatcher would, in , refer to a black tennis player as a golliwog.

By , Bill Etherbridge, a prospective Tory councillor, was thrown out of the party after posing with golliwogs on Facebook. He promptly joined Ukip and recently stood in the leadership contest.

This is exactly how these wretched things ended up back in the shops. Two things have been going on: the ongoing lie that political correctness basically, manners has gone so mad that an open display of racism brands itself somehow as an exercise of freedom. That innocence is now called white privilege. This is a view that is often expressed in Australia, where golliwogs are extremely popular. The tea towel of doom that caused the latest fuss in Dorset is a bizarre mind map.

Around it are phrases such as victimhood, safe space, freedom of speech, internet trolls, sharia law. You know — the kind of stuff you want on a tea towel. As global warming forces millions to flee home, here are the stories of climate refugees. Tasmanian youth detention centre staff 'covered up abuse', inquiry hears. Brittany Higgins slams top bureaucrats as security response video goes unwatched. What is COP26 and why does it matter for Australia?

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