First they came for the golliwogs who invaded this land
Just remember it’s their land. Daniel Keane, abc.net.au, September 3:
The Royal Adelaide Show has withdrawn three golliwogs from public display … (One of the administrators of) indigenous community group Deadly Yarning from South Australian Aboriginal Communities … Janette Milera said the toys were “very racist”, adding it was even more hurtful that they appeared to have won prizes … “The big lips, the big eyes, and just the blackness of the faces … it’s very derogatory,” she said … Ms Milera said she would like the Royal Adelaide Show to demonstrate greater cultural awareness in future. “I’d really like them to just remember they are on Kaurna land and be culturally sensitive,” she said.
It’s about slavery. Anna Hartley, abc.net.au, February 3:
Melbourne woman Soyla Echeverria was shocked to see … (golliwogs) displayed … “I felt very ashamed to be Australian, to come here as a white person and see that, I mean it’s 2018,” she said … Colonial historian Liz Conor said the feeling of denigration among indigenous Australians when it came to golliwogs … dated back to the Day of Mourning on January 26, 1938 … “It’s a slap in a face … at a time when there’s a very robust national debate about … Invasion Day … we can’t just step around the (issue of slavery)”… she said.
They’re like swastikas. Petra Starke, The Advertiser, September 9, 2016:
I was utterly shocked to discover proudly on display … the golliwog. With their frizzy hair, googly eyes and clownish lips, golliwogs are a grotesque, racist caricature … there they were … among the handmade crochet and lace. All three prize-winning entries wore red jackets, bow ties and stripey pants … How appallingly racist … I wondered if perhaps they were … the creation of some guerilla arts activism group, a sort of ironic statement on racism … But no, there’s an official category … “teddy bears and friends” … Defenders … say they are innocent relics of a bygone era which is … like saying the swastika should no longer be seen as offensive …
Actually, first they came for the gollies. The Times, March 16, 1934:
The blow has fallen … He is to leave the Reich and to set his honest black face towards the frontiers. There is … logic about it, for of all non-Aryans none is more completely non-Aryan than he; nor was there ever any real prospect, his clothes being the hues they are, that he could … escape observation for long. But the sentence is bitter, which adjudges him no fit companion for young Germany … Like any man of character, he has his critics, even his enemies. Some say … his presence makes it harder to teach the young to wash … He is blamed for the prevalence of the ill-bred exclamation “Golly!” A love of the ugly comes with Gollywog, they say … He is part … of a subtle and deep corruption which is sapping the European tradition and replacing it with barbaric tom-tom dances, tunes and art. He is allowed … to walk about … arm in arm with those Nordic maidens the Dutch dolls … Such practices may be tolerated on the lax boulevards of Paris, but not in the new Germany. So, a strong mailed hand plucks him from the Nazi pram and a Prussian jack boot sends him flying through the air.
Rise up, gollies. Nick Leys et al, Herald Sun, December 9, 2010:
… former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett … (said) “I love golliwogs … I have a basket full of golliwogs. I think golliwogs are the most repressed toys in society … (the fact that) we’ve had to remove this poor golliwog (because of Oprah Winfrey) … it makes me upset. I think every golliwog should rise up as one against this …’’