Board logo

Carol Thatcher and ebay
woodster - 6/2/09 at 01:15 PM

Racist or not

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/items/_W0QQ_nkwZgolliwogQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZR40QQ_mdoZ


Mr Whippy - 6/2/09 at 01:19 PM

but that's what the toys called...

or is it now

- soft doll of African descendent


r1_pete - 6/2/09 at 01:21 PM

Correct, I remember them on the jam jars in the 60's and 70's when I grew up, no hint of racist undertones.

Its the politically correct brigade who are the real racists.......


Mr Whippy - 6/2/09 at 01:25 PM

My favourites were a woman demanding that a Blackhole (the dead star vacuum cleaner thing in space) be renamed, as it was racist! Eh!

Or the mother that kicked up a stink cos her black son wasn’t accepted as the milky bar kid and that they were being racist!

Give me a break, really…



[Edited on 6/2/09 by Mr Whippy]


David Jenkins - 6/2/09 at 01:37 PM

Actually... if you go back through the history of the gollywog, it IS exceedingly racist...


LINK


coozer - 6/2/09 at 01:40 PM

Nothign wrong in my eyes, the fuc€ng worlds gone mad.

Here's something else. Is calling someone from Pakistan a Paki offensive? If it upsets you then don't call me a Brit! Or how about calling an American a Yank??

It will soon be illegal to speak in public. So best to shut it right now!


Mr Whippy - 6/2/09 at 01:56 PM

quote:
Originally posted by coozer
Nothign wrong in my eyes, the fuc€ng worlds gone mad.

Here's something else. Is calling someone from Pakistan a Paki offensive? If it upsets you then don't call me a Brit! Or how about calling an American a Yank??

It will soon be illegal to speak in public. So best to shut it right now!





you have been fined £500 for your inflammatory remarks, please wait for the police


Stott - 6/2/09 at 01:59 PM

I've got the book mentioned in that article. Noddy and Big Ears go into the dark dark woods and 4 Golliwogs jump them and nick his car and their clothes!!


nstrug - 6/2/09 at 02:07 PM

If you had grown up as a black or asian kid in the UK during the 60s and 70s you might have a different opinion on whether 'golliwog' and 'paki' are offensive.

Nick


David Jenkins - 6/2/09 at 02:23 PM

I think it depends on who's saying the word... a few years ago I worked with a Pakistani bloke, who said to me "I'm a Paki and I'm proud of it". He wasn't being funny about it - he really was proud of his race and the title.

As for the golly - I know people have fond memories of these toys, but I think the time has come to quietly forget them and consign them to history.


Mr Whippy - 6/2/09 at 02:34 PM

quote:
Originally posted by nstrug
If you had grown up as a black or asian kid in the UK during the 60s and 70s you might have a different opinion on whether 'golliwog' and 'paki' are offensive.

Nick


True but even when I was at primary school nothing derogatory was meant by it, no point in living in the distant past


Jumpy Guy - 6/2/09 at 03:00 PM

I grew up in an area where 'Paki' and 'Darkie' were regularly used.

And something was nearly always meant by it.

No need for this in our more enlightened times, so yep, I think its offensive.


v8kid - 6/2/09 at 03:26 PM

I grew up in the same area and received even more abuse 'cos I had an english accent.

Kids can be cruel and will distort anything without realising the consequences.

Its time to forget the past and if someone finds a word offensive its easy to not use it.

However it seems to me the BBC have taken things to a new level in their zeal to be seen correctly - surely a rebule would have been sufficient? It smacks of the same mentality that uses the offensive words in the first place to me.

As I see it they are bullying Carol - still she was a silly bugger using it in the first place


James - 6/2/09 at 03:59 PM

quote:
Originally posted by coozer

Here's something else. Is calling someone from Pakistan a Paki offensive? If it upsets you then don't call me a Brit! Or how about calling an American a Yank??



Come off it. You know as well as I do that the word Paki isn't just an abbreviation. It's used as a term of abuse very often and it's the meaning behind it that's the problem.

Cheers,
James


Confused but excited. - 6/2/09 at 04:58 PM

Why is it racist to call a Pakistani national a 'Paki', but OK to call a British national a 'Brit'?
Not confused for nothing.
I was also always taught that a Golliwog was originally the little boy that went down the chimnies for Santa. Hence the black face but white lips.
Therefore, middle class poorly informed do-gooders inventing racism where there wasn't any.
A blackboard is just that. a board painted black so that the chalk stands out. Not a chalk board.
Children in school should be learning correct grammar.
Now they can't even sing Baa Baa Black sheep anymore for Christ's sake!
So what do you call black sheep?
And before I get flamed as a racist, my best mate is of African descent and he agrees with me.


Alan B - 6/2/09 at 05:52 PM

Most ridiculous example I ever saw was over here in the US. Some local goverment official was forced to resign when he was talking about finance and said they would be niggardly with resources...the illiterate PC brigade said that it sounded like a bad word...honestly words fail me..


LoMoss - 6/2/09 at 06:17 PM

Where did all these offended people come from. Are these the people with nut allergies because in my younger days nobody was offended about anything or had a nut allergy. I couldn't care what anybody calls me.

I am sure they have equally offensive names for white folk, but I dont care. Some people just need to get a life.


designer - 6/2/09 at 07:40 PM

Every kid on our street had one (can't type the word - not allowed) in the fifties and NOBODY thought it racist.

It's not untill someone ELSE decides, that it became racist!! They have too much time on their hands.


nstrug - 6/2/09 at 10:16 PM

I don't believe there's anything intrinsically wrong with gollwogs, however likening a black tennis player to a golliwog, which is what Carol Thatcher did, would be seen as pretty insulting by most people.

As far as 'Paki' versus 'Brit' is concerned, here is a simple test to determine which is offensive:

Go up to a white British person and call them a Brit, go up to a British-Asian person and call them a Paki. See which one you get a smack in the mouth off, and then hazard a guess as to which term is offensive.

Being French-Argentinian myself, you can imagine what I had to deal with in school in Hull during the 80s - even if it was 'just for a laugh.' Black and Asian kids got it far worse then me, and not just off other kids - we're talking full scale abuse in the street from adults.

For what it's worth, I think the BBC over-reacted to Thatcher (although not with Ross/Brand) and whoever reported her was a whiny telltale - they should have just told her to shut the hell up and left it at that.

Nick


David Jenkins - 6/2/09 at 10:26 PM

quote:
Originally posted by nstrug
For what it's worth, I think the BBC over-reacted to Thatcher (although not with Ross/Brand) and whoever reported her was a whiny telltale - they should have just told her to shut the hell up and left it at that.



Pretty much what Boris Johnson said today in the papers - the producer should have taken her aside and given her a stiff talking-to, which should have been an end to it.

As they say in the army - "An interview without coffee"

[Edited on 6/2/09 by David Jenkins]


Simon - 6/2/09 at 10:33 PM

quote:
Originally posted by designer
It's not untill someone ELSE decides, that it became racist!! They have too much time on their hands.


Agree - on the Jeremy Vine show they were discussing this and a black woman called Michelle came on and said she found nothing offensive about gollies and her now 26 year old daughter still has the one she got as a one year old.

She said she was getting slightly p'off with nonblack people telling everyone else what black folk thought was racist.

ATB

Simon


Confused but excited. - 7/2/09 at 07:20 PM

quote:
Originally posted by nstrug

As far as 'Paki' versus 'Brit' is concerned, here is a simple test to determine which is offensive:

Go up to a white British person and call them a Brit, go up to a British-Asian person and call them a Paki. See which one you get a smack in the mouth off, and then hazard a guess as to which term is offensive.

Nick


Hi Nick,
The point that I was trying to make is: Why do the powers that be always assume that it is white British nationals that are the only racists?
Are the Talibam just being political?
We call them 'Rag Heads', they blow us up. Thus we are racists.
Yes 'Paki' is offensive because it is usually used in a manner calculated to case offense.
As for you being a French/Argentinian schoolboy in the eighties....nothing down for you really was there?
You have my sympathies.