Today's podcast is about a child's toy, and a TV journalist. The child's toy is a golliwog. A golliwog is a soft toy, a sort of doll. There is a picture of a golliwog on the website, and – I hope – on your iPod screens. The Golly in the picture is wearing black and white striped trousers and a red coat. He has a bow-tie and a white shirt. And his skin is black, and he has curly black hair. Golliwog is intended to look like black minstrel singers and musicians in America in the late 19th century.
Golliwog first appeared in a children's book in 1895. The book, which was called “The Adventures of two Dutch Dolls and Golliwogg”, was very successful, and lots more books about Golliwog followed.
Naturally, toy manufacturers noticed the popularity of the Golliwogg books, and they started to make golliwog dolls. And the dolls were popular with children too. In the first half of the 20th century, many British children had a golliwog. Sometimes they loved their golliwog and took him everywhere they went. And sometimes they threw their golliwog into the corner or under the bed and forgot about him.
Robertson's, a company which makes jam, used the golliwog as their trademark (what we would call a logo today, I think). For many years, children collected little golliwog stickers from the labels on jars of Robertson's jam. Then things started to change. Immigrants arrived in Britain, especially from former British colonies. Gradually, Britain became a racially diverse country. And people started to wonder, is it OK for children to have golliwog dolls? Surely a golliwog is an out-of-date stereotype of black people. Golliwogs in short are racist.
Now, it was of course adults who worried about whether golliwogs were OK. I doubt if most children thought of their golliwog as representing real black people. Nonetheless, golliwogs gradually became less popular. Children wanted Action Men, and Barbie Dolls, and computer games, not an old-fashioned golliwog doll. Eventually, even Robertson's stopped putting the golliwog on the labels of their jam jars. Now we turn to our TV journalist. Her name is Carol Thatcher. Where have you heard the name “Thatcher” before? Yes, Carol is the daughter of the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Carol has done various reporting jobs for the BBC. After a TV show about 10 days ago, Carol was talking to a group of BBC colleagues. They were discussing an international tennis player – a black international tennis player. Carol referred to him as a “golliwog”. Some of the people who heard her were shocked. They told the producer of the TV programme. She in turn told the BBC's senior management. A few days later, Carol Thatcher was sacked.
There has been a storm of controversy in the newspapers and on radio and television. Some people said that it was an unacceptable racist insult to refer to a black person as a “golliwog”. Other people said that when Carol called the tennis player a “golliwog”, it was only a bit of fun. They argued that Carol was having a private conversation, and that the BBC were wrong to sack her.
Personally, I think it is very insulting to call a black person a “golliwog”, but I know that lots of people think differently. English people do not all agree about what is acceptable language in a multiracial society. You are learning English, and I guess that sometimes you too find it difficult to know which words are acceptable, and which are not.
Poor Golly. He never meant to cause so much trouble!
