ONE OF THESE DOLLS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS

by Michael Monks

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While walking through the 4th Sunday Mainstrasse Antiques sales on the 6th Street Promenade, I noticed a dealer selling dolls. They were all lying on a blanket on the ground. One stuck out for obvious reasons. See if you can pick it out:

I mean, really? This just gets thrown on the blanket with the rest of the dolls as if no one will notice? What the hell is this doll anyway? Is it the same doll that required an apology from Queen Elizabeth II when she learned that a gift shop at one of her estates was selling it? Why, yes it is:

Image via

A 2009 story reads as follows:

The Queen has issued an apology after it was revealed that an official gift shop at her Sandringham estate was selling `controversial' golliwog dolls. Stunned royal aides were said to have pulled off the black-faced dolls, often debated as racist, from the shelves after having put them on sale for the last one year.

Golliwog dolls? The image in the news photo is almost an exact match to the one that was being sold on 6th Street Sunday afternoon. It's not just Her Majesty that finds the doll distasteful. Just last month, rapper Big Boi (of Outkast fame) forced a New Zealand airport gift shop to pull the dolls:

Airport corporate relations manager, Richard Llewellyn said: “Once we were made aware, the retailer was immediately asked to remove the product from sale.” “In this case we acknowledge that this is a product widely regarded as inappropriate. We apologize for any offense caused as a result of this product being on sale at the airport,” he added.

Okay, but what if you collect the dolls? Is it okay then? Not in England:

Burger bar boss Chris Brown is being investigated by police for driving around in his Land Rover with a gollywog fixed to the front bumper. A neighbour reported him for racist behaviour and two officers called round to his home, took snaps of the car and seized the soft toy. Mr Brown, who was out on a motorbike ride when his gollywog was removed on Sunday, claims he now faces being prosecuted on a public order charge. He has blasted the police action as "political correctness gone mad".

Even though the USA has a long history of racism, it would appear that this particular case originated in the UK. From the Wikipedia entry on "golliwogs":

There are differing versions of how the word "Golliwog" came into existence. One story is when the British soldiers were in Egypt in the 19th century, the Egyptian labourers working for the British Army were required to wear armbands with the letters W.O.G.S. indicating they were Working On Government Service and these labourers were called Ghuls (غول), an Arabic word for ghost, by the British soldiers. Children of the Egyptians played with rag dolls of black stuffed material and the British (soldiers) bought them as gifts and took them back to England with them. The dolls were called Ghuliwogs and this word later became Golliwog.

Even the book that popularized the doll is British. Florence Kate Upton (an American-born, English cartoonist) authored the 1895 book, "The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwog".

But it was Australia that more recently shined a negative light on the dolls following a performance on a variety show that featured a blackface performance by a group called Jackson Jive. American Harry Connick Junior was a judge on the show, and called out the group on air:

Following the broadcast of this show, golliwog dolls were either pulled from shelves in Australia or removed from prominent displays.
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When I saw the doll, I snapped a quick photo and just kept walking without asking the merchant any questions. That was a failing on my part. I feel like I should have asked why it was appropriate to sell, especially with as many people that were coming to Covington's Mainstrasse neighborhood for the Pawrade. While the implied racism in the doll is the worst part of it, the fact that it also isn't even an antique is troubling too. How did this thing end up here? Maybe we'll find out next spring when the antiques sales on the promenade return on the 4th Sunday of the month (October was the last one this year) because surely no one bought this.
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So, what do you think? I'll leave the post with this video in which I first saw a golliwog doll, from the hilarious British TV show, "Extras". The white female character is on a date in her home with a black man and realizes that she has a golliwog doll in plain sight.