I did, I respectfully submit, preface my comment with “I think…”
It’s not for either of you to gainsay my right to an opinion based on my experience of black African people, including my wife and her family, and our non-white children, with whom I have had this discussion, and hundreds like it.
It’s noticeable that I’ve seen many indigenous African people engage in rituals in which they whiten their faces, limbs and hands with chalk or white clay. There’s nothing disrespectful or racial about this commonplace activity, it’s just entertainment.
On the whole, predominantly I would say, Africans make judgements about others solely on their social behaviour, not their physical appearance, skin colour or manner of dress. I have never in 10 years living there had an encounter with an indigenous African in which I have felt anything but common decency, mutual respect and equity.
I’m utterly confident that not 1 in 10 nor 1 in 100 African immigrants to UK would make the same claim. You could check that out yourselves.
Yes, - I forgot that you are much closer, personally, to that community & I apologise.
However the Golliwog, in our enlightened times, is generally regarded as a racist caricature - that the targeted group of that caricature do not always recognise that it is demeaning does not make it less so - in the same way as a young girl groomed by an adult might think she is a loving, not abusive relationship.
I always assumed that people’s reactions were to the name, and how it was used as a racist slur, rather than to the doll that has a different skin colour. I’ve never read the book so don’t know whether the story also contains offensive material. Years back I had to search high and low for a doll with the skin colour to match that of the child it was to be given to, so perhaps there was a moment where having a black doll was seem as enlightened - apart from the name?
If the name hadn’t been taken up and used as a slur then the doll would probably still be alive and well. Would you prefer that political correctness didn’t exist and it was ok to use whatever offensive, racist, sexist and xenophobic language one wanted to?
One of our grand daughters is black (Mali/Martinique mix !) When she comes to our house she plays more with the white dolly than the black. The white granddaughter favours the black dolly !
No idea what it all means tho’ !
Exactly…After I had my son, I became a registered childminder so I could stay/work from home and be with him.
To pass the inspection I had to have at least one doll which wasn’t white and a selection of books, toys reflecting different races too.
Today I bet the requirement list is even longer!
I think the term Political Correctness has been appropriated for something it was never intended to be. I think everyone has the right to be treated fairly,respected ,considered etc and should not be insulted or subjected to nastiness in the name of humour. The problem is the ‘woke ‘generation has taken things to the extreme and the back lash could cause a reversal of some positive ideas
It’s a very telling point you make, Jane, and @anon22869222 has raised much the same one in a slightly different way.
It’s important that general awareness of unconscious as well as conscious bias is raised.
There is IMO a high level of general complacency around at all levels of society, expressed in the belief that racism in UK has been more or less eradicated.
Coupled with the sense of aggrievement that non-white people should ‘stop complaining, get rid of the chips on their shoulders, smile and say how grateful they are that they have been let in to mainstream society’.
My own counselor at Credit Agricole expressed this view to me recently, prefaced by the inevitable phrase, “I’m not a racist, but…”.
The term Political Correctness (thus) has IMO been ‘weaponised’ by the right-wing media to set those of us who, accepting that overt racism has been partially suppressed in British society, still know that pervasive institutional and societal forms of subtle racism are still alive and well, indeed growing.
A very recent Government report* confirms the NHS as instutuonally racist in its treatment of non-white staff, by both the public and by colleagues, despite indignant denials from white cadres, who cannot see beyond their own assumptions, and bring out the usual ‘chippy-black’ jibes:
“She couldn’t accept she wasn’t up to the mark, so she played the race card…”
I appreciate your characteristically generous comments, Paul, and your point about how non-white people are innocent of the prejudice and animosity of the ‘host’ majority makes the latter’s prejudice the more bitter and corrosive.
Our children’s lives were scarred in the 70’s by the way they were diminished and underestimated by many of the Essex people they encountered, from neighbours, to shopkeepers, teachers and schoolmates. Essex was not welcoming to non-white newcomers in those days, and has hardly improved since. Extreme right-wing groups have always flourished along the Thames valley east of Wapping, and still do.
Peter you have replied to a post from Paul @anon88169868 7 hours later where you say that Essex people ( amongst others) were “racist” (easier to say than a load of waffle.)
But nearly 50 yrs on, do you really still think this the case?
I’m not saying this never happened 'cos you have experience of this and to a certain extent are correct, but please do not forget that times have moved on and I am grateful that we live in a much more enlightened and accepting society.
Racism does rear it’s ugly head from time to time, but on the whole the vast majority of people will not accept such perverse and sick views.
Please do not try to say otherwise.
Thanks very much, Chris, I somehow cocked that one up, yours is the right one.
I’ve tried to copy your link to my own but can’t…best leave things stand in case I make matters worse…“Another fine mess I’ve got myself in to…”!
As you yourself have said, Tracey, the only people who can legitimately comment on the extent of racism are those who experience it, in Essex or anywhere else.
I lived in Essex from the early 1980s until 2015 when my wife and I moved to France.
Basildon, Rochford, Southend and Rayleigh, the latter is Mark François’s parliamentary seat. All have marked racist tendencies, but perhaps you don’t personally draw their attention?
My mum lived in Linford, near Stanford-le-Hope…a (Shell)haven for racists & racism.
I grew up in north Essex, having moved from Romford, at the tender age of 4 years old…many’s the Saturday morning the NF "campaigned " at the bottom of Romford market…chain-smoking girls holding on tightly to their kids, as a “person of colour” walked by.
Essex is a beautiful place(in some parts) but has, certainly for all of my 55 years, lived up to some of its worst stereotypes…& will, I think, for the foreseeable future
