Baa Baa Black Sheep goes woke

[Sparkle]

I've got a golly - it's very small and I love it very much but...........it's tucked away in a bag in the wardrobe so as not to offend anyone especially my black British neighbours with young children whom I did not want to offend.

[Pathca]

I used to love my golly

[Sparkle]

I would love to post a photo of my golly but I'm not going to

[Pathca]

I think the intention behind things is often missed out when talking about being woke or PC ,if you post a picture of your golly as a beloved childhood toy then that’s different to sticking it in your window if you live in a high BME Area intending to upset the neighbours

[exile]

I have an ambivalent view on tearing down statues.

Did anyone have qualms when the statues of Sadam Hussein were torn down in Iraq?
They caused offence to the many oppressed by him and those not directly oppressed may well have felt the need to extinguish daily reminders of the oppression.
Is anyone concerned about the removal and destruction of statues of Stalin from across the former USSR?
Did anyone have a qualm last month about the Russian statue in Kyiv showing Russian and Ukrainian workers in arms together being removed/destroyed?
So is it wrong then to condemn those in Bristol who feel through history the offences committed against their forefathers merit similar action? I am not suggesting the bottom of the docks was the right resting place but placing the statue in a museum with appropriate commentary seems a good way to stop a daily reminder of what once was.

[L Austin France]

Isn't the full & correct term for the toy, a Golliwog ?

[Pathca]

Golly or Golliwog seemed to be interchangeable when I was young

[Blaze]

@Doug I didn't read Pathca's post as having a go at you - it read like a general comment to me !

You can't erase history by pulling down statues, and sadly history repeats itself - people don't always learn. A classic example is Hitler's invasion of Russia and he failed in the same way Napoleon did. I agree with Exile's comment about putting them in a museum with a suitable comment.

I loved my golly brooches and never saw them as insulting black people - they were just brooches with black faces to me, nothing more.

It's all very well wanting to put right the wrongs of the past but expecting countries to apologise for something done by previous generations could be taken to excess. No doubt every country is responsible for some sort of horror, war, slavery, massacre, invasion etc etc at some time or other in history - should we really expect people to continue to apologise for the sins of their forefathers ? Surely it would be better to teach these things in school so that children are aware of the past and might grow up hoping to make a better world ......

[Bayleaf]

"Woke nowadays refers to being aware or well informed in a political or cultural sense, especially regarding issues surrounding marginalised communities"

I wish they'd found a better word, as "woke" conjures up so much negativity.

[Sparkle]

@Blaze yes, I loved my golly brooches too getting my mum to buy more jars of Robertsons jam & marmalade than we needed so that I could remove the labels to collect the gollies or golliwogs as they were originally referred to - actually I am not at ease now with the original name.