Comments on: Are these things really the same?

By: Mindy

Mindy — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 01:26:52 +0000

I did a google search to see what sort of prices GWs retail for. Oh my goodness, I wouldn’t recommend doing that search. I found some beautifully made dolls and no doubt not intended as offensive, but still breathtakingly so.

By: Jha

Jha — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:45:02 +0000

Never fails to amaze, this whole insistence on something so racially and politically loaded when there are other things one could have / do that is a hella lot less problematic.

On an off-note, that Daisy doll is really quite adorable!

By: bluemilk.wordpress.com/

bluemilk.wordpress.com/ — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:49:55 +0000

What Jo Tamar said, basically.

Sorry kids, lose the racist toys, but look on the bright side, you can console yourself with the other 4,569,301 soft toys/dolls available to play with, most of which reside in our house. Sigh.

By: napalmnacey

napalmnacey — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:13:54 +0000

That’s fucking typical for this country. People just don’t even think about how they treat people of colour. The Indigenous Australians are so thoroughly “dealt” with, and immigrants of colour from Africa and/or the Americas are so few compared to the hordes of white folk that nobody gets called on their bullshit. It roils me, it makes my stomach clench.

By: lilacsigil

lilacsigil — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:47:48 +0000

The person in charge of the toy section at my work ordered three toy golliwogs. I was so embarrassed that I told her not to order them again because they were racist. She eyerolled, but agreed not to buy more. The other ones were still sitting on the shelf, though, so I bought them at cost price and threw them out. I did not want someone walking into our small, mostly white town, and seeing that bullshit staring back at them. So yes, they’re definitely back in toy catalogues.

It’s not just the name, though – it’s the Minstrel Show cariacture of a face.

By: Jo Tamar

Jo Tamar — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:30:59 +0000

As so often with these things, I don’t understand why people don’t understand the following:

someone’s discomfort with your racist guff OUTWEIGHS your slight inconvenience in not being able to sell/do/say that racist guff

(obv, not “you, Mindy” but “you, person who wants to do racist things, in this case, the shopowner”)

That’s true even if you think that the discomfort of others is irrational or illogical.

It’s also true even if you CALL your racist guff a tradition, and even if it really IS a tradition (I’m skeptical in this case).