Golliwogs

[remember]

I got a Golliwog when I was a small girl and took it every where with me. It was a stuffed black doll-come-teddy.The Golliwog was a character created by Florence Kate Upton in the late-19th Century, inspired by a blackface minstrel doll she had as a child. After it was made into a kids' toy in the 60s, it gained huge popularity. While home-made Golliwogs were sometimes female, the Golliwog was generally male. Whatever gender, the toy has now become a collector's item. However, the image of the doll has become highly controversial and many people believe that Golliwogs should no longer be regarded as toys and instead be seen as a relic of an earlier time when racism was much more blatant. When I was a child, though, we saw nothing wrong in wearing Golly-adorned jumpers.

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