carol thatcher calls a tennis player a golliwog

[Lord Bracknell]

Thatcher axed over golliwog remark

Date: 03 February 2009

Carol Thatcher will not longer appear on the One Show after she referred to a tennis player as a golliwog, the BBC has announced

Her future with the programme was questioned after she referred to a tennis player as a "golliwog".

The daughter of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made the remark after filming the show last Thursday during a conversation with presenter Adrian Chiles and several guests.

She was immediately challenged about the remark, but only apologised on Sunday and dismissed the comment as a "joke".

A BBC spokesman said: "We will no longer be working with Carol Thatcher on The One Show."

The remark was made during a conversation about the Australian Open tennis tournament, in reference to a player who had recently been knocked out of the men's singles draw.

Thatcher - crowned Queen of the Jungle in the 2005 series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! - was a regular contributor to the TV magazine show and the programme's website praised "her dry, self-deprecating wit and tenacious spirit".

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2009, All Rights Reserved.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

The BNP shit stirring again ? , never.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

I find it amazing that people use these terms. Ah well.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Player in question is thought to be Gael Monfils of France.

I suppose people will say she intended the conversation to remain private (aka the Ron Atkinson Defence), but on the other hand it is unquestionably a term that will cause offence to an awful lot of people, whatever their ethnicity.

I wouldn't in a million years call anyone a golliwog, I can't be bothered with all this "child's toy" nonsense: if it upsets people then it's probably wrong, therefore there's just no need to use it in a civilised society.

 

[ewe2]

housemaids and chauffeurs.

I hope you dont work for the BBC !

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

But a Golliwog is a toy! And for a child to play with one wouldn't make them racist.
I was just saying that I thought it sad when a harmless toy has become a racial hot potato. It would be like if 'teddy bear' became a term used in racial abuse, and then all teddy bears were banned.

What Carol Thatcher has to clean up is that she's used a word that has been used in the past to express racial hatred. She herself may also have been using it to express hostility towards Gael Monfils. She's either not aware of all this, in which case she should apologise for her insensitivity and ignorance, or she is, in which case she should be beheaded.

 

[GT49er]

What a stupid remark to make! Golliwogs wear (wore?) bright blue jackets and garishley striped pants, tennis players wear white.......oh no, they don't any more, do they.......

 

[Deleted member 2719]

if it upsets people then it's probably wrong, therefore there's just no need to use it in a civilised society.

What no Ref chants Edna?

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Well I guess any personal abuse isn't nice, is it, but equally if you've spent your life hearing the odd unpleasant aside, or outright abuse, or people crossing the road to avoid you because of their perception of your ethnicity, then it might be understandable if you found what others consider to be trivial stuff as the final straw, as it were.

Incidentally, the toy golliwogs that people refer to, came about because of (white) colonial perceptions of black people- it's based on a black & white minstrel type character, centring on the stereotypical Afro-Caribbean characteristics of having frizzy hair and big lips. It's hardly a positive image, is it, and I think it's perfectly reasonable that people find that offensive.

So you might claim they're much loved harmless toys, but they don't exactly have positive origins, do they?

Nobody even has one these days, and I can't see what child would want one (I always thought they were faintly creepy) given the millions of other toys they have these days, so I really can't see what possible need anyone would have to use the term towards another person. Frankly, if you think it's acceptable to use the term towards somebody, then what's to stop you calling somebody a coon, a fuzzy-wuzzy, or whatever, in the name of tradition?

 

[Gully]

I overheard a conversation last week in which a group of people were debating which words were deemed racially offensive and which weren't, it was shocking to me how some considered the p-word and n-word acceptable...there was a general consensus that calling anyone who was asian a rag-head was inoffensive because Prince Harry had used that term...one of those in the discussion seemed to think the n-word was OK because it was old fashioned....(that bloke is a twat, I wouldn't cross the street to piss on him if he was on fire...even less so having heard his opinion)

In the end one of those in the discussion, possibly having seen me shaking my head in disbelief at the stupidity of their views, asked me if I was taking offence...they eventually stopped when I said that I was.

 

[fatbadger]

But a Golliwog is a toy! ... a harmless toy has become a racial hot potato.

Are you being serious? Some would argue that the original golliwogs (actually book characters, created in the late 19th century by Florence Upton - the dolls came later*) weren't racist, although I would dispute that - they were clearly, at the very least, nasty stereotypes. The main culprit, though, was Enid Blyton, who stole the idea for her own books. Her 'The Three Golliwogs' were called Golly, Woggie and ******, which gives you some idea both as to her thinking and also the ways in which golliwogs have been used.

*although the Uptons had based the idea on a black minstrel doll one of them had had as a child.

 

[Stoo82]

I overheard a conversation last week in which a group of people were debating which words were deemed racially offensive and which weren't, it was shocking to me how some considered the p-word and n-word acceptable...there was a general consensus that calling anyone who was asian a rag-head was inoffensive because Prince Harry had used that term...one of those in the discussion seemed to think the n-word was OK because it was old fashioned....(that bloke is a twat, I wouldn't cross the street to piss on him if he was on fire...even less so having heard his opinion)

In the end one of those in the discussion, possibly having seen me shaking my head in disbelief at the stupidity of their views, asked me if I was taking offence...they eventually stopped when I said that I was.

I know what you mean. The N word is a word that i hate and would never says it to anyone and would tell people 'off' when i hear it. But, 1. Its just a word and 2. It means black in Latin.

"Latin: the color black"

"The word "negro" comes from Latin neger through French négre and Spanish and Portuguese negro."


It just means black. But like i said it should never be used now because its used as an insult. People spoil its true meaning.

 

[csider]

If you believe her spokesman, she was referring to some old cartoon character or something.

No idea who the tennis player was though - I can't really think of a top player whose black.

Ashe - the one who died of AIDS......He was a

 

[Gully]

I know what you mean. The N word is a word that i hate and would never says it to anyone and would tell people 'off' when i hear it. But, 1. Its just a word and 2. It means black in Latin.

In the very short conversation I had with this group of neanderthal elbow draggers (lower down the evolutionary scale than knuckle draggers) I asked them if they would use the same terms to address a black/asian friend...in the very unlikely event that they had one...and then ask them if they took any offence.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Funny how much people seem to think they can justify by harking back to "tradition", or things being "old fashioned".

What other great "traditions" can we revive? Slavery, perhaps? Hanging for petty crimes? Ban women from voting? Lock up anybody suspected of being homosexual? Burning the odd witch, or even those who look vaguely witchy? Ship convicts out to the colonies? Oooh, what about lynching, those were the days.

I rather hope people are more civilised than that, and can judge what traditions are what are not worthy of being maintained.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Well, I don't think it's acceptable to use 'golliwog' as a term to express racial hatred, just as I don't think it's OK to use any other word to express racial hatred. just to be clear here, I'm also not defending the prevalence of golliwogs in the name of tradition, nor am I saying I agree with the brutality done in the name of colonialism.

Just that, to a child, they are harmless toys. I'm happy with children playing with a wide range of toys. Just as playing with a witch's hat doesn't mean a child supports or opposes witch craft or witch hunts, playing with a golliwog won't make a child into a racist. Its just the meaning that adults put into them, and contaminated them with, that make them a taboo toy to have.

 

[Stoo82]

In the very short conversation I had with this group of neanderthal elbow draggers (lower down the evolutionary scale than knuckle draggers) I asked them if they would use the same terms to address a black/asian friend...in the very unlikely event that they had one...and then ask them if they took any offence.

Like i said. People, (much like the ones you spoke to) have changed the word N***Rs meaning into somthing like , "your a blacl g Cg bastad and should get out of my country". Which is wrong but what its means now.

Its should mean, or at least it used to mean but it will never be again. A black person.

(edit) - Im not a racist or want that word back or anything. Im just saying what it used to mean.

 

[Stoo82]

Funny how much people seem to think they can justify by harking back to "tradition", or things being "old fashioned".

What other great "traditions" can we revive? Slavery, perhaps? Hanging for petty crimes? Ban women from voting? Lock up anybody suspected of being homosexual? Burning the odd witch, or even those who look vaguely witchy? Ship convicts out to the colonies? Oooh, what about lynching, those were the days.

I rather hope people are more civilised than that, and can judge what traditions are what are not worthy of being maintained.

Not being funny and its fine if it is but is this directed at me? If it is i have not explained myself properly.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

I agree with Stoo82 here. Once 'coloured' was deemed acceptable, now it's not. Once 'negro' was acceptable, now it's not. But there is nothing in those words themselves that are hostile. It's the negative meaning that people have put into them. And what negative meaning people put in, we can take out again.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Well, I don't think it's acceptable to use 'golliwog' as a term to express racial hatred, just as I don't think it's OK to use any other word to express racial hatred. just to be clear here, I'm also not defending the prevalence of golliwogs in the name of tradition, nor am I saying I agree with the brutality done in the name of colonialism.

Just that, to a child, they are harmless toys. I'm happy with children playing with a wide range of toys. Just as playing with a witch's hat doesn't mean a child supports or opposes witch craft or witch hunts, playing with a golliwog won't make a child into a racist. Its just the meaning that adults put into them, and contaminated them with, that make them a taboo toy to have.

Kids, maybe not, but an adult like Carol Thatcher really should know better, whether in private or not. If I was at work and used that word to describe somebody, even in a private conversation, I'd expect to be sacked if it was overheard. Quite rightly I suggest, as I'd have to arrest anybody who offended someone else with the same terminology.