Majority of Brits say golliwogs ‘not racist’

The majority of Britons do not think that golliwog dolls are racist, according to a new survey.

Once a common sight on everything from Robertson’s jam jars to Noddy storybooks, increasing backlash over their alleged racist origin has meant golliwogs began to fade in popularity in the 1970s and have now all but disappeared from public display.

In 2009, Carol Thatcher was widely criticised for comparing mixed-race tennis played Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to a golliwog, while local disputes over golliwogs displayed in shops and cafes continue to crop up in the news.

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To their detractors, the visual design of golliwogs - pitch-black skin, bushy hair, goggling eyes, bright red lips and striped trousers - is unmistakably based on outdated and hurtful caricatures used by blackface minstrels.

But to their defenders, the rag dolls are not meant to represent real humans, and those who see similarities to racist caricatures are simply mistaken.

Golliwogs are based on the character of the same name who featured in a series of late 19th century children’s books by American author Florence Kate Upton, who in turn said she based the character on a figurine.

Polling company YouGov worked with Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University, London, to conduct a wide-ranging study on contemporary British attitudes towards golliwogs.

Overall, 63% of those surveyed believed that selling or displaying a golliwog was not racist, although a lower number - 53% - said that doing so was “acceptable”.

The poll subdivided respondents by their age, political affiliation and vote in the EU referendum.

Leave voters were the demographic least likely to object to golliwogs, with 81% saying the dolls were “not racist”, compared to 9% who said they were. Among Remain voters, those figures were 48% and 33% respectively.

Those who voted Conservative in the general election were also far more likely to defend golliwogs than those who voted Labour, while Liberal Democrats voters were the most likely to consider them unacceptable and racist.

On the surface, the public appears to be ambivalent on the acceptability of golliwogs, with a slim majority coming out in favour of the dolls.

However, the data found that attitudes among young people, who by and large would not have fond memories of golliwogs as childhood toys, differ significantly from those of their elders.

Respondents aged 18-24 were the demographic most likely to object to golliwogs, with 45% saying they were “not acceptable” and 31% judging them to be racist.

The 18-24-year-olds surveyed were also three to five times likelier than those aged 65+ to choose “don’t know” as their answer, perhaps indicating that golliwogs have disappeared from mainstream society so completely that many in the younger generations are unfamiliar with them.