Carol Thatcher and that Green Room comment (From Hereford Times)

Carol Thatcher and that Green Room comment

3:49pm Friday 6th February 2009

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TWO years ago, the contents of a Bromyard shop became world news.

Police arrived at Pettifers and took away three golliwog dolls from Donald Reynolds’ store following a complaint from the public.

Now thanks to Carol Thatcher’s thoughts on a French tennis player, the subject of whether a golliwog is racist or not is being debated in the national press.

Many perceive the dolls to be an innocent toy but these people, the vast majority who clearly do not hold any racist views, are surely being more than a little naive.

The golliwog can in no way be described as sympathetic to black people and clearly plays on negative racial stereotypes.

And it was the same sort of negative stereotypes that stopped black people from getting jobs and housing not so long ago.

Some people say that ginger people never complain about jokes concerning the colour of their hair, but ginger people never saw their family members hung from trees because of their different locks.

It is a must therefore that people respect history and understand the delicate nature surrounding these emotive issues.

Britain has made great progress since the troubled 1980s when the National Front gained a worrying level of support.

Black people are playing an integral role in the country’s life, not just in sport and music circles, but in business and commerce. And, more importantly, people are no longer noticing their colour when they score important goals for England or win television shows like The Apprentice.

But there is still work to be done as Carol Thatcher proves. To compare a French tennis player and a golliwog is, at the very least, extremely rude and to many people it is certainly racist.

Some social commentators defending Thatcher said she has simply got confused in the same way that a section of older people wrongly use the words “coloured” or “half caste”.

But it is far easier to make apologies for an elderly person who has genuinely tried to act in the correct manner by using the word coloured as they fear that to call someone black would itself be considered racist.

The politically correct brigade have put too much pressure on certain sections of the community who live in largely white areas and never come into contact with people of a different race.

As someone growing up in Hereford, I even heard black friends describe work colleagues and family members as half caste, thinking they were simply explaining a person’s racial origin.

We now know it is much better to call someone mixed race and to describe an African as black as opposed to coloured.

But the offence caused by calling someone a golliwog can in no way be compared to labelling somebody as a half caste.

Most people can now see why half caste is offensive. Why Carol Thatcher could not understand the damage in calling someone a golliwog rightly cost her her job.

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