Are the new $295 "Limited Edition"Golliwog dolls beloved cultural artifacts or racist memorabilia? To those who grew up with the toys and the books they are based on, these dolls carry about them an air of sweet nostalgia. The website copy reads "A hero from days gone by has returned." My first reaction, however, upon seeing one was: How could they not be construed as racist? Golliwog dolls -- or, "Gollys" -- are astonishingly offensive figures, with wild frizzy hair and pop eyes, caricatures of American minstrels who were, in turn, caricaturing African-American men.

The Golliwog was born in the late 19th century in a series of children's books by Florence Kate Upton. They were probably not meant to be racist, merely reflecting the prevailing ideas of African-American masculinity at the turn of the century as filtered through the mind of a little girl. Upton's mother, Bertha, co-authored the books, hoping to save some money for her daughter's art school education. In The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg, the illustrated character Golliwog made his debut festooned in the garish outfit of minstrelsy. The Times of London wrote:

We know that Miss Upton, who was born in Flushing, New York, to English parents and moved to Britain when her father died, had a black doll when she was a child, and that she thought it was a rather ugly fellow. Her Golliwogg, she said, "was born of no deep, dark intentions, nor was he the product of a decadent craving for ugliness on the part of his creator. He simply walked quietly side by side with me out of my own childhood."

The term "Golliwog" is still in use. Earlier this year Carol Thatcher, daughter of former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher, lost her job at the BBC for refusing to apologize for referring to a mixed race French tennis player as a Golliwog. British broadcaster Floella Benjamin wrote of the incident in The Guardian, "This affair has resurrected the word and given it a new lease of life, rather than it being consigned to history."

And then there are the dolls. Along with Steiff's reissue, there are several other models out there. Until recently, they were on sale at the Queen's country estate, in the gift shop. But that these dolls are now collector's items selling for hundreds of dollars a pop is troubling to me. Racism as a luxury item? That's doubly offensive.

[Image: Amandajm]