Store Removes ‘Racist’ Dolls
Stockholm’s most prestigious department store, Nordiska Kompaniet (NK), has had to remove a set of black ragdolls from Christmas window display after receiving a number of complaints from concerned customers. A visit to NK’s Christmas displays has been a part of Stockholmers’ staple holiday traditions ever since 1915. This year’s theme was “A dream Christmas”. Puppies, dragons and polar bears danced side-by-side with sugar plum fairies and what appeared to be golliwogs. When the windows were first available for public consumption, one featured three of the black dolls emerging from a Christmas package. The store got plenty of mails in which customers complained about the black dolls who looked like golliwogs. A golliwog is a black ragdoll that was inspired by black face minstrel dolls. Blackface Actors in American minstrel shows and comedies often stereotyped black people as bumbling idiots. The British golliwog was originally a literary character created by English author and illustrator Florence Kate Upton in the late 19th century. For this reason the ragdolls or in this case the golliwogs were considered to be racist and inappropriate. The golliwog character was also used as the mascot of British jam manufacturer James Robertson & Sons from 1910 until the company’s products were boycotted as offensive in the early 1980s. The dolls were immediately removed from the window and replaced by other toys.
