Race This article is more than 9 months old

Online sellers take down ‘offensive’ listings for golliwog dolls

This article is more than 9 months old

Removal of ads on eBay and Etsy comes as new survey reveals more people now regard the toys as racist

Online retailers have removed listings for the sale of golliwog dolls amid new evidence that more people now regard the toys as racist.

Collectors have continued to trade golliwog dolls on eBay and Etsy under the less offensive label “golly dolls”. On Wednesday afternoon, eBay listings included a “vintage golly soft toy” in with a starting bid of £14.99 and a “collectible plush golly by Lesser & Pavey” with an upper bid of £36.

Since then eBay has taken down the items as they breach its policy on the sale of offensive material.

A spokesperson said: “We have removed these listings flagged to us by the Guardian, which are against our policies and have no place on eBay.

“We use automatic block filter algorithms that aim to prevent offensive products from being listed on site and perform additional checks on the marketplace to identify and remove listings that do not comply with our policies.”

The site also pledged to undertake a “global sweep” to check for similar listings that breach its policy.

The site’s banned material includes: “Items with racist, antisemitic, or otherwise demeaning portrayals, for example through caricatures or other exaggerated features, including figurines, cartoons, housewares, historical advertisements, and golliwogs.”

On Wednesday morning Etsy listed a collection of 11 Robertson jam golliwogs and a “vintage handmade folk art black African”. Both items were removed after queries from the Guardian.

A spokesperson confirmed that they had been taken down for breaching the site’s prohibited items policy, which bans items “that promote, support or glorify hatred”.

She added: “It is important to understand that Etsy is not a curated or juried marketplace, meaning sellers run their own shops, create, sell and ship their own products, and are responsible for complying with our policies. We monitor the site both manually and through automatic controls, and users are able to report problematic listings via our site-wide flagging tool.”

Golliwog dolls are also banned on Amazon, and while the site was still selling knitting patterns for golly dolls earlier on Wednesday, they had been removed by late afternoon.

A new survey of more than 3,000 people conducted by YouGov for Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University, London, found that 27% now regard selling or displaying golliwogs as racist, compared with 20% when a similar survey was conducted six years ago. The results, published by the Conversation, found that the proportion of people who do not regard this as racist fell from 63% to 48% since 2017.

The survey also found a sharp age gap on the issue. Almost three-quarters (74%) of those aged 65 and over said selling or displaying golliwogs was not racist, whereas only 13% of 18- to 24-year-olds shared this view.

There is also a clear political divide on golliwogs. Only 13% of Conservative voters who voted Brexit think selling or displaying golliwogs is racist, compared with 47% of Labour remain supporters.

Meanwhile, Camra, the Campaign for Real Ale, is conducting a review of how its Good Pub Guide recommended the White Hart Inn in Grays, Essex, where a display of golliwog dolls was removed by police last week.

In its recommendation, the guide highlights the pub’s “extensive collection of old-fashioned soft toys”. It was also awarded Pub of the Year by Camra’s South West Essex branch.

In a statement, Camra said: “Pubs should be welcoming and inclusive places and it’s baffling that any pub would choose to discriminate against customers or potential customers by continuing to display offensive material.”

It said its 2018 guidelines state that “no pub should be considered for an award if it displays offensive or discriminatory material on the premises, or on social media associated with the pub”.

It added: “We are currently discussing why this guidance was seemingly ignored by our South West Essex branch and instructing them not to consider the White Hart, Grays, Essex, for future awards, or inclusion in our Good Beer Guide, while these discriminatory dolls continue to be on public display. We’d encourage anyone to alert us to Camra activity at a branch, or national level, which does not adhere to our values, codes of conduct or policies.”

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