Those dratted golliwogs again
The son of an artist at the centre of a row over a school mural featuring a golliwog last night insisted his father was ‘no racist.’
But Henry Westwater said he could understand why the image, which sparked an on-going police investigation, was controversial – and would have no objection if it was replaced.
It was reported yesterday that a complaint about the 1930s painting - by RH Westwater - had been logged by Police Scotland as a ‘hate incident’.
Visiting parent Margaret Rocha, 43, who is herself black, made an official complaint after touring Wardie Primary School in north Edinburgh with her son who was at that time a prospective pupil.
The image is contained in a mural, based on Alice in Wonderland, which was lovingly restored two years ago and now takes pride of place in the school’s assembly hall.
Last night Henry Westwater, 74, of Tain, Inverness-shire, said golliwogs had once been common, though he could understand why the image had proved offensive.
But he suggested treating the situation as a ‘hate incident’ may be a flawed approach and said that while he would not want part of the mural to be ‘hacked out’, he could understand why some would want the golliwog image to be removed.
Mr Westwater said: ‘It was painted in 1936, when people’s perception of things was somewhat different.
‘I remember that I had a golliwog when I was a small boy; many children did. They used to be popular.
Source
3 comments:
Yes, just pretend the past never happened, and replace the mural based on a book by a 19th century British author with one by a 20th century British author - Orwell's "1984", as it would be an appropriate response to the 21st century complaints and history-blind PC-laws.
Let's destroy all art that is offensive or doesn't meet the government standards. We should also do the same with music and literature. This way no one is offended and we can ensure that all art, literature, and music contains only state approved subject materials. That kind of thinking sounds familiar for some reason but I can't put my finger on it. Perhaps they just haven't gotten around to teaching that in my government approved, multiculturally sensative history course.
3:28 - you came dangerously close to terminating this thread according to "Godwin's Law", but for good or ill your history course seems never to have gotten around to mentioning that other N-word.
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