Golly, Don't Call Me A Golli!

Do you have any idea what a golliwog is? I didn't either, but I now know you shouldn't call somebody by that name. One of the top stories in the newspapers today (they've grown tired of weather and bank bailouts) is about the decision of the BBC to ban any further appearances by Carol Thatcher, a British journalist and the daughter of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Her crime is that while she was waiting to go on air in a green room she commented that someone looked like "the golliwog on the jam jar when I grew up." Sounds like a one-eyed green monster to me, but someone took it as a racist slur and complained. The BBC, which is worse than any American media outlet for enforcing political correctness, reacted by banning Thatcher from its network. Some say the BBC is simply getting even with the mother by tormenting the daughter. For the record, I looked up "golliwog" and found that it is, according to Ferris State University, "the least known of the major anti-Black caricatures in the United States." FSU goes on to note that "For the past four decades Europeans have debated whether the Golliwog is a lovable icon or a racist symbol." I guess we know the BBC's answer to that debate.