Row of Essex ‘racist dolls’ pubs continues as GMB presenter explains how offensive the term ‘golly’ is to him

[ad_1]

A pub in Grays which was raided by Essex police who seized 15 golliwog dolls which the owners had displayed above the bar continues to be at the center of a heated row over what is and is not offensive. The White Hart Inn brought in six police officers on April 4 following a hate crime complaint against the pub.

Golliwog dolls are now considered a racist and deeply offensive caricature of black people, but many who grew up with them say they don’t think they are offensive.

One such person is pub owner Benice Ryley, who said she has been displaying the collection of around 30 dolls, donated by her late aunt and her customers, in the pub for almost 10 years. She told the PA news agency she couldn’t understand why people might find them offensive and said they were part of her “childhood story”.

Read more: NHS nurse slips into coma after suddenly collapsing on holiday in Hungary

Even Home Secretary Suella Braverman weighed in on the argument saying she told Essex Police it was a waste of time to go to the pub. Notably, Essex Police said they had not been contacted by the Home Secretary.

The row continued with Good Morning Britain presenter Adil Ray having a ‘heated exchange’ with Conservative Transport Secretary Mark Harper over the Home Secretary’s comments. Adil also explained why the dolls are offensive, saying he himself had been compared to their appearance when he was growing up, and now those remarks had started again on social media since Ms Braverman’s comments.

Adil Ray, one of the presenters of Good Morning Britain (Image: ITV)

Adil said, “Do you think it’s fair that she be [Suella Braverman] fiery racists and I get this abuse? I didn’t realize that until two weeks ago, Mr. Harper. I wasn’t getting all those pictures of golliwogs. Why am I getting them now?

“I was called Golliwog at school. I suffered racial slurs at school. And the Home Secretary said the police were wasting their time going to a pub owner and talking to him for posting them in his pub. Is it correct? Would you do the same if you were Minister of the Interior? »

The minister replied: “It is clear that if you receive abuse on social networks, it is clearly wrong. But the people responsible for any abuse you receive on social media are the ones sending it to you.

Adil fired back: “It really upsets me. Why can’t you just say it was a bad thing? »

“Adil, to be fair, I try to answer your questions and every time I try to answer your questions, you interrupt me. So listen, I’m trying to answer your questions reasonably,” Mr. Harper said.

“Police make operational decisions based on law enforcement. It’s up to them. I don’t think it’s helpful for ministers to guess.

He added: “I don’t think people should post them. I wouldn’t post them, I don’t think it’s very useful at all.

But Mr Harper said he does not believe the Home Secretary is ‘responsible’ for the behavior of those directing online abuse against Mr Ray.

A source close to Ms Braverman said her dissatisfaction with the incident had been conveyed to the force, as Mail Online first reported. The outlet quoted a Home Office source as saying the police force ‘shouldn’t get involved in this kind of nonsense’ and instead focus on ‘catching criminals’.

Essex Police later denied being reprimanded by the Home Secretary.

Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak with Superintendent Claire Talbot and PFCC Roger Hirst of Essex Police (Image: Essex Police)

The Home Secretary, who once railed against ‘tofu-eating wokerati’, is seen as a divisive figure for her remarks on migration and ‘culture war’ issues.

Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a fellow senior Tory, was among the figures to denounce what she described as ‘racist rhetoric’ by Ms Braverman earlier in the week, telling LBC: ‘I think the Prime Minister needs to send a very strong message that this kind of rhetoric, whether it’s on small boats, whether it’s the things she was saying on the weekends that are not evidence-based, not nuanced, not explanatory at all, it has to stop.

“And you know, again today we woke up to a story where she is going after the police for removing golliwog dolls from a pub.”

READ NEXT:

[ad_2]