Cafe owner with golliwog doll on display insists she’s not racist
'It just blends into the background with the other items that have brought people lots of nostalgic happiness.’
A cafe owner has denied being racist after receiving ‘hate mail’ over a decorative mini golliwog doll.
Fay Bates, 54, who runs Daisy’s Cafe in Looe, Cornwall, said the golliwog has sat in a flower pot in the 70s-themed cafe for the past 13 years.
During that time, she claims she has never received a complaint about the two-inch figurine.
But after a customer recently complained, Mrs Bates said she is now receiving a barrage of messages and ‘hate’ online.
Mrs Bates told Cornwall Live: ‘This has been blown out of all proportion. The hospitality industry is struggling for staff because people are being abused whilst working on minimum wage.
‘If it (the golliwog) is offending anybody I’ll happily remove it. It’s been here 13 years and never offended thousands of people. It just blends into the background with the other items that have brought people lots of nostalgic happiness.’
Mrs Bates said she has hundreds of memorabilia items from the 1970s in the cafe, which is reportedly rated as number one in its area on TripAdvisor.
She claimed the woman who complained about the doll was verbally abusive to staff and that she has since been branded a racist on Facebook.
She added: ‘I’m 54, a bit old school and lose track of what you can and can’t say but all this person had to do was ask nicely for it to be removed and I would have done so.
‘I’m really not racist. I’m from Leicester which is a multicultural city and have had people from all over the world in this café.’
Mrs Bates said that herself and staff at the cafe have ‘grafted for 13 years’ and that she felt like someone was trying to ‘wipe me out overnight’.
She labelled the claims as ‘just vindictive’ and said she had ‘never had a problem with anyone before.’
The golliwog is a black fictional character created by Florence Kate Upton for children’s books in the late 19th century.
The dolls, which were a mascot for Robertson’s jam until 2001, are now widely regarded as a symbol of racism for their exaggerated features.
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