Popular craft sales site Etsy has been accused of racism for selling memorabilia from a time when blacks were largely not appreciated for their full humanity. A person-to-person sales engine similar to eBay, Etsy connects buyers and sellers who create or curate handmade and unique goods ranging from dishes to dresses. But alongside a hand-knitted tea cozy, consumers can also purchase Black Sambo ashtrays and Aunt Jemima cookie jars using the e-commerce engine.
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Such items became popular during a time in America’s history when blacks were segregated by law in several states and forced to live as de facto second class citizens in most others. Additionally, the use of black people as objects portrayed in garish, generalized outlines — with popping eyes above rubbery lips, framed with wild hair — occurred in part because seeing blacks as “less than” was the norm then. These stereotypes rendered in concrete form are so closely associated with the open racism of that era, it is not hard to imagine why dealing in these collectibles would be deemed insensitive.
A woman named Raquel Mack has translated her personal outrage against Etsy’s decision to sell Mammies, Sambos, and more into action. Having started a Change.org petition demanding that Etsy halt the sale of such items, she points out in the wording that these sales violate the company’s anti-discrimination policy — and that the NAACP has already confronted the company over the issue.
“Etsy is refusing to follow the policies that they implemented for themselves early last year (2011) that would prohibit the sale of ‘…items that promote, support, or glorify hatred toward or otherwise demean people based upon: race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation,'” Mack notes on her online petition. In response to the NAACP, Mack states that the San Francisco-based entity told the civil rights group: “[O]ur members come from all walks of life, and may hold differing opinions of the legitimate collectibility of certain types of historical items.”
TheGrio reached out to Etsy for confirmation regarding the complaint made by the NAACP, in addition to commentary on Mack’s petition. Etsy press representative Adam Brown refrained from commenting on the implication that Etsy is tolerant of the sale of products that are offensive to African-Americans by carrying things that appear to violate the company’s anti-discrimination policy. Etsy did not comment on a possible interaction with the NAACP.
“We encourage our members to report or ‘flag’ items or sellers they feel are not compliant with Etsy’s marketplace policies, which they can do via a link on every listing or shop page,” Brown told theGrio over email. “We can’t comment on private communications or on specific cases, but we do review every report that we get from the community and evaluate them on an individual basis. Etsy policies are written to balance community values with a desire to allow creative expression.”
Some are questioning why the online seller, which does not feature similar items that might offend people of other minority groups, defends the right of certain buyers to access such imagery via the site.
Lindy West of women’s site Jezebel offers, “I mean, I GUESS the historical ‘artifacts’ can maybe be justified as perverse collectors’ items for people who want to maintain an awareness of our nation’s ugly past.” Yet that does not explain why so many Etsy sellers are in fact marketing newly made items such as dolls made to order — even patterns for creating your own golliwog doll.
Of the 70 pieces that the petition cites as violating the Etsy policy, many are related to versions of a controversial figure known as the golliwog. A black character that is primitive in appearance, it has been popular in Europe for decades. The golliwog could be compared to America’s Sambo — but is a lot more sinister.
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“The Golliwog is characterized by jet black skin, bulging white-rimmed eyes, disproportionately big red lips and a shock of black frizzy hair and is essentially a ‘minstrel doll,'” Mack explains. “Writer Enid Blyton adapted the [golliwog] to her Noddy books. They were consistently horribly ugly black creatures who were rude and nasty and always villains.”
Richard Seymour of The Guardian expounds on this history further in a piece decrying the doll’s continuing popularity in Great Britain.
“Perhaps it would be useful to discuss the tradition of dehumanising racist caricature to which these dolls belong. The English-American author Florence Upton invented the golliwog in a series of picture books produced at the onset of the Jim Crow laws, which mandated racial segregation in the American South. She described the character as ‘a horrid sight, the blackest gnome.’ He was clothed in the same apparel as the black-faced minstrels then prevalent in Europe and North America,” Seymour writes.
“He had thick lips, unruly black hair, and his hands and feet were paws,” the writer continues. “The golliwog, like many related stereotypes of ‘primitive’ black people (‘picaninnies,’ minstrels, ‘mammies’ and so on), quickly found a commercial market, producing a flood of cartoons and advertising imagery.”
There have been many efforts in Europe to encourage the public to understand that the golliwog is seen as dehumanizing to blacks — and have it banned. Still, golliwog dolls persist in enchanting certain market segments — and Etsy is willing to meet this demand, even at the expense of offending blacks and others who are sensitive to what these dolls symbolize.
“The issue I have is that a lot of the items in question may not be vintage,” writes Yesha Callahan of Clutch Magazine regarding the controversy. “There are patterns being sold for people who’d be interested in making their own Golliwog dolls. Why anyone would want to purchase a pattern to make their own is beyond me. There is definitely a place for different types of nostalgic items to be bought and sold, but if Etsy has policies then maybe Etsy should abide by their own rules.”
Follow Alexis Garrett Stodghill on Twitter at @lexisb.