Black and Blue.

What a change today is from the past few weeks of rain and misery. Glorious sunshine cascading over many places across the country with clear blue skies, i can hear bells ringing from the town centre, and it's the same temperature inside as it is out which is turning me into one hot tomale. And while i kill the hours with some needed r&r i thought I'd look up one thing that got me interested recently.

Last weekend when my parents came to visit and bring up some gifts for my birthday they brought one thing which I'd been wanting for a while since i saw them in shops. A brand new Golliwog doll. Now whatever you may think about them they will always be labelled by racism, but to me these dolls are no such things. If you were to look upon those dolls and say they were racist by today's standards, then i think that's more racist actually branding them in that way. I have friends that are Asian, Spanish, French, and black, so when i look at those dolls i don't see a black person but an iconic image. You have to admit they do look cute or the latest versions do that miraculously seem to have invaded shops despite recent events with Carole Thatcher, one of the Queen's gift shops and an incident involving police after the daughter of a woman placed her old Golliwog doll in her living room window to the much annoyance of neighbours. Hopefully as a nation and a global population we have gotten passed the original intention of Golliwogs and can accept that they can be just adorable characters rather than objects of hate and racial stereotyping. I don't want to make this sound that i approve of Golliwogs, so to be clear I am all for Golliwogs as characters but i am not for the propaganda or racist cartoons which are intended as derogatory commentary.
Another point i was interested in was the racial term "Sambo". I've been called it many times but that's because it's my name, the same as calling me Samuel (which I'm not, just plain Sam) or Sammy (the shammy). You would think that the name originally came from American southern states were segregation and racial prejudice was rife up till the late sixties (and still some areas today), but surprising to me it actual originates from Britain. Specifically Morecambe.
As stories go during the height of the British Empire a Caribbean slave ship docked into Morecambe bay for supplies. Days later after they'd left port, the crew on ship noticed one of the black staff was missing and had been left ashore. His name was Sambo. They never returned for him which resultantly caused the townspeople to shun him into living on the outskirts of the town till his final days. There's even a monument were Sambo supposedly died marked "Sambo's Grave".

Minstrels - original product of racism?

What is even more interesting is that both the name Sambo and the Golliwog origins are linked together. Scottish writer Helen Bannerman first published a children's book whilst living in India before the turn of the 20th century titled The Little Black Sambo. The story itself focuses on a little Indian boy called Sambo who outwits a bunch of hungry tigers. Sambo is also an Indian word of Hindu origin so it seems sense to have a story with a related name. However as the book was published across both Europe and the US the original drawings from the book were changed gradually so that Sambo both had progressively darker skin and curlier hair. The comparison was then inevitable that the character in the book started to look like the already existing Golliwogs and made even more impact on the fact Sambo was now prominently used in the US as a racial slur for blacks. Things like this are always amusing to me when the context of original articles is taken beyond original intention. But this is how unfortunately both the use of Sambo and prominence of Golliwogs continued to develop with stronger association of racial contexts.
I also found digging around that there is a change of restaurants in the US called Sambo's still open today from its original founding in 1957. This particular chain uses characters based on The Little Black Sambo artwork but in a positive difference uses a clearly defined cartoon Indian boy and tiger.

Now for news I've been hoping for a long time, Jamie Cullum's latest album is finished! That news and more updates can be found on his Twitter page (don't use it myself, as you can see I'd be useless at limited character blogging). Below is a sneak peek of what is to come, hopefully all the 20 tracks will be released as 12 with 8 bonus tracks in some form because if not that'd be a big shame. JC is currently thinking up the albums title but to me the one on the CD would be just fiiiine. And props on the 'metrosexual hat' featured at the top.

Last note, congratulations to Fred (Frederick Bowers) on getting through to the live semi's of Britain's Got Talent. I can officially say i knew him before he was famous now.