- Down in Australia,
food and toys that I grew up with are being discontinued,
because some groups
suddenly find the names of these products racist.
We're talking about things like lollies and cheese.
F**king Jesus.
So I headed back to my hometown to sort these people out.
Now I haven't seen these products in years,
but I don't remember them being so bad.
For instance, my favorite candy Red, aw shit.
But who doesn't love Chico babies.
And then our favorite cheese, Coon.
Aww, what are you doing, Australia?
So maybe these products didn't age
quite as well as I remember,
but one couple isn't going down without a fight.
- [Announcer] Nana loves her teddies, all 15,000 of them.
- Dave and Jan Robinson own Nana's Teddies and Toys,
located just two hours outside of Sydney.
And these anti-PC crusaders
are defending one very traditional Australian item.
Fuck.
What is this?
- [Jan] They're golliwogs.
(whimsical music)
- Australia.
Meet the golliwog.
Generations of Australians, including me,
have grown up with these black face rag dolls.
The Americans don't know what these are,
but what are golliwogs?
- A golliwog is basically a dark-skinned or black rag doll.
- Why do you think there's been
a push to ban the golliwogs?
- There's a few people in the world that are against it,
and we're not sure weather they don't actually like the doll
because it's a black doll or because of the name.
- [Jim] One of the few people who doesn't like this doll
is activist, author, and filmmaker Dr. Stephen Hagan.
He's fought for the rights of Aboriginal people for years.
- Well, you got to understand the origin of the doll.
- [Jim] Okay, here it goes.
(inhales)
The golliwog first appeared in the 1895 children's book
"The Adventures of the Two Dutch Dolls"
by Florence Kate Upton.
Not to be confused with this Kate Upton.
Based on the tradition of the blackface minstrel,
the enormous success of Upton's book and its many sequels
only increased the popularity of the golliwog
around the world.
So much so that British jam manufacturer Robertson's
used it as official mascot from 1910
'til 19 fucking 88!
Then boycotts eventually lead to its banishment.
Oddly enough,
the first group to officially ban the golliwog,
labeling it as, quote
"an inappropriate toy for young children,"
were the Nazis in 1934.
In fact, the Nazis were so offended,
they also banned actual black people.
(exhales)
Jesus Christ.
- White people don't want to be told
what they can and can't like.
- Why should we lose something that people love?
- Yeah, but a lot of people hate it as well.
- They have a right to be offended if that's their choice.
The same as we have a right not to be.
- Don't you think this one's a bit Aunt Jemima-ry?
- She's still got a smile on her face.
- Still got a smile on her face.
It is a little black minstrel-y though, isn't it?
- A little bit.
- A lot of bit.
Do you feel like we lose the golliwog,
we lose some heritage or history or something like that?
- It's traditional, so why change it?
- The old "it's traditional, so why change it" argument.
Whether it's confederate flags, Black Piet,
and almost everything in the Bible,
people love keeping things exactly as they are.
No matter what.
I decided to move on to other controversial products.
So the Golliwog Biscuit was banned.
Do you think that should've happened,
or you think we should've kept the biscuits?
- Should've kept biscuits. - Should've kept the biscuit.
- There was nothing wrong with it.
It is was a nice (mumbles) biscuit.
- They're gone.
When was the last time you ate Coon cheese?
- Oh, when I was a teenager.
- What if it's in slices?
I don't have it because I shit myself
and I'm lactose intolerant,
but we all have our crosses to bear.
I spoke to an Aboriginal man
who is trying to get rid of Coon cheese.
- But why change the name?
It's been like that for years.
- Yes, it has been that way for years.
But maybe it's time to audition some new names.
What should we rename Coon cheese?
- Why not call it Diary Farmer's Cheese?
- Maybe something that throws back at them
and call it Bigot's.
- I think that'd be a good name for it.
Then no one will eat it then.
- Well-spoken cheese.
That a better name?
I Can't Believe It's Not Racist Cheese.
Guess Which Cheese Is Coming To Dinner.
- Well, there's one. - There's one, not so bad.
- Are things just too PC these days?
- Yes.
- What are we endanger of happening?
- I think we're in danger of having our children
grow up without having as much free thought
and having their opinions
biased and not so much in a good way.
- My argument has always been with racist things,
is that if it was a norm
for your family to tell racist jokes,
you're gonna teach your kids it's okay to make racist jokes.
So when you want to say, oh, is Coon cheese offensive?
No, wasn't offensive to grandfather,
wasn't offensive to Auntie Mary.
- We didn't think of it that way.
- Exactly.
The populace don't believe these food items are offensive
because it's not offensive to them.
- But if I eat Red Skins and I eat Golliwog Biscuits,
does that make me a racist?
- Well, in a way it does.
If you're educated enough to know
that these things offend people of color,
you shouldn't eat them.
- So if you're not part of the solution,
you're part of the problem.
It was clear that Dave and Jan
found no offense to these products.
So decided to ask about certain words.
Does the N word offend you?
- What, n*****? - Yeah.
- It doesn't offend me
because I don't have any real connection with it.
It's not a term I would use.
- Would we be all right with a product
called N Word Fried Chicken?
- Had it can out under the market in Australia
as N***** Chicken,
probably be accepting of it.
- It's like the shoe polish.
- The what? - Yeah, there was
a shoe polish called N*****.
N***** Shoe Polish.
Is was all N***** Show Polish.
- N***** Show Polish.
- Australia's doing wonderful.
But don't get too finger pointy, America.
You've got your own products with racist undertones.
Hit the music.
Aunt Jemima was first introduced in 1889.
The character for her
is the common mammy archetype of the day.
The expression "aunt" is a pejorative term
for a servile black woman.
Which brings us to Uncle Ben.
Same awful roots.
Not those kind of roots.
I'm running out of air here.
Cream of Wheat, also super f**ked up!
Just look at some of these pictures!
How the f**k are companies
still using these characters in their products in 2019?
(inhales and exhales)
And with that, I only had one more thing to ask.
What would you say to a black person
who is offended by these dolls?
- That you're right.
- Yeah, look,
I would actually apologize
that the doll was offensive to them.
- Maybe he's finally starting to get it.
- But there is other products in our store
that obviously don't offend them.
Focus on that.
- Right.
The number one ice cream in Australia,
it has been for years, Golden Gaytime.
- I don't eat ice cream.
- I think the only way it could be offensive
is if in the middle, you put "shower.
Golden Shower Gaytime.