Perhaps Eileen M Laforgue (Letters 2 May) might care to discuss her views on the gollywog being an "innocent toy" with a black person.

First of all, most would advise her the term "black" is perfectly acceptable and far preferable to "coloured".

Secondly, they may well tell her gollywogs offend them and why. Mrs Laforgue may believe it "sick and sad" people are offended by such toys, but a toy which perpetuates an outdated stereotype of black people as "minstrels", whose purpose was to entertain white people (as opposed to being exploited by white people in other ways), is a relic of a time when casual and blatant racism was the norm.

Gollywogs have no place in modern society. Only those who have never paused to give a thought to the history of black people in this country, or their current position in society, would think otherwise.

What is really "sick and sad" is that, over 100 years since the gollywog was created, black people are still being discriminated against, abused, attacked and, at worst, murdered, because ignorance, prejudice and hatred are still all too prevalent.

The gollywog first appeared in a children's book, The Adventures Of Two Dutch Dolls And A Golliwogg, in 1895 and was first described as "a horrid sight, the blackest gnome".

Not such a jolly, friendly chap then, was he?

-M Thomas, Brighton