I totally respect those people in whose opinions the golliwog, which appears on the logo of the Beechworth Sweet Co, is offensive. But, in my opinion, it is political correctness gone mad.

If the golliwog reinforces a stereotype, then surely it is a positive one.

After all, when we were kids a golliwog doll was one of the good guys/girls (has anybody ever worked out its gender and decided it might be sexist as well?) and part of our toolbox to keep the monsters away when we went to bed at night.

And, as kids usually love sweets, what can be more positive than a smiling golliwog on the label?

Whoever thought their golliwog was about black people anyway? I don’t know if she is right or not, but in Monday’s Web Words a contributor outlined the history of the golliwog. And it certainly had nothing to do with racism.

What people don’t understand is that actions such as banning golliwogs actually harm the fight against racism by making it a lightweight issue.

Just like the Caroline Wilson beat-up a couple of weeks ago.

The comments that were made had nothing to do with her being a woman. It was about other commentators having a go at her because she’s seen as being controversial and divisive – just like Andrew Bolt and Miranda Devine et al. 

But, sure enough, feminists jumped on the bandwagon, declaring the comments encouraged violence against women. In my experience, it was mostly other women who criticised Wilson for her reaction.

Violence, and domestic violence in particular, is a terrible blight on our society.

But hypocrisy has no place in combating it. Where were the feminists when Germaine Greer said Prime Minister Julia Gillard had a big arse and wore unflattering jackets?

Let’s stick to real, overt discrimination against women and people with disabilities and fight homophobia, racism and ageism.

Disability discrimination became close to my heart after I started working at Aware (Albury Wodonga Area Rehabilitation Employment) Industries in Wodonga six months ago.

Until I walked into the place, I had no idea what it was about and what took place there.

The reality is Aware provides meaningful employment for about 115 supported workers with a wide range of disabilities.

Thankfully, it has the support of some major businesses.

And more are coming on board all the time after key personnel take a tour of our main site.

It is the most enjoyable workplace I have worked at in my 40 years in the workforce.

But it has also taught me that my patronising attitude to people with disabilities, despite thinking it made me a good person, was destructive discrimination.

This became even more apparent to me after I did a short course, run by the National Disability Service, on zero tolerance for human rights abuses and how to counteract it in relation to people with disabilities.

The people who work there are my colleagues, all of us using our skills to work towards a common goal. 

They are not people who I help to “manage”.

And that’s what it is all about, in my opinion. The failure to respect human rights is the overt form of discrimination we should all seek to overcome. That is the way forward to creating a better society.