So the "politics" of Twitter outrage and Facebook abuse have come onto the streets.

Black people in Britain statistically have a lower life expectancy, are more likely to be unemployed, live in poverty or be in gaol.

These things are caused by systems of economic power, privilege, and divide and rule in a capitalist society. Racism is fundamentally about power over others, especially economic power ... not Morris dancing.

It's a wonderful diversion, the right-wing get to wail about "PC gone mad" and liberals get to show-boat their "outrage" without having to fundamentally examine or challenge the society they live in.

The trouble with "Minstrel shows" (there were plenty of other names for them in the past which were far less pleasant), was not just the blacking up. It was the systematic strereo-typing of black people. The "mammy", the lazy bum, the stupid one etc etc. This stereo-typing came out of (mostly) US society and it reflected the racist structures of that society. The music, the actions, the stereo-types (often actually acted by black performers btw) played to the prejudices of the audience, reflected prejudices about African-Americans and rationalised those prejudices in crude forms.

I think you've probably worked out what I'm going to write next ... what has this got to do with Morris dancing? In what way does Morris dancing stereo-type or caricature black people or black peoples culture? In what way does Morris dancing pander to the prejudices of the powerful against the less powerful?

I go back to the shallow meaningless style of "politics" of "Twitter outrage" and the failure of any of them to actually deal with the fundamentals of racism.