My point is about context. A morris dancer putting on kit and make-up is preparing for a performance, no less than an actor. In the examples I gave, people can see from the context that the purpose of blacking up is not racist, so no offence is taken. With morris, despite this being a clear enough context with nothing else in it to suggest any caricaturing of black people, the presumption seems to be that blacking up is racist and is offensive. Perhaps this is because morris is an unfamiliar context to most people. The reality is that this interpretation appears to be resistant to any explanation, so (as I conceded earlier) this move is probably necessary. It is the path of least resistance, but I refute the suggestion that it is because morris contains "problematic attitudes".
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