The US director Spike Lee recently made a very powerful statement about the historic minstrel traditions which used blackface, to comment upon the sad state of "black entertainment" in the US being tragically dumbed down a la 'Amos and Andy'. He took a lot of heat from the US African American community, most of whom were appalled by the comparison between present day black tv sitcoms & the blackface minstrel tradition.

There are some American folk musicians, notably Michelle Shocked, who actually dared to explore this historic racist musical tradition (ie the blackface minstrel tradition) from a white perspective. But because she is much less known than Spike Lee, her album didn't cause near the controversy.

Additionally, I believe the time has come to remove the racist "Turk" stereotypes where they occur as well. Along with the racist Asian stereotypes, etc.

We don't need those traditions anymore, but we most certainly need to leave ALL those racist traditions behind. They simply have no place in the living traditions of contemporary societies, except in museums, history archives, etc.