I doubt very much if any black person here has has got too confused about that, GUEST 10 Dec 04 - 02:08 PM (use a name, PLEASE - it gets confusing. Were you the same GUEST as earlier in the thread, who seemed to have a different slant on such things?) And I've often enough seen families with black members taking the same kind of amused interest in Morris Dancers that other people do.

There are serious aspects of racism around, and tackling them head-on is important. But guising traditions which have nothing do do with skin colour, and nothing to do with the American style Minstrel Shows, are a distraction from that - and attacks on such things even make life easier for real racism to dig-in and hold-on.