Folk dress-up as many things and for many reasons. It just may be possible using this reasoning to make a case that 'vicars and tarts' parties - damage the church or encourage prostitution.

Now stopping these themed parties is not going to have bloody effect on religous bigotry or the real problems of prostitution. Nor will attemps to ban mummers etc, have any real effect of the all too real problems of racism - which is not confined to people with black skin anyway.

The case has been made here by very informed posters that there is a big historical difference in the reasons why mummers 'blacken-up' and the reasons why minstrels do (or used to). I am quite sure that most black people can appreciate this difference and can see that attempts to combat racism are actually set back by this simplistic and OTT political correctness, based on ignorance.....

Notting Hill and other carnivals would be very strange affairs indeed if the black and other participants were inhibited from dressing-up and pretending to be anything from aliens to bumble bees.