Perhaps rhetorically, I ask who determines when enough [eradication of cultural institutions that may not have been meant to be racist but have that effect]are enough? It seems that we are in a time when people can say that such efforts should be halted because it is simply the PC police having their way, when in actuality it is much more than that.

Malcolm Douglas, you wrote "I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss the "disguise" aspect, particularly as that wasn't a guess made by folklorists, but the result of asking performers why they did it."
Are the opinions of contmporary folks a valid way to determine the origins of customs as old as Morris dancing? Couldn't the reasons for the performances have changed or been forgotten over time.

Isn't linguistics one valid way of suggesting the origin of customs? How do contemporary respected authorities account for the Moorish sounding name for this dance genre?

Also, Malcolm, I went to the first website that you recommended and read the Introduction. I do intend to read more about this subject, but I must say that I had a visceral feeling of something that I can't adequately describe with words when I saw the photographs of the black faced actors and read the description. I feel the same thing when I read hsitorical accounts of White Americans who performed as Black faced minstrels.

The whole history of African slavery in the "New world" slavery is so hurtful to me that I go through periods when I can't even study it. But similar to what I heard Jewish people say about the Holocaust, it's important to study the causes of slavery so that we can make sure something as horrendous as this never happens again. It is also important to study the continuing effects of African slavery in Europe, North America, and the Caribbean.

As I said in an earlier posts, the more I read about Morris dancing, I feel that I might very well like the performances without the black face performances. If there are Black people who have watched the black faced versions of Morris dancing and not had a problem with it, perhaps they are emotionally stronger than me-and perhaps not.

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Thanks to all for my welcome on Mudcat. I appreciate your contributions too!