The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #76375   Message #1355854
Posted By: GUEST,Barrie Roberts
13-Dec-04 - 03:12 PM
Thread Name: Mummers and Racism
Subject: RE: BS: Mummers and Rascism
How about the British tradition (kept up until very recently) of paying a chimney-sweep to attend your wedding, because the presence of a black-faced person was deemed fortunate? What about the fact that many of my neighbours, who are mostly Asian taxi-drivers, eran heavy tips on New Year's Eve by being invited to 'First-foot' at their passengers' homes after midnight. The first-foot tradition revolves around the idea that the first person to set foot in your house after the New Year turns should be a) a stranger, and b)as dark as possible. These seem to imply that there's a longstanding connection in British folk belief between black people and good fortune. Still, if some PC prat wants to abolish it, of course he must be allowed to, in the sacred name of liberality, so often used as a mask for idiocy, bullshit or even concealed hosrility.