"On the other hand, there are references to black or other colored skin that have nothing to do with race. For example:

      No ragman, no hangman, foolish man or whiddy
      But she's now in the arms of a black chimney sweeper."
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Or in the traditional British song 'The Brown Girl' where it's a class thing: anyone with a suntan would spend a lot of time outdoors and would therefore be working class. The gentry (female gentry anyway) were pale.