No, from my reading the blacking tradition and the complaints around it are an unecessary side track from the overall issue at hand (a red herring as it were)
I dunno - the issue could be seen as a gift to the BNP, so it's very important to be absolutely clear what lies behind the tradition. Already some people have made a kneejerk reaction and gone onto 'political correctness gone mad' autopilot without considering the inextricable linking of the 'n' word with the border tradition.