Blacking up certainly goes back along way in English Folk Plays and related customs. The practice seemed to get a big influence and a resurgence from the 19C Music Hall acts that incuded white people, blacked up, mocking black people.

None of this is secret but some dancers who black up make no reference to the influence of the music hall on their websites.

The vast majority of English People know little or nothing of morris and care even less. The vast majority of Black People are probably in the same position and would be indifferent to white people blacking up. But some feel uncomfortable and some are offended.

Some respondents on here have said it's only a few, which of course - we don't know, and anyway they don't care. So, this is people putting on entertainment in a public place, they don't know how many people they offend and they don't care.

They dance dances they have made up, to tunes that were almost certainly never and on instruments sometimes invented in the 20C. They wear costumes sometimes unrelated to the custom they claim to be reviving. But they hang on to the a bit of tradition that has one foot in 19C music hall racism.

To be fair many sides in The Border Tradition - Bollin here in Manchester - go and see them they are brilliant - use a range of colour on theie faces

Best wishes