Guest:
"However, if I were in a group that that did that and was was fed up with:
1. categorical statements about there being no pre-minstrel evidence for blacking (of any sort)
2. non-black people telling me that black people were offended when I didn't see any evidence of that."

1. In all the posts on this subject I don't think anybody has ever claimed 1.

2. As I have said before to the point of exasperation: almost nobody knows or cares about Morris dancing but I know people from many communities in multicultural Manchester and beyond who are somewhere between uncomfortable and offended by white people blacking up for a public display that has its roots deeply in 19C Minstrelsy - and refusing to acknowledge that simple fact - and preferring to claim the root is in mumming in anytime between 16C and 19C even though they can find no direct link between such mumming and 'darkie days' and Border Morris.

Ms/Mr Morris-ey
"It is and always has been the case that people choose to be offended by what others do".

Really? Well, I guess you must be right. But I don't choose to be offended by for example people telling me outright racist jokes - I am simply offended - and I bet you are too. I don't choose to be offended by for example by people telling me lies - I am simply offended - and I bet you are too.

So that's the way I feel about white people blacking up for a public display that has its roots deeply in 19C Minstrelsy - and refusing to acknowledge that simple fact.