Just responding to some "facts":


"1. Border Morris has absolutely nothing whatsoever in common with Minstrelsy, although it would appear that Les in Chorlton is not clever enough to notice the difference as he keeps asking the question! To hopefully make it clear for Les, when did you last see a minstrel with a top hat decorated with pheasant feathers, wearing a tatter jacket and bell pads!"


In fact, the repertoire and instruments used in Minstrelsy heavily influenced historic border morris. And in Shropshire there is historical evidence that it was known as "going niggering".


"2. Blacking up as a disguise was banned by act of parliament in the 1700's so there is hard historical evidence that it was a recognised practice"   


Blacking up used by poachers is not the same as people blacking up to dance. Conflating the two things is fallacious academic practice. When Sharp was collecting morris dancing at the turn of the 20th century, he only came across two sides who were blacking up at that time; one would have been Bacup. So if we're being selective about evidence, one could argue that blacking up was never a significant factor in morris. This would be an equally fallacious conclusion to draw without further evidence, but you see how this works.


"3. Morris is NOT sinister or pagan, earliest records of morris are 16th Century, and Suffolk diarist John Oakes records the morris men getting an allowance for bells from the parish church. Even what may appear to some to be a pagan dance, the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, the horns are traditionally kept in the parish church, and blessed in and out!"


While it's true that morris is neither sinister nor pagan, anyone who has seen the real Abbotts Bromley (as opposed to the "woo-woo" iterations) will know that it doesn't feel particularly pagan when they're prancing about to Isle of Capri. Also the practice of keeping the horns in the church is relatively recent - they used to be kept in the pub on the square.


"4. Blacking up is very obviously not an attempt at caricature. The face paint is just part of an elaborate kit, and at the end of the day, black is just the colour of the paint."


Blacking up NOW may not be an attempt at caricature, but there are very definite sources to link historic border morris with minstrelsy. The question is why so many dancers stubbornly refuse to acknowledge this link if they feel that what they're doing is okay. If you're going to "educate" those watching about the history of your tradition, you have to own *all* of that history. Not (ha!) whitewash the inconvenient bits.