The arrogance of the British never ceases to astound me.

"It is another matter, however, when traditions are bowdlerised or otherwise mutilated at the behest of outsiders who do not understand them or their context, and may indeed never actually have seen them or met the people of whose lives they are a part."

Which cuts both ways, Malcolm. Times have changed, and those in
Brtian and the US who now so stubbornly resist discontinuing the use of blackface, be it mumming or morris, are being reactionary and racist, regardless of the historic contexts of either. We live in THIS era, in THESE societies. We cannot selectively choose to embrace one traditional aspect of blackface make-up by whites, while simulatneously choosing to ignore another sinister and odious traditional aspect of blackface make-up by whites in both Britain and Ireland, just because we want to keep doing it. Especially considering that the morris dancers can't prove one way or the other that their tradition of using blackface wasn't influenced by the use of the blackface minstrel show tradition common in both Britain and the US in the 19th and early 20th century.

Don't like being labelled a racist? Simple. Stop using and defending the use of blackface in public performance by morris dancers and mummers.