I know I said I was gone, but sanctimonious pieties of Ruth Archer and Derek Schofield have driven me back.

The evidence noted by Cats indicates that "blacking up" preceded minstrelsy. Even Ruth Archer cited a reference to the practice from the mid-seventeenth century. Certainly, these and related practices became conflated with minstrelsy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. And this, if I understand her, is at least one of the pillars upon which her arguement stands. "Darkie Days" is related historically - to a certain, if unclear degree - to black face minstrelsy, and hence is 'inappropriate' and worthy of censor (self-censor or otherwise). Alright then, let's look at North America and consider a hypothetical scenario -

a. minstrelsy is offesive
b. cultural practices and artifacts related to or derived from minstrelsy are inappropriate and should be ended.

Now let's take a look at what we lose. Blackface minstrelsy was far more complex than the Ruth Archers and Derek Schofields of the world would have us believe. Minstrelsy was one of the primary mediums (not the first and not the only, though) through which white and black musical forms and styles cross-fertilized and mingled. The distinctive folk and popular forms of North American music were created through this process of hybridization. Do you enjoy jazz, ragtime, country, blues and rock and roll? Minstrelsy lies within the family tree of all. But minstrelsy is offensive, so into the garbage they go.

For a more balanced view of the significance of minstrelsy than you'll find in the screeds of Ruth Archer and others, try the following:

Eric Lott, Love and Theft (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993)

William Mahar, Behind the Burnt Cork Mask (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999).

Dale Cockrell, Demons of Disorder (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997)

Hans Nathan, Dan Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962)

"Early Banjo Tunes and American Syncopation," The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Oct 1956), pp. 455-472

And there's plenty more where that came from. You might want to do a little homework before making blanket statements about a topic of which you seem to know so little. But that requires time and effort of mind, and it's so much easier to pile up on someone else's tradition and take some local custom out of context for your own ego gratification.

I'm not even defending blacking up, I'm defending the right of the residents of Pastow to conduct local traditions as they see fit. Traditions develop and evolve out of give and take between myriad competing and mutually reinforcing influences. "Darkie Days" may fade away, or it may evolve into something related yet qualitively different. Either way, it's noone else's goddamn business. I would not introduce "blacking up" into anyone's school program - and noone has suggested it should be. I am arguing that a local event should be understood in a local context. Someone who really had any respect for cultural differences wouldn't be trying to impose their luke-warm, politically correct, university jargon-ridden misunderstandings on someone else's party.