I regret to say that there seems to be a lot of resistance to what Azizi is saying. I don't always see eye to eye with her, and I think it has always as far as I remember been obvious that she was black, although I had sort of assumed that there were a number of other black catters.

I have I think mentioned that it was rare to see Azizi's mood lift, that it seemed so often to be anchored to a sombre study of actual or perceived prejudice - but this thread makes it seem clear that we needed and still need the insight that she provides.

We should nonetheless IMHO resist the temptation to airbrush history. A folk song is a folk song. Better not to bowdlerise it and then to discuss its unacceptabe features than to lose or censor the song.

I may not to date have been your staunchest supporter, Azizi, but subject to the above caveat I think I should weigh in for you more, if you so wish.