Firstly, this thread is about blacking up for morris - Padstow Darkie Day is something rather different and has been discussed at length elsewhere.

The question of whether blacking up by modern sides may give offence is a tricky one. There is nothing else in the costume, music or dancing to even suggest any reference to black people.

Les, with respect I am a little surprised at your blanket taking offence at blacking up, regardless of circumstances. I understand it where it is clearly in imitation of a black person, but I should have thought you would have been able to differentiate other situations. What about military camouflage? What about a recent TV programme where two people used make-up to change race, to experience the other's situation? Since there is no racial element, what is different about morris?

It is true that some local authorities have raised objections, but they are notoriously quick to see imagined offence to ethnic minorities when none is actually taken (compare with nativity plays, carols and "Winterval" for example).

On the one hand, my instinct is to be defensive about our own traditions when people try to stop them on the grounds of a misunderstanding of the basis for blacking up. I don't think we should necessarily give in to the PC brigade.

On the other hand, we must recognise that we now live in a multi-racial society and that we should try to avoid giving offence, even where the offence is based on a misunderstanding. If someone is offended by seeing blacked up morris dancers they are unlikely to stick around for an explanation. Also, it is clear from the responses on this thread that the actual colour was of less significance than the masking aspect, so perhaps we shouldn't get too hung up over using black rather than other colours.

I think it is up to individual sides to decide whether to continue blacking up or to use another colour, on the basis of the response they receive from their audiences. The experience of a side based in a multi-cultural town or city is likely to be rather different from that of a rural side in a predominantly white area.