JedMarum, as a result of my posting on Mudcat, I've "met" a number of people who are "more inclined to acting colorless". And I am glad that there are folks who realize that people's skin color should be nothing but a valueless descriptor.

As I indicated, I don't know that "Dublin In The Rare Ould Times" song. I didn't think I was implying that you wrote the song and I didn't know whose website Jack Campin was referring to. I've never visited that website. If that is your website and if indeed there are indeed "a whole bunch of reactionary attitudes [on the writer's website], bordering on fascism", that doesn't necessarily mean that you agree with what they wrote. My apologies if my post conveyed that.

At least by the 18th century, the "skin as black as coal" descriptor was usually considered to be a negative reference. While the singer in that particular song may have been more focused on the girl that broke his heart, I'm still not convinced that that "black as the coal" phrase was meant to be just a mere informational descriptor. You suggested that that phrase was similar to the singer noting that "she ran off with a football player" or "She married a Tory MP" or "They drove off in their Range Rover". Pardon me if I still doubt that-unless those descriptors are meant to convey some information that is not only something extraordinary, but also something that has a negative connotation.

In other words, not only do I think that the woman running off with a man who was Black was an extraordinary happening, but I think that it is possible that the man being Black could be considered by some folks hearing (reading) this song as a circumstance that made the girl's running off even worse than it would otherwise have been.

My statements shouldn't be construed to mean that I think that the composer of that song was a racist. Perhaps the composer was just capturing a sentiment that made the woman's breaking up with the singer even more dramatic than it would had been if she left him for another White man.

It's true that you can't always interpret history using contemporary attitudes (and I'm assuming that this song is old). However, in my opinion, a comparable contemporary attitude is that held by those White people who have opined that it's bad enough that Republican candidate John McCain lost the Presidential campaign, but that he lost to a Black man makes his losing even worse.

Most Mudcatters may not think this way, but do you doubt that there are some folks who do think this way?