Interesting thought, Crow Sister. That might parallel voodoo ritual too.


Royston, there are at least four things we do not know about the "niggering" quote.

We do not know whether it is a foolish modern usage that tells us nothing about the tradition.

We do not know whether it is a malevolent modern usage that tells us something about the writer but nothing of the tradition.

We do not know whether it was a Victorian period writing tainted by the casual racism of that period.

We do not know whether the description predates that period (compare the northern descriptions of vertical rock crevices as "arses" that so offended the Victorians that maps now show such features called eg "Great House").


Unless and until we learn the origin of the writing in question we cannot evaluate it, and it does not inform our understanding of whether any blackface tradition is racist or not.