No-one has responded to my query :
"I'm interested to hear from any side that has discussed the matter of blackface rationally, considered the evidence, wondered if they might be causing offence and then made a decision to retain the blackface or change to a different colour or drop the blackface altogether."

However Vic Smith has responded with similar sort of examples from his local folk club. Another example of this is that Francis Shergold of Bampton used to sing a song "Rum tum taddle um, old John Braddlum". He wouldn't have known that it was a minstrelsy song, but it does include the N word. But then Reg Hall, their musician, married Claire, from Jamaica, and Francis changed the words to avoid the N word so as not to cause offence. His sister Ruth doesn't sing, but knows the song (it was in the family) but I remember her declining to sing it in company because she would naturally sing the old words.

I used to sing The Shearing's Not for You ... a beautiful tune, but the words (in Stephen Sedley's book The Seeds of Love) indicate that the song is about rape. A re-assessment of my song repertoire many years ago led to that song being dropped.

You have to consider the changing times in which we live. Just because something is, supposedly, traditional, does not mean it HAS to be kept... cock fighting was traditional, so was bear-baiting and hanging....

well, back to Border Morris ... recent posters do not seem to have picked up on this bit of my long message:

<< And now, the plethora of Border Morris sides that black up ... I am sure that they do not set out to be "offensive". But "being offensive" is not in the eye of the perpetrator, it is surely in the eye of the beholder. >>

Incidentally, I found the message from Rick H, the Motley dancer, offensive. I might just email the head teacher and congratulate her on her decision......

Derek




about any sides that black up and who have had the discussion about whether they should or not, based on