I did a google search on "blacking up", these are the sort of articles that I came across. Does the Morris/ Molly/ Folk world really want to be associated with these sort of activities, whatever the history of Border Morris?

Do these articles represent the reality of what many people will perceive when seeing blacked up Morris/ Molly dancers?


"In February Lewis Hamilton was racially abused by Spanish Formula One fans who dressed up in wigs with blacked-up faces and "Hamilton's family" written on their T-shirts. Then in November four Oxford university rugby students, including the son of Richard Spring MP, the vice-chairman of the Conservative party, were reprimanded for blacking up and wearing loincloths to an African party.

One of the participants, Phil Boon, who was also embroiled in a separate controversy surrounding an event entitled "Bring a Fit Jew to Dinner" said "Blacking up for the Safari Bop was just going along with that theme. We dress up for a lot of parties. I have not had people telling me that either of the themes were offensive."

Yet for some people blacking up is clearly offensive. In 2006 Diane Abbott MP put a motion before parliament calling for the Mummer's Day festival in Padstow to be banned. But local MP Dan Rogerson defended the practice saying "It is not something local people have objected to. The tradition of blacking up is a very old one. It is not something that comes from Padstow, but around the rest of England and I don't think we should be picking on Padstow."