The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #168182   Message #4062883
Posted By: DMcG
05-Jul-20 - 02:00 AM
Thread Name: Calling time on Blackface Morris
Subject: RE: Calling time on Blackface Morris
DMcG - Is "black or skin tone makeup" the exact wording used? If so, it does seem rather confusing.
Does it mean that "black" is not a skin tone?


It is the exact wording. I put the link to the statement in my opening post so people can read the whole thing.

Personally, I don't find that confusing at all. Again, we are not talking about a legal text, hammered through Parliament and review committees to ensure that it is absolutely clear. Even actual laws can't do that, or we would have fewer lawyers and judicial interpretations of laws. What we are talking about is a number of organisations, aware of the BLM issues, and asking what, if anything, they should do about it. To me, that doesn't even hinge on whether anyone is offended or not: it is simply asking is this a tradition we should cling to, given there are other alternatives?

As for whether black is a skin tone: that seems a diversion. I think that choice of words is, as I said, to discourage a side deciding to adopt Holywood's idea of American Indians, or suchlike.