EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

Sounds like bullshit to me. Wearing a mask makes sense if you want to hide your identity. Blackening your face just means you look like you but with a black face that is harder to remove than a mask.

Fuck off.

keep up. I can't cos #brexit

hence the term morris miner

:-D

Don't encourage him!

How is it not more acceptable? Are drag acts inherently misogynist?

As an aside, 'blacking up' hasn't always had racist connotations - at least not in the States:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jolson#Relations_with_African-Americans

From my experience at a Cambridgeshire Morris dancing festival - don't fucking ask - the blacking up aspect comes from when workers would essentially mug their bosses for cash to go out on the piss and didn't want the boss (understandably?) to know which one of their workers it was.

Where I grew up, the Bonfire societies often have blackened faces. I always assumed it was something to do with fire and soot but I'm not really sure.

Another theory that is along the same lines:

One theory is that it started when impoverished 16th century farm workers had to conceal their faces to avoid being recognised while begging during winter, as asking for money was illegal.

not entirely sure what it is you're getting at but i'm really not going to, nor should anyone have to explain why blacking up is considered racist.

Is it racist when ross kemp does it whilst playing soldiers?

absolutely.

That's like saying all skinheads are members of the NF.

We're not talking here about blacking up to simulate black skin, are we - we've established it's meant as some sort of disguise.

no it's not.

tell you what. why don't you black up and take a stroll down west norwood high street. lemme know how you get on.

point is, blacking up is such a sensitive issue, and rightly so, that any attempt to do it regardless of the person doing its intention, is and should be called out. probably best not to do it all, frankly.

i can't believe i'm having this conversation.

out.

That would be antagonistic. A bunch of Morris Dancers partaking in a traditional festival down the town-hall in deepest Somerset isn't.

At the very least, it does not amount to the same thing as blacking up to impersonate a black person. Obviously, if you lived in a particularly multicultural area it could be deemed quite insensitive, but it would still not be the same on account of the motivation behind it.

dunno man, guess we should be asking any black skinned folks in the audience...

You preempted me. I would be curious to hear what they thought, because it's not really for the white people amongst us to take offence.

i'm not offended, as you point out - i have no right to be offended - i just think it's unacceptable and should be challenged.

We can all agree Zwarte Piet shit needs to just stop though. C'mon Dutchies.

But where would you stop? Would you gradually strip back anything that might potentially offend because of some unintended semblance to something else, regardless of whether or not there's even an audience present to take offence?

https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/151/Reductio-ad-Absurdum

If a tree blacks up in a forest....

Fuck me, people on this forum will argue just for the sake of arguing. Must be nice to get home and tell the missus about your day.

"I put up a spirited defence of Blackface on the forum today. I'm pretty sure they'll think twice before disparaging that practice again"

I fell back on that because I was struggling to come up with an appropriate analogy - I'll get back to you.

I'm genuinely interesting in testing my point of view - quite happy to shift my position on this.