Should Morris Dancers Stop Using 'Blackface' During Performances? | This Morning 

Also if you don't like it you shouldn't have stayed watching..trying to destroy our old traditions..

No, because that's tradition, not "blackface." Al Jolson performed in American blackface. There's a huge difference!

Omg..its a tradition.

In germany we have a saying about the scary black man - wich isn´t about people of colour , it´s about the charcoal burners which lived outside the communety in the forests and had a slightly bad reputation because the women seeked their attention for an adventure . Not everything with black has to do with people of colour and disrespecting them.

She got to be on TV

What a joke.

She's confusing 2 unrelated things.

You don't like it don't watch it. Nothing racist at all.

Eh? the ragged crows are not Jim Crow but CORVIDS . She sounds British and she didn’t know anything about Morris dancing! The ragged crow is a spirit guide of the dead. In America where Morris dancing was introduced by Cecil Sharp, the face colour changed recently to blue. Not a good look…. ! Many Morris dances use black half masks now. Is that offensive too?

Blackface is a disguise, an identity, and one time, a necessity...there were often rogues in the teams. The dancers establish themselves as performers...African performers often paint or daub streaks on their face. The argument between what is 'tradition', racism, and just plain everyday usage came up in Jan '22 when someone of Caribbean parentage objected to the street-name "Darkey Lane", and the village folk of Lifton in Devon decided not to change the name... it was based upon the fact that the lane was deep and overgrown.

I suspect that there is nothing that anyone can do or say that won't offend someone somewhere for some reason. Given time, there will be no activities that are allowed for fear of upsetting people.

Probably the top hat and the rags or even certain dancing will be eventually PIC. What about a black covid-19 mask? Or sunglasses?

It is amazing how cultural traditions are now seen through modern eyes and found to be offensive. If it is traditional where is the problem oh yes Americans cultural values inflicted on the world are more important and why refer to the N word if its a word use it we know what it is then use the blessed word out loud.

She could have looked that up on Wikipedia, silly girl!

Look, love blacking up comes from up north, in the miners' dance they all black up!

Recently I watched a Morris side who sported white face paint...am I supposed to be offended too...of course not.

"I'm right so your opinion is invalid"?

If you don't like our English traditions don't live in England.

Ye lets change traditions just because an extremely small minority of people are interpreting it in an offensive way, good idea

The argument that morris dancers blackened their faces as a disguise and the practice pre-dates American slavery by hundreds of years is compelling. Having understood the explanation, I am satisfied by it. However, it does seem important to publicise this information. Perhaps an explanation before each performance would help. When I walk down the street and I see faces of all colours and shades, it makes me happy and proud that we are building a harmonious multi-racial society in Britain. Yes, there is still some racial prejudice, but it is fading, and the best way to hasten that is through familiarity. I do not subscribe to the idea that we should close our borders to immigrants. If you bother to look at the demographic data, you see that we have an ageing population. We need young people to work and pay taxes to support the elderly. Increasingly, we need them to care for the elderly too. (We lost a LOT of carers and NHS workers post-Brexit.)

Morris dancing appears to have arrived in this country brought by the " Blackamoor " or " Barbary Pirates " from North Africa that raided our coastal villages and towns , our fishing vessels and traders to take white slaves , both men and women , back to the markets for sale in the Mediterranean and beyond from around the 14 th -15th C onwards . The term Morris is a corruption of the word Moorish . The dances include swords and staffs that represent the violence in which captives were taken and clearly reenact these harrowing events that are recorded in primary source material in the British Library and records offices . The wealthier victims snatched from regions like Cornwall , were often ransomed . Accounts of skippers of vessels trying to outrun the " Blackamoors " exist in the British Library , and also suggest the value of certain merchandise , white women for the hareems fetching the highest prices . The Moorish slave traders raided and took victims from the coastal villages of the Irish Sea to as far North as Iceland , and later used Lundy Island in the Severn Estuary as a base . The tradition of piracy and slavery in Africa initiated by Islam ( it is written ) is over a thousand years old and lives on today particularly in Dubai and Somalia of course . The British Library is a great source of ancient primary accounts and those that throw stones should enlighten themselves first and take advantage of this wealth of knowledge. Ignorance is bliss , but greater fools look upon .

Did she not think to ask why? It is a traditional protest against oppression of the poor. Nothing to do with race at all. Before complaining - grow up a lot and understand what you're looking at and see that is has nothing to do with race. The N dancing term was a slur against border morris because it was still feared by the establishment because it is based in protest.

No certainly not, it’s traditional, leave them alone. If you don’t like it stay away from it and allow us to keep our traditions

Are we also going to call the chimney sweepers in Mary Poppins as wearing blackface?

Do some research, lady!

Bunty should learn to respect English culture. She is just making trouble - leave us alone or leave.

I’m American, pretty horrified at some of our history and what blackface represented. This is absolutely nothing like it! When people wore blackface here, they also performed using a stereotypical racist caricature of Black Americans, including jokes, phrases and pronunciations, etc., that were very obviously meant to mock Black people and portray them as either completely uneducated or as people who exist just for entertainment. The whole point of blackface was to put on a show or specific skits to laugh at a racial minority. This is completely different. It has a tradition much, much older than post slavery racism, and the show has zero to do with hurting anyone or being racist. And if anyone ever called it n-word dancing, that person was obviously ignorant and sadly probably more familiar with American blackface.

If she didn't like it, she didn't need to stay. It's tradition!! No-one is 'out to get you' Absolutely ridiculous. Woke gone mad.

Lol

One material, a bad Ukrainian refuges who feel unwell in black neighborhood. Second material, good black women who feel unwell in white folk dance event. Just wanted to know orgin of a witch like dance..

Go home

Sir John Hawkins, an early authority on music states the Morris Dance, Englands national dance is of Afrikan origin created by the Moors. The black face they use is an indication of this.

even monty python would be ashamed to be a morris "dancer".