More racist twaddle.....

It has to be said that the Standard 6 noise-makers who can find a racist hiding under every bush are a rich source of entertainment through their sheer ignorance and stupidity.

 

One classic was the campaign against ‘Baa. Baa, black-sheep, have you any wool?’ because of its alleged association with slavery. That was cotton wool, you numpties, not sheep’s. Then there was ‘nitty-gritty’ which they claimed referred to the detritus at the bottom of a slave-ship, although the term is only about 50 years old. And ‘nig-nog’ which means a know-nothing or inexperienced person, much used in the army  to describe a new recruit.

 

The latest to add to the gaiety of nations is reported in the Daily Telegraph. Here is what it says

‘Folk dances that involve 'blacking-up' are an English tradition and should not be regarded as racist, a Labour candidate for Parliament has insisted. Will Straw, the candidate in the marginal seat of Rossendale and Darwen, said people who claim it is offensive for rural English dancers to blacken their faces are ignorant of history. Mr Straw was criticised this weekend after posting an image of himself on Twitter with the Britannia Coconut Dancers of Bacup, a 150-year-old troupe of Lancastrian clog dancers who perform every Easter. Critics claim the practice is offensive, because blacking up has often been used by white performers to parody black people and culture’.

What the Bacup boys perform is a version of molly-dancing.

It is actually traditional to East Anglia. It was especially performed on Plough Monday every January. This was the day on which the local farmers hired their ploughmen for the season. These days it is usually performed outside the village pub (naturally), but inn earlier times it was often on the farmer’s lawn, accompanied by a plough  which they might threaten to use on  the lawn if no work was forthcoming. The reason why they wore women’s clothes and blacked their faces was so that they wouldn’t be recognised.

And how refreshing that a politician – and a Labour politician at that – is prepared to stand up for ancient English tradition and face-down the humourless nitwits who complained.