Blacked Morris Faces And The Media

There have been two reports this year where the media have been reported as declining to film Morris teams with blacked faces. The first was in May at Rochester, where it was reported that the children's magazine programme Blue Peter had agreed to film the child sweeps in the procession, until they realised that the faces were blacked up and not smudgey. The second incident happened when the Brittania Coconut dancers were due to be filmed by Granada TV and were allegedly asked to remove their make up.

For Bacup no black faces meant no dance. In both cases the camera crew felt that the blacked up faces may give offence.

This is a really tricky issue, and one that has been discussed at some of the border workshops. For some people this feels like political correctness gone mad; they point to individuals who are black and Asian who find the blacked up dancers acceptable.

However, it is important to be sensitive to the issue, and to be aware that in some parts of this country people are living in a racist environment where blacking up of white people is experienced as offensive and as a threat.

What we need to do as Morris dancers, is to be clear about the context of blacking up as a disguise in Morris dancing. The three Morris organisations are aware that this has the potential to become a moral panic and have agreed on the following position statement.

"There is a historical tradition in Europe and this country of blacking up while dancing. Steve Corrsin (author of Sword dancing in Europe - A History) came across references from central European sword and Morris sources, to dancers with blacked faces in the 15th-17th centuries, for example, Strasbourg (then part of the Holy Roman Empire rather than France) and Zurich (a picture from the Zurich city archives, 1578). Whilst historical precedent is no justification for current practice, teams have developed their style in this context, not with the intention of being offensive.

"It is current day practice in other Countries for dancers to blacken or colour their faces as part of the atmosphere of the dance - and in some instances to whiten up.

"Flag Crackers of Craven (a blacked up Border team) have been featured in a national advertising campaign for NFU Mutual, where they are clearly seen as a Morris team dancing with blacked faces. The campaign has been running since October 1996, and was most recently featured in the Radio Times. At the 1st August 1997 the Advertising Standards Authority have received no complaints of people experiencing the photos as offensive."