Time’s up for ‘blacking up’
English Dance and Song Autumn 2020
This article was published in English Dance and Song, the magazine of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. The world’s oldest magazine for folk music and dance, EDS was first published in 1936 and is essential reading for anyone with a passion for folk arts.
The Joint Morris Organisations (JMO) – The Morris Federation, Morris Ring and Open Morris – issued an important statement on 3 July about eliminating the use of full face black makeup. This article starts with the JMO’s statement and goes on to discuss why this practice must be welcomed by all of us who want to engage all people, of all backgrounds, in the folk arts.
Our traditions do not operate in a vacuum. While no morris dancer wants to cause offence, we must recognise that full face black or other skin tone makeup is a practice that has the potential to cause deep hurt.
Morris is a living tradition and it is right that it has always adapted and evolved to reflect society. Over the past few years, many morris teams have already proactively taken the decision to stop using full face black makeup to avoid causing offence or hurt. We now believe we must take further steps to ensure the continued relevance and inclusivity of the tradition.
The Joint Morris Organisations have therefore agreed that each of them will take action to eliminate this practice from their membership. Teams that continue to use full face black or other skin tone make up will find they are no longer part of the mainstream morris community, be covered by JMO public liability insurance, or invited to take part in events organised or sponsored by the JMO.
Morris is a unique cultural tradition of which we should be rightly proud. We want people from all races and backgrounds to share in this pride and not be made to feel unwelcome or uncomfortable by any element of a performance.
Pauline Woods-Wilson, President of The Morris Federation, comments:
“Over the years, there has been much debate amongst the morris community about the use of full face black makeup. In 2016, The Morris Federation took legal advice and issued guidance to its member teams, encouraging them to use a different form of disguise or change the colour of their face paint. Since then, many teams have moved away from full face black makeup. The recent protests in support of Black Lives Matter have brought the issue sharply back into focus, and again we are seeing more teams wanting to make the change. The committee felt that it was time to take a stand on the issue, so a motion to ban the use of full face black makeup amongst member teams will be brought to our AGM in September, for our membership to vote on. We urge all our member teams affected to talk to us about it.”
Morris team Boggarts Breakfast, which is a member of Open Morris, adds: “In conversations with other morris sides which have recently made the change, one thing really stood out. When audience members approach them, they ask about their dances and no longer ask why they black their face. Blackening the face is actually a distraction from the overall tradition.”
The English Folk Dance and Song Society has argued for several years against the practice of ‘blackface’: see the article in EDS Winter 2016.
In a letter to us dated 21 November 2019, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport wrote ‘we believe that those participating should take into consideration the potential for this practice to cause offence’.
Paddington’s Blue
One team stopped using black face paint more than 30 years ago. Su Evans Turner and Dee Goodwin explain why.
“During the 1980s, Paddington Pandemonic Express Urban Molly Dancers was a women’s team based in London. We did what the other teams did; we went to a theatrical shop to get our face paint, and danced out blacked up. We danced in many busy areas of London – in tube stations and main line stations, in Covent Garden, and even on the tube trains themselves.
We didn’t think too much of it at first; sometimes people shouted or just muttered as they passed us, sometimes there were remarks about racism, and sometimes encouragement of the wrong kind. It didn’t happen every time, and most of the time we just ignored it and carried on. There were no fights, no altercations, no arguments – but we began to realise that people didn’t understand that we wore black faces because it was traditional. And most times people didn’t ask us why, so we couldn’t explain. It was beginning to dawn on us that our ‘disguise’ needed to be considered.
“There were a lot of conversations. We based ourselves on a known tradition that we wanted to uphold, but we were also open-minded people and wanted to uphold inclusivity. It felt like we had to choose between the two. At that time, no teams that we knew were considering what it looked like to people outside the folk scene. We were on our own. We tried to weigh our responsibilities to the tradition against our responsibilities as anti-racist individuals.
“It was our youngest member, about 12 years old at the time, who put her foot down. She said she wouldn’t be involved in a team which blacked up as people were clearly finding it offensive. In the end, we agreed. After trying out several colours (no-one liked red, we looked like a bunch of tomatoes) we settled on royal blue, which we used consistently for the rest of Paddington’s days.
“It’s fascinating to watch today’s folk dancers going through the same quandaries and arguments. I hope that those still using black face makeup will see that changing colour is an easy fix – to continue being true to tradition, whilst also being inclusive.”
Photo: Paddington dancer Kerry Fletcher applies her colourful make-up.
