Padstow's merrymakers were also wary of me, but that was only natural—I was a stranger with a videocam.
"Have ya paid for them photos?" an ersatz Aunt Jemima asked me.
Once I put some money in the collection box, though, no one seemed to mind me tagging along.
I decided to return during the summer, when people might be more forthcoming. Even so, I felt self-conscious asking about the event. I tended to mumble the offensive words or bury them under my breath, so that Darkie Day became (Darkie) Day.
However, the locals had no such hang-ups, rattling off the lyrics about "niggers" as if they were just any old words, as innocuous and nonsensical as "polly wolly doodle".
You could view this openness as proof that they don't mean to cause offence; on the other hand, you could argue that they're such hard-tack crackers, they don't care who they offend.
Time and again, Padstonians protest their innocence: "How can we be racialist (sic) if we don't have any blacks around to be racialist against?"
This is the racial equivalent of the chicken-and-egg conundrum—which came first: blacks or bigots?
Race-baiters cut their teeth on this question, tearing into it like lions mauling an easy kill.
"This is almost the same as saying that racism only exists where there are significant numbers of black people present, i.e., before 'they' came, 'we' didn't have a problem," wrote the head of the Devon and Exeter Racial Equality Council during the Darkie Day uproar.
"Racism is usually (not always) about white people's attitudes, and that is essentially the problem."
This emphasis on whites' attitudes takes the debate into the realm of Orwellian wrongthink; if you're reckless enough to speak your mind, you might as well stick your face in a cage full of rats.
Of course, it is possible for people living in an all-white society to be racist; but just because they live in an all-white society doesn't make them inherently racist.
To my mind, the true test of whether someone is racist is how he or she treats people of other races when meeting them face-to-face.
"Have ya paid for them photos?" an ersatz Aunt Jemima asked me.
Once I put some money in the collection box, though, no one seemed to mind me tagging along.
I decided to return during the summer, when people might be more forthcoming. Even so, I felt self-conscious asking about the event. I tended to mumble the offensive words or bury them under my breath, so that Darkie Day became (Darkie) Day.
However, the locals had no such hang-ups, rattling off the lyrics about "niggers" as if they were just any old words, as innocuous and nonsensical as "polly wolly doodle".
You could view this openness as proof that they don't mean to cause offence; on the other hand, you could argue that they're such hard-tack crackers, they don't care who they offend.
Time and again, Padstonians protest their innocence: "How can we be racialist (sic) if we don't have any blacks around to be racialist against?"
This is the racial equivalent of the chicken-and-egg conundrum—which came first: blacks or bigots?
Race-baiters cut their teeth on this question, tearing into it like lions mauling an easy kill.
"This is almost the same as saying that racism only exists where there are significant numbers of black people present, i.e., before 'they' came, 'we' didn't have a problem," wrote the head of the Devon and Exeter Racial Equality Council during the Darkie Day uproar.
"Racism is usually (not always) about white people's attitudes, and that is essentially the problem."
This emphasis on whites' attitudes takes the debate into the realm of Orwellian wrongthink; if you're reckless enough to speak your mind, you might as well stick your face in a cage full of rats.
Of course, it is possible for people living in an all-white society to be racist; but just because they live in an all-white society doesn't make them inherently racist.
To my mind, the true test of whether someone is racist is how he or she treats people of other races when meeting them face-to-face.
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