Friday’s attempt to break the world record for mass
participation dance should have been spectacle enough in itself, yet the sight
that beheld Plymothians proved to be jaw-dropping for quite another reason.
According to The Plymouth Herald, children from a number of local schools took part in The Big Dance overseen by
Plymouth Dance, with more than 200 participating in the city’s Piazza, whilst a
further thousand danced elsewhere across the city. This therefore was no
ordinary Saturday, but what was it that proved to be so visually arresting and
unusual about the group of dancers in the city centre?
For some bizarre reason, three of the boys leading the group
had been made to don black masks. Why? It was not, to the best of my knowledge,
some homage to The Black and White Minstrel Show, so just what was going on
here? Why were these children compelled to black up? Who made them do this?
What underpinning rationale was offered? Does anybody know? Do you know?
Unlike many of our cities, Plymouth possesses a generally
relaxed atmosphere and remains essentially English. Like anywhere, it has its
problems of course, and Union Street at night can get a little unruly, but the
sense of edgy unease that is palpable in many of our ethnically fragmented
urban areas is lacking here. It would seem perhaps that the decision to compel
the boys to black up was taken precisely because Plymouth, and Devon more
widely, are English. The English, like other closely-related northern European
peoples, are of course white. Why this should be perceived to be in any way
problematic or contentious is beyond me, but for some people of a globalist
inclination it clearly is. Were the black masks supposed to embody the racially
dubious assertion that blacks possess natural rhythm whereas whites do not?
Were they supposed to make the crowd of dancers look, to borrow Greg Dyke’s
dreadful phrase, less ‘hideously white’? Whatever the reason underpinning the
use of these peculiar props, what impact must they have had upon the psychology
of the boys wearing them, upon their fellow dancers and those who saw them?
Were they not used to make them feel, quite literally, uncomfortable in their
own skins? Was it any more legitimate than forcing young Nigerians in Lagos to
dance ballet wearing white masks, or for Zulus studying science to white up?
Such would seem to be the absurd message implicit in yesterday’s display.
Devon is a beautiful county which largely retains its
distinctive character, yet it would seem that for some this distinctiveness and
the rootedness of its population is in itself something to feel ashamed of, as
exemplified in Emma Thompson’s ugly outburst at Exeter University in 2010, when
she stated that the city and Devon were too white. How strange. How insulting.
Has anyone ever heard this woman aver that Nigeria is too black; Japan too
yellow, or Pakistan too brown? I have not heard her call for these countries to
be made more white, or state that she finds it odd that their populations are
drawn predominantly from their native ethnic and racial groups. The ethnic and
racial masochism displayed by Thompson would appear to have been what bubbled
to the surface and found expression once again on Friday in Plymouth. The
propagation of this misplaced sense of white racial guilt and self-loathing
must be stopped. My message to those children who took part would be this:
ignore what your teachers tell you about race; there is no reason to feel
guilty about being white. Feel comfortable in your own skin, and don’t feel
that you have to wear a black one to be able to dance.
Plymouth Boys forced to black up
