WOULD YOU BAN IT? shrieked the front page of The Sunday Independent a couple of weeks later.
The Plymouth tabloid—no relation to its highbrow national namesake—specialised in shouty headlines, announcing everything in bold-faced capitals that made even the most innocuous news look alarming: ASSEMBLY 'YES' the paper would cry, or SCHEME WILL DO A LOAD OF GOOD.
But for Padstonians, nothing good could come from the paper's "exclusive" about Darkie Day, with its front-page photo of local men, women and children in blackface.
Posing with their drums and accordions, the whole dark-faced gang was cheesing for the camera, blissfully unaware of the national controversy about to be set in motion.
"To a West Country community it's a bit of harmless fun," the article began. "But to race watchdogs it's evil—and they want it banned NOW."
"I'm not black and it offends me," huffed Eileen Bortey, the 'chairperson' of Cornwall's new Race Equality Council.
"Padstow is a beautiful place. It's a great pity it is being defiled in this way. If we need to kick up a stink, we will. It has to be condemned."
Compared with the offended white woman, Britain's best-known black politico, who sometimes wore African robes to Parliament (even though he was Caribbean), was initially a model of restraint.
"I thought the days when white people dressed up as black people were well behind us," London MP Bernie Grant was quoted as saying.
After a token defence from "Ziggy", Padstow's lone black resident—he called Darkie Day "great fun" (but then, he would say that, wouldn't he?)—the report ended with locals vowing to continue the tradition, while the police warned that it could be banned if it stirred up trouble.
"What do YOU think?" the paper enquired, sensing it was on to a sure thing. "Write to Race Row, Sunday Independent…"And so, in just 16 paragraphs, a local tabloid took an obscure tradition—so back-of-beyond, in fact, that hardly anyone in Cornwall had ever heard of it—and transformed it into a national scandal.
Within days, follow-ups appeared in national papers ranging from The Guardian and The Daily Mail. "A dark day for tradition as the race police sail into port," rued the Mail, alongside a photo of Ziggy posing on the pier.
On national radio, a shock jock branded Padstonians "racist rednecks" and urged listeners to boycott the town. Rumours circulated that previously obscure groups like the Cornwall Race Equality Council were threatening to bus black protesters into Padstow with 'lighted up' faces.
And soon enough, Bernie Grant cranked up the rhetoric with a veiled warning to Padstonians: "If they want their nice idyllic little town to turn into a minefield, that's up to them."
The Plymouth tabloid—no relation to its highbrow national namesake—specialised in shouty headlines, announcing everything in bold-faced capitals that made even the most innocuous news look alarming: ASSEMBLY 'YES' the paper would cry, or SCHEME WILL DO A LOAD OF GOOD.
But for Padstonians, nothing good could come from the paper's "exclusive" about Darkie Day, with its front-page photo of local men, women and children in blackface.
Posing with their drums and accordions, the whole dark-faced gang was cheesing for the camera, blissfully unaware of the national controversy about to be set in motion.
"To a West Country community it's a bit of harmless fun," the article began. "But to race watchdogs it's evil—and they want it banned NOW."
"I'm not black and it offends me," huffed Eileen Bortey, the 'chairperson' of Cornwall's new Race Equality Council.
"Padstow is a beautiful place. It's a great pity it is being defiled in this way. If we need to kick up a stink, we will. It has to be condemned."
Compared with the offended white woman, Britain's best-known black politico, who sometimes wore African robes to Parliament (even though he was Caribbean), was initially a model of restraint.
"I thought the days when white people dressed up as black people were well behind us," London MP Bernie Grant was quoted as saying.
After a token defence from "Ziggy", Padstow's lone black resident—he called Darkie Day "great fun" (but then, he would say that, wouldn't he?)—the report ended with locals vowing to continue the tradition, while the police warned that it could be banned if it stirred up trouble.
"What do YOU think?" the paper enquired, sensing it was on to a sure thing. "Write to Race Row, Sunday Independent…"And so, in just 16 paragraphs, a local tabloid took an obscure tradition—so back-of-beyond, in fact, that hardly anyone in Cornwall had ever heard of it—and transformed it into a national scandal.
Within days, follow-ups appeared in national papers ranging from The Guardian and The Daily Mail. "A dark day for tradition as the race police sail into port," rued the Mail, alongside a photo of Ziggy posing on the pier.
On national radio, a shock jock branded Padstonians "racist rednecks" and urged listeners to boycott the town. Rumours circulated that previously obscure groups like the Cornwall Race Equality Council were threatening to bus black protesters into Padstow with 'lighted up' faces.
And soon enough, Bernie Grant cranked up the rhetoric with a veiled warning to Padstonians: "If they want their nice idyllic little town to turn into a minefield, that's up to them."
©J.R. Daeschner
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