Black and white
sr: I usually take pleasure in reading your journal each week, but I was very dismayed to read the fol- lowing paragraph in 'Black and White' by Stuart Hood (14 July): 'Meanwhile the Bac should ad. itself whether it ought not at last to remove from its future schedules -The Black and White Minstrel Show. The days are long past when a coon show is tolerable on the air.'
Ever since I was a very small child when I was taken to the 'Police Minstrels' by my father I have been lost in affection and admiration for the won- derful voices of the minstrels, which I once really imagined could only belong to coloured singers. Surely nothing but the highest reflection is cast upon West Indians by the world acclaimed Black and White Minstrel Show and anyone who thinks otherwise must indeed have a warped mind.
My mother who is now ninety and very deaf has largely lost interest in television due to the never- ending discussions and other items which are not in the least pictorial. The one programme which gives her the greatest pleasure and which she never misses is the Black and White Minstrels, because the dancing and costumes alone are sufficient to hold her attention. There must be many more elderly folk to whom the loss of this show will be one further pleasure gone from their lives, and no matter what offence the coloured viewer may take at the show, there is nothing but unadulterated pleasure and admiration from an old lady of ninety and many others, I am sure.
Incidentally, to be consistent, I assume Mr Hood also finds. the paper golliwogs on Robertson's jam jars equally intolerable.
S. E. Bushnell 8 King's Park Road, Bournemouth, Hants
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