ABSTRACT
Racial prejudice is not an attractive subject but I believe that, if the study of folklore is to become meaningful in this country, it must turn its attention to matters of importance in our society. Too often, and I am afraid, not entirely without justification, the English folklorist has been regarded as an antiquarian romantic, who has turned his back on the contemporary situation, escaping from its pressures and its problems into an idealised Merry England filled with May poles, thatched cottages, and country folk in hand-made smocks, perpetually smiling.
