Philadelphia mayor disqualifies Mummers group after two members wore blackface

[SummerMadness]

Philadelphia mayor disqualifies Mummers group after two members wore blackface

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney has disqualified a mummers group after at least two members wore blackface paint to the city's annual Mummers parade on New Year's Day.

CNN affiliate KYW interviewed two of the men in blackface who said they were dressed as Philadelphia Flyers' mascot Gritty, the group's theme.

"It has nothing to do about being racist to the black person or the white person or the yellow person. Whatever. It's our tradition," one man told the station.

Gritty is orange, not black...

 

[eik]

Philadelphia mayor disqualifies Mummers group after two members wore blackface


Gritty is orange, not black...

We don't know what colour his skin is, as it is all covered with orange hair. However as the inside of his mouth is black, it could be construed that he also has black skin.

Be that as it may, according to NBC10 Philadelphia, the lone individual, Hinkle, confirmed to have used blackface said this: "I don’t do this a lot. My friend, he passed away. He wore blackface, so I’m doing this for him. I’ll be done with it after this year. But we ain’t racist and we don’t look for trouble."

Do you reckon this African tribeswoman is racist too?

 

[SummerMadness]

We don't know what colour his skin is, as it is all covered with orange hair. However as the inside of his mouth is black, it could be construed that he also has black skin.

Be that as it may, according to NBC10 Philadelphia, the lone individual, Hinkle, confirmed to have used blackface said this: "I don’t do this a lot. My friend, he passed away. He wore blackface, so I’m doing this for him. I’ll be done with it after this year. But we ain’t racist and we don’t look for trouble."

Do you reckon this African tribeswoman is racist too?

Yet another attempt to pretend racism isn't racism. In the context of their costume theme attempting to be "gangsta" and other references, blackface as a method to lampoon African Americans is evident.

A person covered in mud is not whiteface, and is also not the topic of this discussion. The men in this parade were being racist.

 

[trunks2k]

Every year there's some. The Mummers have a long, storied, tradition of racism, sexism, and homophobia, particularly with the comics. When my wife first came to Philadelphia, she joined a string band. When we started dating, I helped out on the crew for the big string band performance in Atlantic City. Whhooooo boy was that a kinda jarring experience. Lots of casual racism, etc going on in the staging area. Several of the shows themselves were bordering the line of racism. As I recall, the introduction to my wife's group's Chinese themed show was "Emperor Won-ton was traverring up the Chop Stick river...."

She got tired of dealing with their attitude and quit. Shortly after, it was big news that one of the string bands that hers did a lot of events with was running a literal brothel out of their club house.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Philadelphia mayor disqualifies Mummers group after two members wore blackface


Gritty is orange, not black...

I'm glad Philadelphia finally ended the scourge of two racist unemployed guys.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Every year there's some. The Mummers have a long, storied, tradition of racism, sexism, and homophobia, particularly with the comics. When my wife first came to Philadelphia, she joined a string band. When we started dating, I helped out on the crew for the big string band performance in Atlantic City. Whhooooo boy was that a kinda jarring experience. Lots of casual racism, etc going on in the staging area. Several of the shows themselves were bordering the line of racism. As I recall, the introduction to my wife's group's Chinese themed show was "Emperor Won-ton was traverring up the Chop Stick river...."

She got tired of dealing with their attitude and quit. Shortly after, it was big news that one of the string bands that hers did a lot of events with was running a literal brothel out of their club house.

What's a string band?

 

[trunks2k]

What's a string band?

The mummers are broken up into several divisions: comics, fancies, string bands, and I forget the name of the other one (I may also be missing one).

The comics are big groups that just dress up as some theme. They don't perform, they just parade. This group has a pretty long history of racism, and the city has been cracking down on it.

The fancies are individuals who dress up in very elaborate costumes (often requiring a scaffold on casters) and parade down the street.

String bands are large groups that perform a song and dance routine with elaborate costumes and mobile set pieces. They are allowed to use a limited set of instruments - banjos being the primary instrument.

The other group that I can't remember put on even more elaborate dance routines with even more elaborate sets & costumes. So elaborate, that they are not part of the parade. They perform later in one venue. They do not play their own music.

Edit: wenches is another group. IIRC, they are like the comics, just smaller groups. But don't quote me on that.

Edit 2: fancy brigade is the name of that division that I couldn't recall