Mary Poppins branded racist by US academic over scene where she gets covered in soot

[Anti Federalist]

Mary Poppins branded racist by US academic over scene where she gets covered in soot

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/worl...-a4056126.html

The classic family film Mary Poppins has been branded racist by a US academic who accuses Dame Julie Andrews of 'blacking up' with soot while dancing with chimney sweeps.

In a piece for the New York Times, Professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner criticises one of the film's iconic moments, when Mary Poppins joins Dick Van Dyke's Bert to dance on a rooftop for the classic song Step in Time.

He writes: "When the magical nanny (played by Julie Andrews) accompanies her young charges, Michael and Jane Banks, up their chimney, her face gets covered in soot, but instead of wiping it off, she gamely powders her nose and cheeks even blacker."

"This might seem like an innocuous comic scene if Travers’s novels didn’t associate chimney sweeps’ blackened faces with racial caricature. “Don’t touch me, you black heathen,” a housemaid screams in “Mary Poppins Opens the Door” (1943)."

"When the dark figures of the chimney sweeps Step in Time on a roof, a naval buffoon, Admiral Boom shouts, “We’re being attacked by Hottentots!” and orders his cannon to be fired at the “cheeky devils”.

"We’re in on the joke, such as it is: These aren’t really black Africans; they’re grinning white dancers in blackface. It’s a parody of black menace; it’s even posted on a white nationalist website as evidence of the film’s racial hierarchy."

Fans were divided over the professor's remarks.

One wrote online: "I think this is a reach. She was friends with a chimney sweep. When she went out and danced with him she got soot on her face if I recall this correctly."

Another wrote: "Mary Poppins wasn’t flirting with black face! It was soot in their faces from being a chimney!!!"

A third said: "This is a candidate for the stupidest New York Times article of all time."

However others agreed with some of the points raised.

Michael Schulman, ,a writer for the New Yorker said: "This made me think about class, too - how Mary Poppins, a posh domestic, scrambles the class divide and introduces Jane & Michael to the much more fun world of pleb chimney sweeps. Further scrambled in the sequel when the Bankses are also in the poorhouse."

Author Mr Pollack-Pelzner posted online after his article was published: "The chief reason I wrote this article was the hope that a Disney exec would read it, take another look at the forthcoming Dumbo remake, and ask if there was anything just a little bit racist they might want to rethink before it hits the big screen.

"Here’s one thing I’ve learned about the alt-right, after I wrote this article and received a zillion hate messages in response: they sure like Mary Poppins!"

[Stratovarious]

Mary Poppin's Mentor was Humpty Dumpty, I know that for a fact, so it's
true , its all true.

[shakey1]

branded racist by a US academic who accuses Dame Julie Andrews of 'blacking up'

That's a bit of a stretch.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Every time one of these abnormal whiners starts whining, they should be called on the carpet. Most all normal people disagree with this kind of stuff, but $#@! their pants instead of speaking up.

The San Francisco radio station likely lied when it talked about their listeners being outraged by the Christmas song Baby, It's Cold Outside.

These people need to be put on the defensive and called on the carpet every single time.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

I suspect a poll on Mary Poppins would yield about the same results as the poll for Baby It's Cold Outside.

92% Normal
8% Abnormal

The station said it posted a poll about the song [Baby It's Cold Outside] on its website and a clear majority of respondents supported the decision to remove the song from the station’s lineup.

Poll results were not visible on the station's website. However, a poll on the station's Facebook page showed that among more than 600 votes by Thursday night, 92% of respondents favored playing the song while just 8% felt it was inappropriate.

[Stratovarious]

That's a bit of a stretch.

Agreed, Complete nonsense.

Blacks make racial stabs at Whites its comedy lol.
Whites make fun of Black in situation comedy , its 'racist' , PC needs to be locked up.
And this has nothing to do with Mary Poppins, Professor Daniel Idiot Putz can go to hell.
-

[phill4paul]

This man is an expert....




...at dick tucking. So tightly he can go $#@! himself.

[Anti Globalist]

This man is an expert....




...at dick tucking. So tightly he can go $#@! himself.

Clearly a low IQ individual.

[Theocrat]

He's the racist one, bringing race into something that has absolutely nothing to do with race.

I swear, social Marxism is a mental disease.

[ThePaleoLibertarian]

People have no idea what blackface even means nowadays. It's when a white puts black paint on their face in order to caricature black people, complete with enormous lips, exaggerated gestures and silly speech like "lawdy" or "mammy". It's not when any white person has anything black on their face. These $#@!ing people.

[Swordsmyth]

People have no idea what blackface even means nowadays. It's when a white puts black paint on their face in order to caricature black people, complete with enormous lips, exaggerated gestures and silly speech like "lawdy" or "mammy". It's not when any white person has anything black on their face. These $#@!ing people.

Blackface:

[phill4paul]

[Stratovarious]

I will never apologize for anyone in Blackface , nor white face, people
need to stop promoting certain groups as untouchable and above
poking fun of or just doing plain characterizations of same.
The NWO wants everyone to cower every time they get ready to speak,
'make certain that you are complying with Federal guidelines' .