Chimney sweep scene in 1964’s ‘Mary Poppins’ promotes blackface – KIRO 7 Information Seattle
Never need a reason, you never need a rhyme: Mary Poppins is out of date.
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According to an Oregon professor who wrote a statement in the New York Times claiming the 1964 film “Mary Poppins” promoted Blackface on the famous chimney sweep scene. The film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won four including Best Actress (Julie Andrews), Best Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Music.
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Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, who teaches English, gender and Shakespeare studies at Linfield College, wrote that nanny Mary Poppins, played by Andrews and, according to books by PL Travers, “turns black” when her face is covered in soot while crawling is on the chimney. Instead of wiping her face, Pollack-Pelzner suggests that Mary Poppins cover her face even more, according to the opinion piece.
The magical nanny then takes Jane and Michael Banks with Bert, played by Dick Van Dyke, on a dance excursion over the rooftops of London.
Pollack-Pelzner’s article appears when Mary Poppins Returns received four Oscar nominations last week. He calls the new film “a delightfully derivative film designed to stimulate our nostalgia for the innocent fantasies of childhood and the fun holidays that the first” Mary Poppins “film conjured up for many adult viewers.”
Pollack-Pelzner warns, however, that the new film is “tied into a blackface performance tradition” that continues throughout the “Mary Poppins” genre.
The professor, who graduated from Yale University with a degree in history in 2001 and earned a PhD in English from Harvard University nine years later, also notes that the blackface and racial commentary “minstrel story” is not limited to “Mary Poppins” . He says it’s “a mainstay” of Disney musicals, including the lively blackbird in the 1941 movie “Dumbo” and a 1933 Mickey Mouse short, “Mickey’s Mellerdrammer,” which parodies “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.
“Disney has long evoked minstrels for its upside-down conversations,” writes Pollack-Pelzner. “A nanny goes black, chimney sweeps mock the upper class and grin at lamplights that turn work into singing.”
This essay by @victoria_and_ makes a big point that underpins white supremacy far more than Disney movies, and that expressing outrage at animated minstrels means missing the larger cultural forces that produce them. I appreciate your response to my article. https://t.co/uxve4qfvfa
– Dan Pollack-Pelzner (@pollackpelzner) February 4, 2019
Pollack-Pelzner’s contribution made several fans of the film on their knees:
To the people who say #MaryPoppins is #racist because of the chimney scene, you say to the thousands of children who were forced to sweep chimneys in the Victorian era that chimneys contain soot. Soot is black and when it hits you it’s hard to get off. The scene is NOT racist
– TheEmeraldTiger (@TheEmraldTiger) February 4, 2019
