Thursday, January 02, 2020

Mummers Blackface

An important thing about the Mummers groups, aside from the history, is that they're generally filled with two generations removed guys from South Jersey. The annual racism isn't, as it once was, an intra-city thing (also bad), but people from outside the city coming to visit shitting in our living room. Don't like all the black people in the city? No need to visit! Your parents moved away 35 years ago.
But at least two mummers affiliated with Froggy Carr wore blackface as part of their costumes, which some people viewed as racist.

“All the blackface, it ain’t about that,” Mike Tomaszwski said.

Tomaszwski denies that his blackface is racist, as does Kevin Kinkel.

“Black and orange, getting Gritty with it,” Kinkel said.

Why the blackface?

“Cause I like it. Yeah, why not? I know it’s a shame to be white in Philly right now. It’s a shame,” Tomaszwski said.
Don't know about these two, specifically, but..