TV - Movies
The Mary Poppins
Controversy
Disney Probably
Doesn't Want You
To Remember
By COREY HOFFMEYER
In a collection of already iconic movies, "Mary Poppins," which debuted in 1964, has probably remained as one of Disney's most well-liked films. "Mary Poppins" is very much a product of its time and it doesn't always stand up to modern standards, with one controversy that Disney would probably prefer audiences to forget about.
In a 2019 New York Times opinion piece, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner accused "Mary Poppins" of using blackface when Mary Poppins and Bert are covered in soot during a chimney sweeper-centered musical number scene. Pollack-Pelzner argues the movie can't escape its book source material, which often used chimney sweeps for racist jokes.
People on social media weren't exactly pleased; @coldxman on Twitter believed people were in search of racism as if it were like oil to be struck and @jencon1978 thought that the context of the scene involving soot did not constitute the practice of blackface. Regardless of where one stands on the issue, clearly, Pollack-Pelzner believed it was worth a discussion.