As the annual Mummer’s parade kicked off from Love Park on New Year’s Day one group caught the eye of onlooker’s for a different reason.
Members of the Froggy Carr Comics Group in the parade were called out for wearing blackface as a part of a Flyers-themed costume titled “Getting Gritty Wit’ It”
City officials were quick to criticize the group, stating that the costumes were racist and intolerant.
Mayor Jim Kenney took to Twitter to cute the behavior as racist, stating that “The use of blackface by someone affiliated with Froggy Carr today was abhorrent and unacceptable. This selfish, hateful behavior has no place in the Mummers, or the city itself. We must be better than this. The group was disqualified and we will be exploring additional penalties.“
This is not the first time that Mummer’s outfits have spurred controversy around intolerance.
In 2016 members of the Finnegan’s New Years Band were criticized for transphobic jokes about former-Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner, resulting in several members being banned and required sensitivity training for many groups.
2019’s parade also included accusations of blackface from a member, but was latter disproven when the mummer in question was shown to have been black themselves.
At this time it is unclear how the parade commission will seek to prevent these incidents going forward. Stay with Temple Update for more developments on this story as they become available.
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