Incoming Philadelphia Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier says the Mummers have been given chance after chance to self-police their annual New Year's Day parade.
But after at least two Mummers with a wench brigade called Froggy Carr wore racist blackface while marching Jan. 1, 2020, Gauthier believes the entire event should be overhauled.
She wants to stop giving the Mummers a permit for South Broad Street each year and pull any city financial support for the parade. Instead, she suggests beginning a new tradition that that takes “the best of the Mummers but offers no opportunity for this continued disrespect and racism."
"We need a new event and a new tradition that's based on everyone's culture and that celebrates everyone who lives here," said Gauthier, who takes office next week.
City Council President Darrell Clarke said he is supportive of Gauthier, but he wouldn't completely support her plan. He did "promise that this is not going to happen again" in an interview with NBC10.
"It's hateful. It's racist. Let's call it like it is," Clarke said Thursday. "We're going to stop it, one way or another."
That comment was similar to what he said in 2019, after a different embarrassing sketch by a Mummers group in the parade.
U.S. & World
The captain of Froggy Carr and an attorney for the Mummers said the group is not racist, and that the two men seen in blackface at the parade purposefully snuck past checkpoints set up to stop racist or inappropriate behavior.
"We're furious with them," Mummers attorney George Badey said Thursday, adding that neither will ever march in a New Year's Day parade again.
Mayor Jim Kenney ejected Froggy Carr from the parade on Wednesday morning after two men were spotted wearing blackface. Froggy Carr is classified as a "wench brigade," which is different from the more popular Mummers string bands.
Hundreds of Froggy Carr members dressed in orange-and-black colored costumes in what was apparently a motif honoring the Flyers mascot Gritty.
The Flyers issued a statement saying, “The Flyers had no knowledge or involvement in this group’s usage of our team colors, logo, and mascot imagery within its presentation, nor did we have any knowledge of the planned skit. We stand united with the entire Philadelphia community in condemning the brigade's offensive racial symbolism.”
Mayor Jim Kenney tweeted that the men's face paint was "abhorrent and unacceptable."
Kenney added that the city "will be exploring additional punishment."
Neither Kenney nor Clarke, the two top elected officials in Philadelphia government, expanded on what that punishment might be Wednesday.
Clarke said city lawyers were looking at ways to better control Mummers, but said free speech prevents strong oversight of how groups express themselves once they are issued a permit to march.
The Mummer with Froggy Carr who wore the blackface defended his decision to paint his face when NBC10 found him after the parade. The man identified himself as Kevin Hinkel in an interview Wednesday night with NBC10, while he continued to wear blackface. Other news outlets have identified him as Kevin Kinkel. That name is listed on Froggy Carr's website among the official members. Attempts to reach the man Wednesday were not immediately successful.
"I talk to black people. They told me, 'What are you talking about? You can wear whatever you want. That ain’t discriminating me. That ain’t racist to me,'" he told NBC10 Wednesday evening while partying on Second Street in South Philadelphia. "That’s what they tell me."
He also said he was wearing blackface to honor a friend who died.
"I don’t do this a lot. My friend, he passed away. He wore blackface, so I’m doing this for him," he said. "I’ll be done with it after this year. But we ain’t racist and we don’t look for trouble."
Badey said one of the two men in blackface was a member while the other wasn't. The member will be expelled from Froggy Carr, he said, while the other man will never be allowed to march again.
"They got by me. I tried to stop it. Two got by me," Froggy Carr Captain Joe Renzi said. "I'm the captain. I'll take responsibility for it. But are we racist? No, not even close to it."
The Mummers parade, which has been ushering in the new year for Philadelphia for more than a century, has caused controversy in the past for racist and insensitive behavior.
Besides the two incidents involving Froggy Carr, In 2016, one Mummers group called Finnegan New Year's Brigade made fun of Caitlyn Jenner while another, Sammar Strutters, painted their faces brown and dressed in ponchos and sombreros, or as tacos.
Last year, on New Year's Day 2019, the same comic brigade, Finnegan New Year's, showcased a black man leading a white man on a leash. The group defended it by saying the black man was role-playing as rapper Jay-Z and the white man was role-playing as Mayor Kenney. They described it as satire.
