The annual Mummers Parade in Philadelphia was hit with a bit of controversy last week after revelers noticed a couple of marchers arriving to the event boldly wearing blackface.
According to CBS Philadelphia, even though the two men in question maintain that their outfits were in no way racist or even racially motivated, officials disqualified their team, the Froggy Carr group, from the parade competition after city officials spotted their offensive getups.
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The group reportedly chose to wear black and orange outfits in honor of Gritty, the mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team. But Mayor Jim Kenney condemned the choice to paint their faces, calling the move “abhorrent and unacceptable.”
“The use of blackface by someone affiliated with Froggy Carr today was abhorrent and unacceptable,” Kenney tweeted out to his followers Wednesday. “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.”
Even in the aftermath of public condemnation, the two men, Kevin Kinkel and Mike Tomaszwski, remained unapologetic and insisted it’s all a misunderstanding.
“Black and orange, getting Gritty with it,” Kinkel said of their outfits.
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But when Tomaszwski was asked why blackface was a necessary addition to the costumes, he flippantly told CBS Philly, “Cuz I like it. Yeah, why not? I know it’s a shame to be white in Philly right now. It’s a shame.”
“It has nothing to do with being racist to the Black person or the white person or the yellow person,” Kinkel maintained. “It’s our tradition.”
But local station WPVI reports that Phildelphia actually banned blackface from being worn during the annual parade back in the 1960s.