Editorial: We Can’t Believe You Bitches Are Sticking Up For The Mummers, And Here Is Why
If you’ve lived here all your life, you come to find that there are all of these little nooks and crannies in Philadelphia life where nasty shit hides out. Racist shit. Xenophobic shit. Ignorant shit. Dumb shit. It might be hiding out at the local VFW post or corner bar, where all those otherwise nice and “colorful” old dudes hang out; it may well be out on the streets you love in your neighborhood, where in 2007, you can still get called a “faggot” or the N-word for no apparent reason whatsoever than you just being there; it could even be over a family dinner table, where the scabs of white flight, Daniel Faulkner and M.O.V.E. still get picked on a nightly basis.
Lord forgive us, but it’s always been plain as day to us that the culture of Mummery is just another one of those places where Philly’s ugly ghosts hang out. After all, a parade that began in blackface can only ever get so far from its roots. (Don’t believe that people haven’t forgotten this? Go ask some black people what they think of the Mummers Parade — a black troupe has not marched since 1929, according to Wikipedia. Better yet, ask some Latinos, as “brownface” has become the new blackface for some of the comic brigades.) For us, this has always overshadowed the admittedly majestic and wild music of the string bands, as well as the hundreds (maybe thousands) of truly decent people who work hard on the parade all year long. Don’t get us wrong: While there are surely plenty of wonderful people involved each year in the Mummers Parade, the overall cultural footprint left by it is one of yahoo-ism and worse. And we think everybody needs to work on that.
So when we first began to bristle the other day at the notion of one of the city’s brightest hopes in the art world playing at Mummery, this was precisely what was on our minds: While we are all for the re-appropriation of old traditions — especially one as ripe for the picking as Mummery is — does it really have to fall to a group of art school transplants playing at irony to do the job? Sure, it is a bit dickish to question Space 1026’s intentions (especially when their other contributions to Philly culture and influence have been too numerous to even get into here), but this really does feel like one of those Philly-people things that transplanted white people just may not understand. Sorry. Nevertheless, we like their moxie. But guys, there is a reason that all those old Mummer dudes are so “nice” and “kind” to you: They’re legitimately afraid that all those old ghosts will die with them. We look at this as a good thing, and on some level, we imagine that you do, too.
Previously: Rumblings: Some Days This Entire Town Feels Like A Giant Dollar Store, And We’re Just Clerks Humping The Merch
January 10th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
re: locals and transplants
This is tradition where I grew up
http://www.wbcalaredo.org
January 10th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
A couple weeks ago there was documentary on tv that highlighted the tradition of Mummery throughout the world, from the UK to New Foundland, to Philly. Our version is so far removed from the its original meaning it ridiculous. Most of the traditions had to do with the battle of good vs. evil or the coming of Spring, not racist drunks in drag.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
We don’t want to see racism in the Mummers anymore. Agreed.
One major point of contention: I truly don’t think 1026’s brigade had a lick to do with irony. I get why you could think in the abstract that it might end up that way, but if you have any real interactions with those kids, or especially when you see the finished project (and aryon’s sincere, impassioned dedication), I don’t get how you can still think that.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
This is the thread wherein it is professed that racism will just die off.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
jeffreybleachedblack Says:
“Most of the traditions had to do with the battle of good vs. evil or the coming of Spring, not racist drunks in drag”.
Cornwall, UK’s Mummer’s Parade –
…tradition for some residents to don blackface and parade through the town singing ‘minstrel’ songs. The origin of this custom, once called “Darky Day”…
January 10th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
“…nasty shit… Racist shit. Xenophobic shit. Ignorant shit. Dumb shit.” Ugly racist, sexist meathead stuff hidden in the margins and locked drawers of a city?
No shit.
That your complaint is somehow unique to Philadelphia?
Bullshit.
If anything, I’d say “flashpoints” like the Mummers and Mumia (where are all the hacks playing with that syllable play?) are healthy for understanding race in Philly. I think while it makes “feeling good and happy” problematic, it nevertheless keeps things honest and more aboveboard than any other city in the U.S. Race mattering in America is a lot like 12 stepping recovery, it ain’t ever going to be over or resolved.
So that said, while I see Joey’s annual and occasional screeds about the Mummers (and Mumia) as both off-based and well-warranted, what is fucked up is an arts administrator or organization in activist clothing mistaking participation for intervention and finding further justification through noodling through the question, “How do we educate them?” On a blog.
Parades are celebrations, but are reviews too. My first Mummers parade in my short stint here gave me some disquiet via some of the groups; but I mostly remember a guy in gorilla suit towing a wheelbarrow and beat-providing practice amp approach my partner and I, and proceed to drop science about the court decision banning intelligent design from Dover science classrooms. Maybe I got stunted principles, but that’s all I needed to balance out what I was uncomfortable with on Broad.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Whoever you are philebrity you are painting yourself into a very small corner – the only person that comes out looking racist, homophobic, overly “ironic” or whatever else you’d like to throw in there – including outright ignorant and perhaps somewhat self-absorbed and DEFINITELY self righteous – is you.
We live in a world that is filled with racist, sexist, homophobic traditions – to name only three of our collective ‘ghosts’ – the heteronormative family, the fact that our entire nation is built on land stolen from first nations peoples, the labor market whose built-in racism and sexism we all tacitly accept by simply going about our everyday business… the fact is, everywhere we look the world is filled with traditions that reek of bad politics.
However, this is the world we live in, and we all have to find our way somehow. Now we can do so by pretending we live in a tiny little bubble of progressive (or I guess in your case just simply ‘cool’) politics and then shunning all of those that fall outside that sphere – or at best engaging with these others “ironically” – or we can honestly work with and through the institutions and traditions in our world — trying to make them better in the process.
1. There was absolutely nothing ironic about the Vaudvillains. I say this as a participant and an observer. The dedication, hardwork, excitement, creativity, and comraderie were genuine, as was our relationship to the Murray comic club and all of the mummers that supported our efforts. The excitement about themes for next years parade is also genuine – as genuine as any artistic process I have ever participated in.
I have a lot more respect for 35 young philadelphians trying to participate in a long standing civic tradition than I do for a sniveling cultural critic casting aspersions from the sideline. Look down at your feet philebrity – the NIKEs you’re wearing have even shittier politics than you imagine the mummers to have… which leads to my second comment:
Mummery as a tradition is hundreds of year old (it goes way past its philadelphia manifestation) and your reaction to it is just as old – peasant traditions have, for hundreds of years, been lambasted as racist, xenophobic, sexist, primitive, rude, crass, etc… by the proper bastions of modern culture, whose racism, sexism, xenophobia while just as virulent, was simply erased from consciousness. Its a lot easier to call ‘those primitives’ racist than ask yourself what the racial politics of your own culture are. (your use of ‘trannies’ in making fun of mummers is a case in point)
2. The Othering of the mummers is really terrible. Both here and in the article in the city paper, there is this fetishization of some blue-collar working class community that we are either encroaching upon or ironically mocking. This is absurd. The men and women who participate in the mummers parade are normal people. Just as normal as all of us ‘crazy artists’ many of whose families have philly roots that go back generations. It may be true that we have some different political views and opinions than a lot of the people in the parade – but as far as I’m concerned that is secondary to what we do have in common – which is a sense of community, a passion for making things with our community, and a desire to have fun with and to reappropriate a long standing tradition.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Let the record show that no Philebrity staff currently owns a pair Nikes. Nor have we designed them specifically for Urban Outfitters as the direct result of a multi-tiered extreme sports coolhunting project.
Not that we wouldn’t, though.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Let the record further show that Aryon misspoke when he asked “How do we educate them?”. I am sincerely interested in your (Philebrity Readers) advice and suggestions about discussing racism with my new Mummer friends.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Ok I was wrong. Either way it’s a f’ed up part of the tradition to still carry out this day and age.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
1) I can understand the visceral bile that rises when one’s lifelong enemies seem to get a free pass; I felt the same when the kids started emulating 80’s metalhead culture.
2) Does anyone else feel hurt when the Mummers clown on leprechauns? No? I’m the only one? Alright.
3) The argument as posed above begs the question: does this mean that blues, jazz, funk, soul, folk, hiphop, bluegrass, and all other grassroots-bred musical traditions whose adherents might have or have had attitudes that are less than progressive should be verboten? If so, then would we be doomed forevermore to suffer easy listening classical cds at Pottery Barn and the dreary, tame bougie-cud often heard on WXPN?
4) Hold the line on the no-Nike policy. Grown-ass men shouldn’t wear sneakers unless they’re remedially inclined or incurably athletic.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
…dreary, tame bougie-cud often heard on WXPN
cute.
Obviously not a Land Of The Lost listener ;)
January 10th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Shame on you, Philebrity. I expected more from you (sheesh, maybe even an endorsement…we are your peers, after all). We spent a year dedicated to making our brigade great, and yet for some reason you dismiss us as being “ironic”? How is that even possible? If you spend all of your time doing something, even if it is for the sake of irony, it stops being ironic and ends up just being your life. If by “irony” you meant “the most fun I’ve ever had with my friends”, then yes, it was all about irony.
Maybe you couldn’t feel our excitement all the way yonder in Northern Liberties, because had you been there with us, I think you’d have succumbed to the awesome power of fun. But perhaps you share the sentiments of a some other internet naysayers who have summarily dismissed us. We are so uncool! Not at all exclusive! And I think that put a few people off.
But really, had you been there, not just on the parade route, but the whole few months before New Year’s, when we were pulling all-night sew-a-thon’s, breaking our machines, living on Wawa shorties and pot cookies, building an enormous octopus in the Space gallery, and getting psyched…maybe then you’d feel differently. Don’t worry, there’s still time…you can join us next year, if you want.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
“2) Does anyone else feel hurt when the Mummers clown on leprechauns? No? I’m the only one? Alright.”
No, you are not the only one my dear Whimsy, I too feel hurt when Mummers clown on leprechauns, as well as other mythical creatures such as Eskimos and unicorns.
…wait, unicorns are real, right? oh no, I was thinking of the Narwhale.
Yeah!! Screw the Mummers! they are just a bunch of Leprechaun, Eskimo, narwhale hating ignorant dumb stupid heads I am afraid of cause I’m a nerdy geek and I can’t get over being bullied as a child! HANG THEM ALL WITH SILLY STRING!!!!!!
January 10th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Nothing specifically against WXPN, DJRobertDrake–I’ve done things in support of the station, and would do them again if asked. I’m just not a fan of the Adult Contemporary genre.
January 11th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
God. It’s like that FedEx commercial where the dude goes, “Ned, you’re always wrong.” Except, it would be like, “Philebrity, you’re always right.” It’s kind of crazy. But true. Philebs for president.