‘Mary Poppins’ Accused of Racism Over Chimney Sweep Scene

The fantastical adventures of Mary Poppins are for many a treasured part of childhood. From P.L. Travers’ beloved books to the Disney’s classic Mary Poppins film and even in the recent Mary Poppins Returns charms audiences of all ages. However, not everyone is quite so nostalgic about the nanny.

In an op-ed from The New York Times, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, an English professor at Linfield College, argues that the story has some troubling, racist tones that, while originate in the original books written by Travers, permeate into the films. Pollack-Pelzner specifically cites one of the 1964 film’s more memorably scenes — the one in which Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) is seen “blacking up” her face with soot while dancing with chimney sweeps.

“One of the more indelible images from the 1964 film is of Mary Poppins blacking up,” Pollack-Pelzner writes. “When the magical nanny accompanies her young charges, Michael and Jane Banks, up their chimney, her face gets covered in soot, but instead of wiping it off, she gamely powders her nose and cheeks even blacker. Then she leads the children on a dancing exploration of London rooftops with Dick Van Dyke’s sooty chimney sweep, Bert.”

The scene by itself may not be problematic, but its roots are. According to Pollack-Pelzner, Travers’ books make some troubling associations between the blackened skin of chimney sweeps and racist stereotypes. In the 1943 novel “Mary Poppins Opens the Door”, a maid screams “Don’t touch me, you black heathen,” while later, when the chimney sweep approaches the cook, the maid threatens to quit, exclaiming “If that Hottentot goes into the chimney, I shall go out the door.” For context as to why that is so problematic, the term “Hottentot” is an archaic slur used to describe black South Africans — and it’s a term used in the Disney movie as well.

Mary Poppins Returns isn’t immune from the criticism, either. Pollack-Pelzner goes on to note that the Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda starring film itself flirts with the troubling issues of race from the source material. He specifically refers to a scene from the first “Mary Poppins” novel published in 1934. In it, the children encounter a scantily clad black woman with a naked child. The book uses an offensive term — “pickaninny” — to describe the child as well has the black woman speak in minstrel dialect. The scene was so problematic that the San Francisco Public Library banned the book, an act that in turn prompted Travers to update the scene, changing the dialogue and turning the offensive characters into an animal, specifically a hyacinth macaw.

That same macaw ultimately appears in Mary Poppins Returns as a wealthy widow named “Hyacinth Macaw” who is naked save for “two feathers and a leaf” — a description strangely similar to how the woman in the original book was described.

Pollack-Pelzner’s piece brings up quite a few interesting points and he also makes it clear that these issues aren’t an indictment of the films. Instead, the context simply sheds a light on the troubling elements of the source material as well as what he notes is a larger issue of Disney reaching into racist tropes as a source of entertainment. However, not everyone quite sees it that way. The piece has sparked quite a debate online about the subject with many people homing in on the chimney sweep scene, arguing that it’s not racist at all.

Whatever your take on the situation (and you can check out some of the social media debate below) Mary Poppins Returns has been quite successful and not just at the box office. The film is currently nominated for several Academy Awards including a Best Original Song nomination for “The Place Where Lost Things Go.”

Mary Poppins Returns is in theaters now.

Need to chill.

Soot.

Don’t come for Mary Poppins.

Who wants to tell him about Predator?

Next.

Hey, at least we can make memes about it.

But remember: there’s nothing wrong with learning new things.