MIAMI – A college professor does not feel that Mary Poppins is practically perfect in every way.
In an op-ed written for the New York Times, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner of Linfield College claims the popular movie character is a "racist" for appearing to wear blackface in the original 1964 movie.
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The scene in question appears when Julie Andrews as Mary dances on the rooftop while singing "Step in Time." Pollack-Pelzner accuses Poppins of "blacking up" her face with chimney soot while dancing.
"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," Pollack-Pelzner writes.
Needless to say, people were not happy with the professor's opinion, with many taking to social media to dispute his claims.
Mary Poppins wasn’t flirting with black face! It was soot in their faces from being a chimney!!! Stopped spreading racism claims on non racist things like this!!!
— Jennifer Conway (@jencon1978) January 31, 2019
People are searching for racism like it's oil. Racism has become a commodity, figuratively speaking. If it were a literal commodity, however, it's value would be through the roof at this moment in history. https://t.co/Ygsm06jtC0
— Coleman Hughes (@coldxman) February 4, 2019
Mary Poppins is racist now. 🤦♀️🙄 #MaryPoppins
— DevDev (@92dev_dev) February 4, 2019