Dawn of the Jim Kenney Era - Racism, Caitlyn Jenner and the Mummers

The Dawn of The Kenney Era

Three days earlier his inauguration, Jim Kenney's Philadelphia announced itself in the aftermath of a controversial Mummers parade. Can the new mayor be Nixon going to China?

Jan. 05, 2016

Final calendar week, we recommended attending the Mummers Parade as a celebration of city living, and to witness its irresolute face and efforts toward more diversity. Only after the parade, ane Citizen stalwart emailed to tell usa the Mummers still had a ways to get.

"Despite some halfhearted attempts at cultural inclusion, the parade went above and beyond this yr with the black and brown confront, and plenty of signs mocking #BlackLivesMatter," she wrote. "Information technology was embarrassing and gross. It was bro-heavy and not family friendly. Nosotros left speedily."

The media fallout conformed to the same storyline. The mocking of Caitlyn Jenner. The video of the Mummer shouting gay slurs. The assault by a grouping of Mummers on a gay man walking his dog. Twitter blew up, with everyone from Margaret Cho to and then yet Mayor-elect Jim Kenney lambasting these public acts of backwardness. Uh-oh, nosotros thought…Same ol' Philly. Had we erred in recommending it?

Perchance. But, upon closer inspection, this could also exist true: That this is what alter feels similar. This year, the parade added the Philadelphia Partitioning, which included an African American step squad,  a Puerto Rican Bomba and Plena music grouping, and a Mexican-American dance collective. The Inquirer story subsequently the parade reported that most Mummers were welcoming of the influx of new faces, but that there were tensions.

"At times interactions grew heated, with critics calling the event racist and diehard Mummers railing against perceived political correctness," the paper reported.

In retrospect, that'southward quite natural, isn't it? How naive of u.s.a. to think that the addition of an African American pace squad and a handful of diverse troupes wouldn't engender at least some identity group backlash. Tensions always seem to escalate when once airtight civic traditions start to welcome new voices and faces.

Like Nixon, the ardent anti-Communist establishing relations with China, Jimmy From The Block is uniquely situated to motility a Mummer or a labor leader or a purely transactional politico away from narrow cocky-interest and toward the common skilful.

The key is what happens adjacent. And what happened in the aftermath of the parade was telling—and heartening. On Sunday, the Mummers issued a press release, announcing that the Mummer who had engaged in detest speech had been banned from Mummerdom: "As of this time, he is no longer considered a Mummer."

The Finnegan New year's day Brigade pledged to reach out to the LGBTQ community to offering "its services to help with a LBGT fundraiser or equality awareness, and to learn more than about LGBT concerns." And "on the matter of the Mummer Comic tradition of satire and poking fun at pop civilization," the printing release read, "we will keep dialogue with Mummers about sensitivity and with not-Mummers about the Mummer tradition of humor and what can be accustomed as liberty of expression and what is over the line."

Dissimilar groups trying to alive together is what cities are all about, and that dynamic often plays out in complicated and messy means. Remember, the Mummers came to be in the early 20th Century because white residents were violently rioting confronting one another—and others—on New year's day's Eve. The parade was an effort to civilize and unify warring groups. Fifty-fifty then, the Mummer'southward Parade was a social experiment. The more things change, the more than they remain the same.

In some ways, before he was even inaugurated, the Mummer controversy was the dawning of the Jim Kenney era. Much has been written most how Kenney is a blazon of span between old and new Philadelphia: a onetime Mummer turned political progressive, a Two Streeter who was for gay marriage earlier it was cool and who announces that "Black lives affair" at his inauguration. In the Mummer imbroglio stands Kenney's central challenge: Can we become beyond the finger-pointing rhetoric of identity politics and be ane urban center?

Kenney didn't run on a set up of policies and so much as on his personal narrative: Similar Obama in '08, he posited his story arc as the alter we demand. That doesn't guarantee he'll exist able to get things done, but it does give him a shot. Considering, like Nixon, the ardent anti-Communist establishing relations with China, Jimmy From The Cake is uniquely situated to motion a Mummer or a labor leader or a purely transactional politico away from narrow cocky-involvement and toward the mutual good. Kennedy's tweet on Fri responding to the Caitlyn Jenner sign and skit—"It was bad. Hurtful to many Philadelphians. Our Trans Citizens practise not deserve this type of satire/insult. #BeRespectful "—was non only dead-on, it was a harbinger of what he'll accept to do as Mayor: Speak truth to some of his friends, while simultaneously allaying their fear of change.

Michael Nutter was silent almost those whose deportment detracted from the Mummer fun on New Year'due south Day, but tin can you imagine how his critique would accept gone over? "Yeah, I got your respect right hither, Buppie." But Jimmy is harder to dismiss. The way the Mummers controversy has played out this yr, with the Mummers now working with the LGBTQ customs, is not merely representative of Kenney's own political evolution…it's an opportunity for a seminal moment. Five days ago, we feared that news reports could atomic number 82 only to the inescapable conclusion that nosotros're the aforementioned onetime polarized Philadelphia. Now the idea that it'southward anybody'south parade—and everyone'due south metropolis—feels resurgent.

Header photo: @FinneganNYB via Twitter

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/2016-mummers-jim-kenney-bruce-jenner-caitlyn-jenner/

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