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Philly Mag's Conundrum: Hates Mummers, Loves White People
Philly Mag "list issue" calls for expulsion of Mummers, worship of rich white people.
Philly Mag's Conundrum: Hates Mummers, Loves White People
Philadelphia magazine certainly aims to please a high-end suburban readership (Top Doctors, Top Dentists, Top Homes! And newsflash: wealthy moms think smoking pot is cool). But they have perhaps never pissed off city-dwellers as much as when they decided to include the Mummers on their “10 Things We Need To Get Rid Of” list—part of December's mind-numbing “List Issue.”
CA Conrad, the award-winning Philadelphia-living, Philly-loving, and proudly queer working class poet, was furious: he criticized them on their Facebook page (“Dear Philadelphia Magazine: HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT THE MUMMERS SHOULD LEAVE! Your magazine proves more and more that you are ONLY FOR Phillie’s [sic] 1%!” ), was blocked (“I SWEAR TO GOD THE MOMENT YOU BLOCK ME IS THE MOMENT I APPEAR AT YOUR OFFICE AND I GO DOWN TO THE MUMMERS MUSEUM AND BRING STRING BANDS TO PLAY ON MARKET STREET OUTSIDE YOUR MAGAZINE’S OFFICE!!!!!!!!!”), then showed up to their office (sans a string band, unfortunately) and was escorted out by security after demanding to speak to an editor.
Here are both sides' takes: CA Conrad vs. Philly Mag editor Tom McGrath.
(Full disclosure: I'm a member of the Vaudevillains New Years Brigade (I'm the evil gas man here), part of the Murray Comic Club and frequently mocked by Philebrity's Joey Sweeney — but now that it's Mummers vs. Philly Mag (the latter he really fucking hates), maybe we can win him over...)
The largely white Mummers may have a controversial history in Philadelphia, including a long-since banned penchant for wearing blackface. But Philly Mag's criticism didn't seem to spring from a long-nurtured quest for racial justice: the overwhelmingly black Gallery Mall made the “get rid of” list, and black faces made up just 21 percent (actually, 22 percent--see correction below) of the 88 pictured “top whatever” people lists, such as “power couple” and “best hair.”
Africans Americans are a plurality of Philly's population (43 percent), but they are well represented only in what might be described as the “inspiring poor children who are doing good” list.
Meanwhile, “The Ultimate Philadelphia Cocktail Party” list includes just one black person (I stand corrected: Wanda Sykes is pictured here too, but she sort of fades into the Phanatic) among the 18 invitees, and he is working rather than attending: ?uestlove, a court jester entertaining the assembled guests with his soulful music.
“This is a working class town, Philly,” Conrad wrote on his blog. “This city does not belong to the rich. This is Philadelphia.”
Actually, both ?uestlove and Wanda Sykes are on that cocktail party list.— Erica_Palan- Philly Mag is the most influential publication in the city, and we almost lost the Mummers thanks to their stupid list. Thanks to that proudly queer working class poet for standing up for the a fine Philly tradition. To celebrate, let's all score some coke and buy a whore at the Downtowners club this weekend. (CA Conrad's not invited because he's proudly queer and we don't care for that.)— bl0wme
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