Hot on the Heels of Hottentots

If you enjoyed the movie Mary Poppins as a child I have some bad news for you.

It's no longer considered appropriate for children and has now been issued a Parental Guidance (PG) rating.

That's according to the BBC who claim the 1964 classic has scenes and language that may be unsuitable for young children.

Having seen the film about the magical nanny several times, I struggled to readily identify where the offence could be taken by any sentient being.

Then I remembered that the professional woke whiners are barely sentient and are experts at spotting offence wherever they look.

That certainly seems to be the case here because the inappropriate language is the term Hottentots. Perhaps you are like me and thought a Hottentot was just a made up word in a film.

If you did, then you could now be considered an ignorant racist by the BBC and their ilk.

That's because Hottentot is apparently a racially offensive term for a bunch of nomadic herders in South Africa officially known as the Khoekhoe people.

Of course that's not all that warrants outrage over Mary Poppins.

There's a scene in the film where the chimney sweeps dance on the roof, their faces blackened by soot.

While blackface for fun is ok for a leftist Prime Minister like Canada's Justin Trudeau, it's subversive poison when in a kids movie featuring people doing important work.

To add insult to injury, the Admiral exclaims that 'we're being attacked by Hottentots.'

If only he'd said 'we're being attacked by the oldest continuous culture of nomadic goat herders known as the Khoekhoe and we pay respects to their elders past present and emerging', I'm sure everything would have been alright.

According to the tossers at the BBC: "...some scenes may be unsuitable for young children" and parents are advised that the content may upset "younger, or more sensitive children".

"We understand from our racism and discrimination research... that a key concern for... parents is the potential to expose children to discriminatory language or behaviour which they may find distressing or repeat without realising the potential offence."

Incredibly, the movie hasn't recorded a litany of complaints from tormented children who have watched in over the past 60 years. It's only when a bunch of adults decide it's dangerous, racist and distressing, that it actually becomes so.

I suspect the adult intervention wasn't at the behest of a Khoekhoe child being called a Hottentot in the English schoolyard.

I don't think there's a child in the world who thought Mary Poppins was a racially offensive movie (until these idiot adults got involved) and I'd wager that just like most of us, not one thought anything about the word Hottentots.

“Winds in the east, mist coming in. Like somethin’ is brewin’ and ’bout to begin. Can’t put me finger on what lies in store, but I feel what’s to happen all happened before.”
Bert (from the movie Mary Poppins)