The British Board of Film Classification ruled that Mary Poppins can no longer be sold with “U” rating. This is the British version of America’s “G” rating.
The rating must be raised to PG over an alleged racially offensive word. The movie uses the word Hottentot, another name for the Khoisan, or the Khoi and San people of Southern Africa. Also known as Capoids or Khoekhoe. The BBFC says this is “discriminatory language.”
The Khoisan are a racially distinct people with epicanthic eye folds, peppercorn hair, dark reddish-brown skin, and distinct skeletal features. They once inhabited a substantial portion of sub-Saharan Africa. However, now they primarily live in remote areas of the Kalahari Desert desert in Namibia and South Africa. During the past 2,500 years, they were slowly wiped out by invading Bantu tribes in what is known as the Bantu expansion.
The word Hottentot is also in the Wizard of Oz!
