New Orleans Mardi Gras is a huge tourism event for New Orleans, just as it is for Rio de Janeiro, and increasingly the entire Gulf Coast all the way to Mobile, Alabama. I’m not going to begrudge this broke-ass section of the United States a chance to breakeven or make a dollar or two from strangers and transplants. They need a break. As a kid, Mardi Gras parades were fun a million years ago for me. When ACORN’s national headquarters relocated to New Orleans, it was a good excuse to welcome friends and comrades for a couple of years, so they could taste the experience.
That was then, but this is now. Personally, I’ve done everything possible to avoid Mardi Gras for the last forty years. The whole classist, noblesse oblige thing of debutante balls and exclusive Rex and other clubs throwing trinkets to hoi poli just rubs me wrong in every way. The city and the various krewes make claims that with the advent of new parades like Endymion, suburban clubs, and truck floats that Mardi Gras has become more “democratic,” and less class and white-based.
Yeah, maybe, but there’s a dark side to some of this as well that tarnished the 2026 edition. The Krewe of Tucks is one of these newer additions since my high school days in the city. As the local paper reported,
“…a White rider on the top deck of a float grasping a bundle of plastic Mardi Gras beads with two Black, Barbie-like dolls dangling by their necks. An earlier photo showed one doll, which appeared to be hung by the neck by beads at the edge of a float. The images drew immediate backlash and reactions related to the South’s history of lynching Black people and violence against women.”
In a majority Black city or really anywhere at any time, this is past the pale. I’m not going to even touch my surprise at seeing the local paper is now capitalizing white as “White.” Not sure when that happened, but I don’t need to guess at the intended market? The Krewe of Tucks, founded in 1969, is one of the largest of the new outfits with 2500 members. Confronted with this problem they hastened to investigate, made claims about their diversity, and expelled two riders. A Community Voice, ACORN’s affiliate, joined the NAACP, SCLC, a number of local churches and others in immediately demanding Tucks take that action, and as part of this coalition demanded that the City Council act to impose $5000 fines and suspension of krewes ability to parade for further incidents.
Will that be enough? Probably not, because local governments oversee these parades with the loosest of restraints, usually only preoccupied with safety and preventing shooting incidents that would make national news. Locals have other issues that are also ignored. New neighborhood efforts started by younger, new residents often ignore the efforts and informal routes of traditional Mardi Gras Indian groups, long a critical part of the real Mardi Gras. Some of these parades earlier in the season are also strictly adult-only, which can surprise visitors with younger children, even as many exult in the frankly political floats in some of these efforts.
As the tourism industry cashes in, there are also consequences. A 2013 study found that in North Carolina more than 60 percent of Mardi Gras beads contained unsafe levels of lead. And in 2018, the city discovered 46 tons of beads clogging catch basins that are essential for clearing floodwaters. A new coalition wants to change that, but that’s just another thing on the list of predictable situations where the city and the elites are looking the other way. This year with perfect weather the boosters claim there were 2.2 million visitors, making this laudatory effort a small dog chasing a very big truck.
None of this says to me that I should change my calendar from my many years tradition of scheduling domestic or international travel while the city pivots to millions of tourists. Letting the good times roll is all good, but not when it’s rolling over so many unattended issues.