It’s not like it’s hard to find racism in the history and present practice of Mardi Gras. Just tune in to WYES on Mardi Gras night and watch the “public TV” station’s obsequious fawning over the king of white supremacy, a.k.a. Comus, in his very white mask, at “The Meeting of the Courts.” Get mad about the captains in Ku Klux Klan outfits in all the old-line parades on St. Charles Avenue. Never accept a throw from Proteus. Think twice about watching the Knights of Chaos parade, or Krewe d’Etat and, if you do, bear in mind how closely their satire echoes the spirit of old-line krewes that, in their glory days, led the fight to drown Reconstruction in a shower of blood. But if you’re looking for racism among the white riders of Zulu, you obviously have no clue what’s racist and what’s not in the universe of carnival.

I saw a great sign in the Société de Ste. Anne procession on Mardi Gras day this year. It said, “This Parade Fights Fascism.” Yes, and it does so by inverting and puncturing the prevailing ideological categories of domination. That’s exactly what Zulu is doing by putting black riders and their white allies together in an inverted version of a tool designed for racial oppression.

I realize that the vast majority of Americans have no idea what carnival is, or how to read carnival messages, and that’s OK. But maybe well-meaning liberal observers should take a page from their own playbook and not comment on cultures that they have no exposure to or appreciation for.

Behind the Zulu blackface flap: liberal guilt, clueless outsiders | The Lens

hmmmm