Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comments from Mayor Kip Holden.
Nearly 72 hours after the Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade rolled through the iconic neighborhood and downtown Baton Rouge, residents and politicians are still going back and forth on social media over whether some of the floats crossed the line from satire to outright racism.
The main target for the vitriol is the #PinkLivesMatter float that depicted a flamingo, the parade’s mascot, being hit with a police nightstick and punched in the head while wearing a sign around its neck that read “I can’t breathe.” The sign is a reference to Eric Garner, a 43-year-old who died in police custody after a New York City police officer placed him in a chokehold. Garner can be heard repeating the words in a viral video capturing the encounter.
“This is the type of bigotry and hatred that prevents my beloved hometown from becoming the Great City we are destined to be,” state Rep. Ted James wrote on his Facebook page Monday night. “Too often, there are people in our city who use the Spanish Town parade as an outlet to promote this type of garbage and is a black eye for Baton Rouge.”
“If the current board doesn’t have control, change the guidelines,” James continued in the post he ends with #WeAreBetterEBR #LoveOverHate. “If the city issues permits, stop issuing permits until safeguards are in place. My young family members saw these floats and I had to have the uncomfortable conversation with them about the ignorance of some people. This is not the image of MY city that I want to see displayed.”
Keon Preston, an activist who assists and counsels the families of homicide victims and founder of Together We Stand, Divided We Fall, wrote in a Facebook post that he believes the parade went too far.
“There is no word you can use to explain this disrespectful foolishness,” Preston wrote Sunday afternoon. “We as a black race needs to come together and stop the madness and we can work as a team to change this mess!!!!!”
Not all of the posts criticized the parade, however. Some people defended the event and organizers, with some noting the parade has always pushed the boundaries of satire and others citing First Amendment rights to free speech.
“Satire and irreverence are generally what this parade and many Mardi Gras Krewes are about,” Lance Sullivan wrote on his Facebook page. “Please stop with the faux outrage and attempts at censorship and don’t come next year.”
Parade organizers told Daily Report Monday they will discuss the issue during a post-parade meeting in a few weeks, but declined further comment and said they have no control over float decoration or themes.
Mayor Kip Holden says he does not condone racism and will speak with the organizers of the parade about the issue, but stresses that he has never tried to censor the content of the parade.
“I‘ve been made a mockery of in some of those parades,” Holden says.
Paul Arrigo, president and CEO of Visit Baton Rouge and one of the leaders of Baton Rouge’s tourism efforts, says he was on the Greater Baton Rouge American Italian Association’s float and did not see the floats that have caused the controversy. He adds he received no calls Monday from any citizens or tourists about the floats, and declined to comment further.
—Ryan Broussard
