I think of it as he saw some brown sugar amongst all that whiteness lol, everyone was laughing when I told them about one of the only Black guys on a float pointing me out and throwing me some beads. Hilarious! 

------------
I'm not new to small city Mardi Gras. I've never been to New Orleans Mardi Gras but just about 2.5 hours from New Orleans is a smaller city with a longer history of Mardi Gras than New Orleans. Those are the ones I grew up going to.
But I was new to this other particular small city's Mardi Gras that Moonflower and I went to last Friday. 

I wasn't used to how white it was. In the area we were standing, the crowd was all white. I have no idea where all the Black people were standing. Even parking and walking to our spot, I didn't hardly see any Black people. I totally don't get this because there's a super high Black population here. We've been here since 2020 but because of COVID, didn't really start doing anything until 2021.

A key thing about this parade for me was that there were no bands, so it took me a while to figure out that that was the key to the lack of Blackness in the parade. Typically, bands are going to be full of Black people. So white float riders are the norm, but everyone else parading and walking along side the floats were also majority white. Apparently they were also in the same organization as the float riders, but this was still new and strange for me.

Usually we have masked riders on floats, and then bands where you'd see so many Black people that it doesn't register too much about the white float riders. As I started growing up I did start to wonder about the racial separations. Long history, not going into that or it'll have to go in my Healing in Progress section.
It's all too complicated and too much

Anyway, back to present day...
 
Finally, I see a Black man on one of the floats, and I felt better. He was talking to someone next to him when they directly passed us so he didn't see me until he looked up when the float has just went past us a little bit and he hurried up and threw me a pack of beads before they got out of range.
I caught them and said Thank you, then he nodded his head.

I also started to see other Black people sprinkled and I mean, slightly sparsely sprinkled in the parade and so I continued to feel more normal and dare I saw, represented. LOL! Wanting to feel represented in a parade, lol.

Hey, I like the way I look and I like seeing people who look like me when it's an event or movie or sports or whatever that I'm enjoying.

Thankfully Moonflower and I had a great, safe time. Safe Safe Safe thank God.

I did see a teenage boy have a seizure. His friends were so calm and mature as they surrounded him. I kept looking back but I didn't want to bring awareness to Moonflower as to what was going on. It took a while for help to come but I think his head was protected from any harm since he had so many friends around him, and ultimately everyone was kinda calm so I think he was okay 💜💙🖤🤍👼🏾💜💜💙💙🖤🖤

I did keep thinking about him some, but again, I really think he ended up being okay.

------------------

We didn't have any problems in the crowd. When it comes to terrible people and especially, terrible people you do not want to be caught standing in very close proximity to, it's not about race at all. You're either going to be lucky or unlucky, period!

I really wasn't feeling like any small talk or any interacting whatsoever with anyone near us, but when it was almost time for the parade to start, I started trying to put my chair back in the bag.

Had no idea the guy next to me saw me struggling so he went "Would you like for me to help you with that ma'am. I used to have to fold these all the time"

And cool,  yes you can help me but I still don't feel like talking and smiling. Lol I of course, did my little chitter chatter small talk as he put the chair back in the bag for me.

Then a few minutes later, I started trying to put Moonflower's chair up and lol, this lady on the other side said "You want me to help you with that one?"

So lol, okay, sure you can help but again, me...talk? Even just a few words takes a lot of brain power and energy when everything has been disastrous in this disastrous nation. As a Black person, personally for me, the state of the nation is absolutely always on my mind every time I interact with someone of another race. 
I don't even care who they voted for at this point, it's very awkward interacting with other races beyond a simple "Hello."

Lots of other people on the floats were friendly and pointing to us and throwing us things. This is normal as they were doing this for other people right by us as well. I'm like this is the friendliest parade I've been to. I still kept thinking..."I bet I know who they voted for?"

I was really just standing there most of the time and didn't want anything unless it was something unique for Moonflower...and chile, food! If they had thrown some snacks oh baby....

One guy walked close up to me and gave me some beads. I had to smile and pretend like I really wanted the beads. He was an older man in the parade and just having a good time.
I'm like "Who he voted for?" 🤣

But once again, thankfully Moonflower and I had a wonderful time, caught a lot of beads and even a stuffed animal. They didn't throw any candy/debbie cakes/snacks/gum because I definitely would have been trying to actually catch something like I was young again 😁