Still Not an Honor: Countering the Academic Narrative of Black Indian Play at Mardi Gras

Abstract:Academia has failed to adequately address the negative impacts of Indian play traditions at Mardi Gras in Black communities of New Orleans. Too many scholars frame Mardi Gras Indian play as completely or mostly coalitional and even anti-racist. This article argues that Indian play in Black expressive culture is more pervasive than has been acknowledged, and that it mirrors and reinforces Indian play in hegemonic expressive culture. Rather than pathologizing Black expressive culture, however, the article suggests that scholars use a relational frame to think about Indian play in Black expressive culture as taking place in a field of meaning generated by Whites more than Indians. Such an approach demonstrates the negative impacts of Mardi Gras Indian play, pushes scholars to take Indigenous peoples more seriously as contemporary subjects, and calls for us all to dream a better future together.