Democracy Despite Government: African American Parading and Democratic Theory

The authors would like to thank Michael E. Morrell for his comments on an earlier version of this article, presented at the New England Political Science Association Meeting, and Vassar College for research funds that enabled trips to New Orleans.

Abstract

This article engages a double exploration of the political meanings of African American parading in New Orleans and the significance of those meanings for understandings of democracy, especially those theories that look beyond elective representative democracy and aim, even under existing conditions of inequality, to include all voices. African Americans in New Orleans have a long tradition of parading that lays claim to public streets for pleasure, articulations of community, modes of remembrance, and protest. In parading, residents craft a public sphere for cultural, social, and political expression and fashion the streets into a distinctive, relatively egalitarian public square that exists regardless of and sometimes in opposition to the government and its formal, institutionally political spheres of action. The authors characterize this parading as “democracy despite government.” Democracy despite government involves open and public, relatively egalitarian, informal political practices beyond the institutional boundaries, rational deliberative processes, and instrumental actions of representative government. Such democracy gives expression to the values and interests of the politically marginalized. It does not necessarily directly challenge or replace formal democratic or quasi- or un-democratic institutions, processes, and policies. Still, the parading, as an instance of democracy despite government, creates and expresses freedom and community and gives scope for the marginalized to express their own values, identities, and interests in civil society.

Notes

¹ Helen A. Regis describes second lines: “These massive moving street festivals, commonly drawing from 3,000 to 5,000 people, are organized and funded by working-class African Americans to celebrate the anniversaries of their distinctive social clubs and benevolent societies. Second lines are also performed to mark the passing of community members in events more widely known outside New Orleans as ‘jazz funerals.’” “Second Lines, Minstrelsy, and the Contested Landscapes of New Orleans Afro-Creole Festivals,” Cultural Anthropology 14:4 (1999), p. 472.

The authors would like to thank Michael E. Morrell for his comments on an earlier version of this article, presented at the New England Political Science Association Meeting, and Vassar College for research funds that enabled trips to New Orleans.

² Alessandra Lorini offers insights into the concept of public culture: “Unlike in other western countries, public culture in the United States has always been the ground where irreconcilable differences could confront and negotiate their space. Far from being a neutral ground, public culture is a contested space in which collective or subjective identities fight for recognition. Public culture is also broader than political culture as it can include politically conflictual contents. Furthermore, public culture is broader than the notion of public space, a concept take[n] from Jürgen Habermas's Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989), that is more connected to representative democracy.” Rituals of Race. American Public Culture and the Search for Racial Democracy (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1999), p. xii. We do not believe that public space is neutral ground or that political culture necessarily does not include serious conflict. But the idea of a public culture as broader than Habermas's understanding comports with our approach to democracy.

³ Sheldon Wolin, “Fugitive Democracy,” in Seyla Benhabib (ed.), Democracy and Difference (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 38.

⁴ The distinction here between two broad types of democratic theory—liberal representative and deliberative—pervades the literature and is discussed in the final section of this article.

⁵ Many who are concerned with democracy and difference may appear to come close to the idea of democracy despite government, but the remaining contrasts are significant. Those concerned with difference use phrases such as informal democratic practices or “informal deliberative enclaves of resistance,” in Jane Mansbridge's words; she goes on to theorize that “democracies need to foster and value” these enclaves “in which those who lose in each coercive move can rework their ideas and their strategies, gathering their forces and deciding in a more protected space in what way or whether to continue the battle” (“Using Power/Fighting Power: The Polity,” in Benhabib, Democracy and Difference, pp. 46–47). Democracy despite government, however, does not assume “deliberation” as the only or primary form of political communication, does not rely on democratic governments willingly “fostering” such enclaves, focuses on democratic practices and not on tactical decisions about seeking power, and differs from Mansbridge about what “the battle” is.

⁶ Wolin, “Fugitive Democracy,” pp. 31–45.

⁷ Parades might also be seen as a weapon of the weak, but we believe they serve as more than that in supporting a democratic culture, albeit one that is not institutionally part of government. See James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985). Of course, not all parading shares in democratic values and actions; indeed, parades also serve authoritarian regimes or anti-democratic norms in formally democratic countries. Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans for generations affirmed white supremacy, although African Americans created their own Mardi Gras. For a theoretical discussion about intersections of carnival and politics see Abner Cohen, Masquerade Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), chaps. 9–10.

⁸ Helen A. Regis, “Blackness and the Politics of Memory in the New Orleans Second Line,” American Ethnologist 28:4 (2001), p. 756.

⁹ Don Mitchell, The Right to the City. Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space (New York: Guilford Press, 2003), p. 32, emphasis in the original.

¹⁰ Nancy Fraser, “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy,” Social Text 25/26 (1990), p. 67.

¹¹ See Reid Mitchell, All on a Mardi Gras Day (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995), James Gill, Lords of Misrule (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1997), J. Mark Souther, New Orleans on Parade (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006), and Rachel Breunlin and Helen A. Regis, “Putting the Ninth Ward on the Map: Race, Place, and Transformation in Desire, New Orleans,” American Anthropologist 108:4 (2006), pp. 744–764.

¹² Souther, New Orleans on Parade, p. 125.

¹³ Social aid and pleasure clubs were originally established to provide economic assistance and proper burials for those without means, and socializing accompanied the mutual aid functions of the clubs. For a history of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club see < http:www.kreweofzulu.com/Krewe-Of-Zulu/History-Of-the-Zulu-Social-Aid-&-Pleasure-Club.html> and the Louisiana State Museum's exhibit, “From Tramps to Kings: One Hundred Years of Zulu,” < http://lsm.crt.state.la.us/zulu/html/media.html>.

¹⁴ In a PBS special Professor Raphael Cassimere, Jr. of the University of New Orleans, in response to a question about whether the Zulu's characterizations are racist, answers: “No, it is not about racism, but was considered an alternative to the ‘whites only’ activities of Carnival. It began as a spoof, but gained popularity with working class and some of middle class as time passed. It was a subtle form of protest against the powers that be without crossing the line of ‘expected and accepted’ racial behavior.” < www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/neworleans/sfeature/zulu.html>.

¹⁵ Dating the appearance of Black Indians (masking as Indian also occurs in Caribbean countries) and explaining the precise reasons for this form of masking are difficult. Michael P. Smith writes: “From the beginning of the 18th Century, throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America, Blacks had been observed parading the public streets on various occasions, elaborately dressed and masked in the style of American Indians. Blacks in Haiti celebrate their freedom from slavery by masking Indian on Mardi Gras.… In New Orleans the Mardi Gras or Black Indian tradition seems to have appeared, or perhaps reappeared, shortly after 1872 when the State Legislature made it legal to mask on Mardi Gras from sunrise to sunset.” Michael P. Smith, Spirit World (New Orleans: New Orleans Urban Folklife Society, 1984), p. 85.

¹⁶ Mitchell, All on a Mardi Gras Day, p. 116.

¹⁷ Samuel Kinser, Carnival American Style (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), p. 160.

¹⁸ Willie J. Clarke, “A Short History of the Mardi Gras Indians,” < http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/mardigrasindians.html>.

¹⁹ Smith, Spirit World, p. 85. It should be noted that clubs are not necessarily internally egalitarian and that it is men who mask. Women take part through helping create the costumes and joining the parade.

²⁰ Kinser, Carnival American Style, p. 160.

²¹ Kinser, Carnival American Style, 232.

²² Contestation over issues of integration in Mardi Gras continued into the 1990s. In 1991 city council member Dorothy Mae Taylor introduced an ordinance requiring krewes to demonstrate that they were desegregated in order to receive a parade permit. Few krewes or clubs met the non-discriminatory criteria of admitting members, and old-line white krewes decided not to parade in Mardi Gras; see Souther, New Orleans on Parade, pp. 213–214. In the end, although a version of the ordinance was passed, the city council, a majority of whom were African American, refused to require Mardi Gras krewes actively to demonstrate nondiscrimination.

²³ Ned Sublette, The World that Made New Orleans (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2008), p. 294.

²⁴ Breunlin and Regis, “Putting the Ninth Ward,” p. 746.

²⁵ Andrea Boll, The Parade Goes on Without You (New Orleans: NOLAFugees Press, 2009), p. 133.

²⁶ Regis, “Blackness and the Politics of Memory,” p. 757.

²⁷ Billy Sothern, “A Second-Line Revival,” The Nation, January 25, 2006.

²⁸ < http://blog.nola.com/notesonneworleans/2008/11/sundays_second_line_parade_nin.html>. According to Breunlin and Regis, Nine Times “not only produces a parade but also effectively produces a new experience of and representation of neighborhood—Nine Times. It also claims a collective ownership of a landscape that is considered marginal land” in the Ninth Ward. Breunlin and Regis, “Putting the Ninth Ward,” p. 749.

²⁹ < http://blog.nola.com/notesonneworleans/2008/11/sundays_second_line_parade_nin.html>. According to Breunlin and Regis Nine Times “not only produces a parade but also effectively produces a new experience of and representation of neighborhood—Nine Times. It also claims a collective ownership of a landscape that is considered marginal land” in the Ninth Ward, “Putting the Ninth Ward,” p. 749

³⁰ < http://blog.nola.com/notesonneworleans/2008/11/sundays_second_line_parade_nin.html>. According to Breunlin and Regis Nine Times “not only produces a parade but also effectively produces a new experience of and representation of neighborhood—Nine Times. It also claims a collective ownership of a landscape that is considered marginal land” in the Ninth Ward, “Putting the Ninth Ward,” p. 749, 751. Desire, opened in the Ninth Ward in the 1950's, had 14,000 residents at one time. Over the years neglect by government, an increase in violence, and the exodus by residents contributed to the final buildings being torn down in 2003. Plans for redevelopment of mixed use, mixed income residences have resulted in limited rebuilding.

³¹ Sublette, The World that Made New Orleans, p. 124.

³² Breunlin and Regis note that “In the late 1980s, when Helen first began participating in these parades, nearly every social club either started or ended their routes in a project, or they passed through a major housing development during their Sunday afternoon anniversary parades.” Breunlin and Regis, “Putting the Ninth Ward,” p. 753.

³³ Sothern, “Second-Line Revival.”

³⁴ Regis, “Blackness and Politics of Memory,” p. 766.

³⁵ The social aid and pleasure clubs themselves have an exclusive character, as any club does, but the parades are very open affairs.

³⁶ Souther, New Orleans on Parade, p. 127. Lolis Elie's film Faubourg Tremé (2008) presents a moving story about this section of the city.

³⁷ Michael White, “New Orleans's African American Musical Traditions,” in Manning Marable and Kristen Clarke (eds), Seeking Higher Ground (New York: Palgrave, 2008), p. 93.

³⁸ The photograph of the Nine Times second line in 2007 shows streams of people taking over a bridge and street for what looks like a mile or more. < http://blog.nola.com/notesonneworleans/2008/11/sundays_second_line_parade_nin.html>.

³⁹ In 2006 after the All Star Second Line a series of shootings prompted the NOPD to raise parade permit fees from approximately $1,600 per club to $3,800. Breunlin and Regis, “Putting the Ninth Ward,” p. 758.

⁴⁰ In 2006 after the All Star Second Line a series of shootings prompted the NOPD to raise parade permit fees from approximately $1,600 per club to $3,800. Breunlin and Regis, “Putting the Ninth Ward,”, 754, 757.

⁴¹ Lolis Elie, “Ignorance Undermines Culture,” New Orleans Times Picayune, October 5, 2007.

⁴² Liza Katzman, Director, Tootie's Last Suit (film, 2007).

⁴³ Elie, “Ignorance Undermines Culture.”

⁴⁴ James Bohman, “Survey Article: The Coming of Age of Deliberative Democracy,” Journal of Political Philosophy 6:4 (1998), pp. 400–425.

⁴⁵ Andre Bachtiger et al., “Disentangling Diversity in Deliberative Democracy: Competing Theories, Their Blind Spots and Complementarities,” Journal of Political Philosophy 17:1 (2009), pp. 1–32.

⁴⁶ Similar to these criticisms of deliberative democracy is Wolin's criticism of Rawls: “Although Rawls posits a citizenry in which all are free and equal” and share equally in political power and influence, “that vision is hopelessly at odds with the central fact of political life,” that power is never freely discussed and shared but is only “wrested in conflict.” Sheldon Wolin, “The Liberal/Democratic Divide: On Rawls's Political Liberalism,” Political Theory 24:1 (1996), p. 108.

⁴⁷ Emblematic of the difficulty of having the powerful listen are the protests against the destruction of public housing organized by Hands Off Iberville, Survivors Village, and the Coalition to Stop Demolition and a lawsuit intended to prevent their destruction by the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) in conjunction with Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The 4,500 units of CJ Peete, St. Bernard, Lafitte, and BW Cooper have been torn down with the approval of the NOLA city council. Only Iberville remains.

⁴⁸ This argument differs from James Scott's: “Where everyday resistance more strikingly departs from other forms of resistance is in its implicit disavowal of public and symbolic goals. Where institutionalized politics is formal, overt, concerned with systematic, de jure change, everyday resistance is informal, often covert, and concerned largely with immediate, de facto gains.” Scott, Weapons of the Weak, p. 33. Parading, for instance, is overt and can involve long term as well as immediate “gains.”

⁴⁹ See Bruce Gilley, “Doubts on Democracy,” Journal of Democracy 20:1 (2009), pp. 113–127.

⁵⁰ See Seyla Benhabib, “Introduction: The Democratic Moment and the Problem of Difference,” in Benhabib (ed.), Democracy and Difference, pp. 3–18, and Wolin, “Fugitive Democracy.”

⁵¹ Wolin, “Fugitive Democracy,” p. 43.

⁵² Pateman maintains there is a meaningful distinction between deliberative and participatory democracy: “The tacit acceptance of existing power structures is a major reason why I do not see deliberative and participatory democracy as synonymous or deliberative democracy as the direct successor to participatory democracy. Participatory democracy has a much broader scope. It is about changing the common sense meaning of ‘democracy’ and the hegemony of the official view; in short it is about democratization. Structural change, refashioning undemocratic institutions, and undermining subordination and domination are the heart of participatory democracy.” “Afterward,” in Daniel I. O'Neill, Mary Lyndon Shanley, and Iris Marion Young (eds), Illusion of Consent (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008). p. 237.

⁵³ Iris Marion Young, Inclusion and Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 49.

⁵⁴ Mark E. Warren, “Institutionalizing Deliberative Democracy,” in Shawn Rosenberg (ed.), Deliberation, Participation and Democracy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), p. 278.

⁵⁵ Benhabib, “Introduction: The Democratic Moment,” p. 8.

⁵⁶ Alan Ryan, “Participation Revisited,” in O'Neill, Shanley, and Young (eds), Illusion of Consent, p. 166.

⁵⁷ Alan Ryan, “Participation Revisited,” in O'Neill, Shanley, and Young (eds), Illusion of Consent, 183.

⁵⁸ Even though the mayor greeting the kings of Rex and Zulu signals the commencement of the official Mardi Gras, it is still predominantly white, its krewes and balls segregated, and its economic and symbolic importance to the city apparent.

⁵⁹ Benjamin R. Barber offers an expansive definition, which can include understandings of democracy beyond the governmental sphere: “Politically, we may define democracy as a regime/culture/civil society/government in which we make (will) common decisions, choose common conduct, and create or express common values in the practical domain of our lives in an every-changing context of conflict of interests and competition for power—a setting, moreover, where there is no agreement on prior goods or certain knowledge about justice or right and where we must proceed on the premise of the base equality both of interests and of the interested.” Barber, “Foundationalism and Democracy,” in Benhabib, Democracy and Difference, p. 350. Admittedly his sights are usually set on the formally political, but his construction opens up vistas for understanding democratic practices.

⁶⁰ See Michael Goodhart, “A Democratic Defense of Universal Basic Income,” in O'Neill, Shanley, and Young (eds), Illusion of Consent, pp. 139, 142.

⁶¹ Parading should not be romanticized as a form of democracy, however. Not all residents agree about issues, and not all join parades. One funeral second line for D-Boy who had been involved with drugs was deliberately avoided by members of his community who felt such a recognition was inappropriate and implicitly condoning the life he led. Regis, “Blackness and the Politics of Memory,” p. 762. There is contention within communities about particular parades.

⁶² See Michael Walzer, Politics and Passion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004) and John S. Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

⁶³ Wolin, “Fugitive Democracy,” p. 31.