Father 'shocked' when his son caught a racist caricature at a Mardi Gras parade

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Reyes said that he and his son were waiting on the curb near the corner of Arrow Lane and Terry Parkway in Gretna for the Mystic Knights of Adonis parade.

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Then, Reyes said, as the eighth or ninth float rolled past, an older rider tossed his son a small object wrapped in a plastic bag.

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Inside was a small refrigerator magnet. It was a caricature of a black man holding a watermelon, a racist trope.

“I was shocked,” Reyes said, who snatched the magnet from his son and “threw it right in my pocket.”

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