Authorities are investigating an alleged hate crime after a girl was handed a black doll with beads tied around the neck appearing to be in the shape of a noose at a Mardi Gras parade in Mississippi.
Nicole Fairconenture, the mother of the 12-year-old girl, claimed she was standing with her family at an annual parade that rolls along a major roadway, U.S. 90, when a man on a New Orleans Saints-themed float gave her daughter a “throw” item, a custom of the Mardi Gras celebration, according to a report from the Sun Herald in Gulfport.
The girl, on her way back to show her family what she had received, was allegedly called back by the man who her mother claims made a disturbing comment.
“She grabbed the item, put it to her chest, and was coming back, and he called to her again,” Fairconeture said, the outlet reported. “When she turned around, he said, ‘That’s you.'”
The mother described the doll as a black person that “was dressed like a slave,” according to the Sun Herald.
When she discovered what had happened, Fairconeture reportedly handed the doll to Bay police while another family member filed a police report.
“She’s just very disturbed by it, that he pointed her out in the crowd to give her what to her was an insult,” Fairconeture said of her daughter. “Her peers had to see it, my family had to deal with that. … It’s really disturbing.”
Bay police have contacted the owners of the float, but no clear suspects have been named from this incident, according to the news source.