Yes It Was Hot

Following up on last week’s post, in case anyone doesn’t believe it, this summer has been hot.

But once I committed to walking to my city’s African American festival, I put on my big boy pants and accepted it would be hot.

To the credit of the organizers, they were prepared. They had set up a designated Cooling Zone where visitors and staff could get out of the heat.

There were multiple buses with AC running where people could take a break.

What’s more, the fire department was running sprinklers where people could cool off.

But despite the heat and humidity, people persevered. Of course there were lots of vendors setting up tents.

And you can’t have a festival like this without a ton of food. I ended up buying fried fish and Carribean food, but there were plenty of ultra-healthy options.

And also less healthy options.

But beyond food and commerce, there was a huge effort to just bring the city’s African American community together in this big collection of tents.

There was a Roots and Family area where people could just pitch tents and hang out.

And there was a whole section for community outreach, from volunteer groups, the Girl Scouts, the city school system, and the city libraries. I took these photos early because I was trying to beat the heat, but when I left everything was getting crowded.

My city has a significant Black majority. The majority of people at this festival were Black but plenty were not, and the event was genuinely a celebration of community. And yet events like this are held up by right wingers and contrarian pundits as examples of division. It’s always worth asking when you hear this: who exactly is being divisive? What, exactly, is in their brains that is stopping them from coming and having fun?