More years ago than I care to remember now, I found myself stuffed into the back seat of some early 1960s land shark with some other guys from then McGill Institute in Mobile heading to a Mardi Gras parade.

Except it was no Mardi Gras I was familiar with. The Mardi Gras parades I knew rolled out along Government Street and old, narrow Dauphin Street and wrapped around Bienville Square in the heart of the now 300-year-old Port City. "My" Mardi Gras was lily white. Everybody on the floats were white. As I remember, much of the crowd lined along the streets were white.

The thing is, I really didn't ever really notice until that night that my Mardi Gras was white. I finally did on that night out with buddies as a high school sophomore when I went to Mobile's other Mardi Gras, the black one.

Turned out that the old city, where early settlers first celebrated Mardi Gras in 1703 and where the first slave ship docked with its sad human cargo in 1721, was home to two carnivals - one white and one black. I was introduced to black Mardi Gras by a couple of black classmates at McGill who, of course knew there were two carnivals, the one where their parents and grandparents could ride on "floats" and the one they could not, my Mardi Gras.

What I remember was that the floats in black Mardi Gras were not close in size or elaborate design that the floats in my white Mardi Gras were. They also didn't throw all the loot mine featured and the costumes were just, well, not as festive.

But what I also remember was that the music that was so much better - neighborhood jazz bands and guys who played blues and church choirs. And I remember there was an earthy feel to it all. People danced along the streets with strangers and there were guys cooking barbecue, and you could find somebody selling beer out of the back of their car, and smokes.

I couldn't find that on Government Street.

That was all over four decades ago. And I have long, long been gone from Mobile and I have changed and the old city has changed in many ways.

But what hasn't changed in all these years is the fact that Mobile is still home to two carnivals - one white and the other black.

And I find something unsettling about that fact 15 years into the 21st Century. My guess is that many in Mobile's government and business community do as well as Mobile increasingly makes its mark on the world stage of business becoming home to major international businesses like aircraft maker Airbus and ship maker Austal.

My guess is Mobile's elites, many of whom I would guess are members of some of the old mostly all white exclusive mystic societies, would cringe at the thought of waking up to a story in Le Monde about the Old South city Airbus is making home that has two carnivals, one white and one black.

Bad press. Bad PR. So 18th, 19th and 20th century.

Yes, it is true that nobody - no government, no outdated Jim Crow laws, no roving white-hooded goons enforce "separate but equal" carnivals in Mobile. And it is true that today white and blacks, and Asians and Hispanics, all flood some of the same downtown streets to party together during Mardi Gras.

So why are there still two carnivals, a mostly white one and a mostly black one? Why are there still two sets of kings and queens - one white king and queen and one black king and queen? Why do some blacks still support their own Mardi Gras and why are whites not being more aggressive about opening up their mystic societies?

We continue to live in a society in which we have separated ourselves. There are black and white churches, white and black sororities and fraternities, historical black colleges, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, black and white funeral homes and the list could go on and on.

And in Mobile there is a white Mardi Gras and a black Mardi Gras.

My gut tells me that if blacks felt welcomed to full inclusion into Mobile's "white" carnival they would have phased out the black Mardi Gras long ago. Maybe it's also a function of economics. The black community, and many, many in the white community, can't afford the loving embrace of any number of the mystic societies.

But the fact remains that two Mardi Gras separated along racial lines just feels wrong for a city that once docked slave ships and for a state that used the backs of those slaves to build its economy.

Maybe the march of time will eventually change all this. But Mardi Gras has been going on for over 300 years. My guess is Mobilians of all colors need to speed the process up. The city needs to have a conversation about how to do that and that won't be easy in a place that has a long history of preferring to deal with the unpleasant or embarrassing behind closed doors.

Mobile has come a long way in 300 years. It needs to come a little further.