Ok... I’ve thought about this for a while, given it time to percolate a little and per DVD Burner’s request, it’s Monday morning local time (I want a star beside my name and I want this noted in my permanent record).
WhatsInAName wrote:... & am rather curious as to why BM is such a "white man's festival," if you will?
Anyone care to explain? Share your theory!
Hmmm...
After reading this thread through twice, and noticing that you’ve not posted any responses to your initial query, I’m thinking you may just be a common Shit Stirrer. But I may be wrong and would welcome you correcting me on this. Now back to your statement. This is something that I’ve taken note of also. Not something that worries me in any way, but I do find it interesting.
Dork wrote:Imagine that the creator, most of the organizers, and most of the people in those pictures were of one (non-white) color, were all midgets, or any other obvious thing you would see in a picture? Can we honestly say we would have gotten the same vibe and felt like it was a place we would feel welcomed and loved? For some percentage of us, the answer would be no.
Exactly. That’s a good example, Dork. And with that in mind, I have my own reasons for noticing such things.
I am a white, Southern male and live with the stereotypes that people place on me because of this. I also know what its like to have a biracial child in that same South. Though I am not her biological father, she calls me “Daddy”. Her mother is white and her actual father, who left before her birth, is Senegalese. To most people around here, she would look black instead of mixed, what with all of that Macy Gray hair goin’ on. I know what it feels like to have someone turn their back on you when just the day before they smiled and talked at length. All because they found out you have a child who is a different skin color than you. Through her, and her mother, I have learned much about an African American perspective. I am also, among other things, Melungean. A mix, consisting at least in part, of African, Native American, and Portuguese. This explains the darker, olive skin and cheek bones of my mother’s father (and more so his father). But the Celt from my own Dad’s side won out when it came to physical features and so I look more Northern European. I tan on my arms and face only. I will never know what it’s like to be black, not firsthand. Not like my little girl will. The comments, dirty looks, and unnerving situations took their toll on my adopted family. It is astounding the words that some people will say, out of their own ignorance, to a little girl who can’t even understand why they say them to her. She and her mother eventually moved back to where they lived before. A place that’s more diverse and better for them, but where I was in no position to relocate to. I encouraged them to go, even though it ripped my heart in the process. But I digress... Through the time I spent with them, I have garnered a unique outlook and I lay it out here to give you perspective for my post. Perhaps I'm just more in tune to such things.
There have been some situations where I have been far more comfortable being the only white in a room of black people, than I have been being the only white with a mixed child in a room full of white people. So this thread’s question was one I’ve pondered before hand and it caught my eye when it popped up here on the eplaya.
Captain Goddammit wrote:Why even make an issue of this?
I think that’s a question as valid as the one that inspired (even if the initial one wasn’t intended to be). In answer, I’d say if for no other reason than the fact that examining something for what it is, or it appears to you to be, can help you learn vast amounts about both it and your own self. Inquiring of yourself (and others) is a good way to learn about how your actions are perceived from viewpoints outside your own. You may think you come across in one way when, in the reality of someone else, you come across quite differently.
For the record and those who may not know, I’ve not yet experienced Burning Man. ‘04 will be my first year after many full of planning and working towards it. It seems to me, from what I”ve seen, read, and been told so far that it is an event attended by more white people than not. Is this good? Is this bad? Neither, I’d say. It’s simply what it is and has never weighed too heavily on my mind. When I personally have wondered as to why this may be the case, it was not to insinuate that there is something racist about the event. Rather it’s to examine what it is about the event that makes it what it is, and more importantly why I am drawn to it. So rather than view the posing of this question as a finger pointing accusation of bigotry, view it as a vocalization of something observed and contemplated. As far as I’m concerned, if my own observations are proven to be correct or not makes no difference to me. It is what it is, I am what I am, and I’m driving across the country because it calls to me. Anything beyond that is merely an attempt to understand “why” and maybe find out more about who I am in the process.
I watched “Dust Devils” again today while thinking about this thread. Like it or not, there seem to be a lot more folks of European descent there over any other. People of other ethnic origins continuously appeared, but not in the numbers of folks that look like me. I did, curiously enough, notice a lot of people making use of things that did not appear, at least on the surface, to be of an origin within their own ancestry. White guys and girls playing the berimbau at a Capoeira performance, playing Djembes, Didjeridoos and Sitars... Belly Dancing in traditional garb. Am I saying there is something wrong with this? Hell No!!! I think it is wonderful, beautiful and should be encouraged. I too have assimilated aspects of various cultures into my own being. Some of them are related to my ancestry, some are not (at least not in so much as I can tell). Doesn’t matter... If something calls to my blood, then I investigate it. If it feels right, then I keep it around.
Quoting Larry Harvey from “Dust Devils”:
“I think the reason thousands of people are ready to endure survival conditions in a remote place at the risk of their life is that they’re desperate, or certainly driven to find something that they can belong too...
We offer them the opportunity to be what all those ads offer them. “Be Yourself”, except the ads offer them a product as a substitute for that experience. We offer them the real thing. But then we offer them communal belonging and that’s what the White people don’t have...
But if there were real coverage of Blacks in America or Mexicans in America, it would be apparent that they have a cultural wealth that the White people don’t have. So why would you, if you have that; if you have a community so vital it produces a thing like Rap Music, you know... why would you travel thousands of miles to a desert to be with a bunch of White people.”
A community
so vital... Certainly something I’m lacking and yearn for. It’s just so hard to find a place where a Scott-Irish-German-African-Native American-Portuguese-White-Southern-Broken-Healed-Artistic Misfit Fuck Up of a person can find a sense of community.....
Except maybe out there at Burning Man.
The New and Improved Black Cat... now with 25% more blather
You think that there is one reason 
