So, why doesn't someone on the east coast start something over there?

//I beg to differ.

If you live on the East Coast,//

ironically, all but one of the african americans i know who go to burning man are in NYC. its not $$ keeping the non-whites at bay.

"and next year, when I will be without the option of a scholarship ticket, "

Why not? I've read the application and I thought there was a "please give me a discount so I can come because BM means a lot to me" bent to it. I'm sure those things are in essay form instead of multiple choice so that people who have extenuating circumstances like yours, who would enhance the city somehow, can be heard.

You may not have a problem, Shooter, but you clearly have an agenda to find fault with Burningman in any way you can. It's like an obsession with you. Even a complete stranger like me can see it. It's a driving force to your life, at least your life when you're online, on here.

I saw your clip of the protest outside BM offices, and I agree that if all you contend is true it is a sad state indeed how paid workers are treated by BMorg. But it goes much further with you, it's festering inside you, and unhealthy for you and ultimately the person it is hurting is you. I get it, Burning man was so much better in the old days, I get it, you should've seen Bali when I used to go to it decades ago. Or Ko Samui before there was an airport. Everything changes. Get over it, take some responsibility for yourself, and heal.

web.mac.com/tonyedwards/...C95545C0.html

I'm yellow on the outside...and white on the inside...

black on the outside...white on the inside...

green eggs on easy over and ham all around...

//Even tho there is text and nice picture behind it all is a human trying to speak their mind. //

questioning shooter gets you nowhere, all he does is respond with the same anti harvey dogma. why bother? its nothing new.

>
Step back, breathe, see what they say and comment in a non hateful way.

Shut up - hippie!

You are so sweet Badger.

When I first mentioned BM to my sister, the first thing she asked me was if this event was for white people who had lost their culture. I responded to her by saying that yes, some of them had, and some of them are creating a new culture for themselves, because they had lost their old tribal culture. It is my opinion (and only my opinion) that many white people have latched onto BM as a new culture, being that they lost much of their old culture from Europe, whether from time, political pressure, or racially motivated pressure (such as many Irish and Italians now being considered 'white'.)

My own culture is under such pressure as well. For one, I'm not fluent in Spanish like my father is, but then again, he and his classmates were hit by the teacher every time they spoke Spanish, so he raised me English only. Just for the record, his mother's family has been in New Mexico for at least a few hundred years, and his father's grandfather came directly from Spain, so we've been here longer than many "American" families. (I'm a native Californian.)

However, that pressure has not erased our culture (as in the case of the government sanctioned erasing of Cherokee culture, which still managed to survive somewhat.) This is due to several points - New Mexico is still a Spanish speaking state, always has been, and the culture stays strong in that state; a constant new influx of people of Mexican and other "Latin" descents into the U.S., and the slow acceptance of the "American" public that yes, maybe "Latin" people are pretty cool (thank you Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez.) And we can dance.

With such a strong cultural influence (I cannot speak for other cultures), for us to seek out and adopt yet another culture is not a strong pull for us. However, being part of one culture, and having only one way of viewing the world is myopic. Some will argue that the U.S has it's own culture, which it does. Just view footage of people getting sprayed with hoses in the south in the 1960's, look at some pictures of "whites only" signs over bathrooms, and look at advertisements for cars, washing machines, and see those happy families, all of whom happen to be white in said advertisements. If you argue that the U.S. has a culture all it's own, it can be seen in our news, and our advertising throughout the decades. The true culture of the fledgling U.S. was a society of mixed cultures, Dutch, English, etc., who had different ways, different languages, but a common goal (granted, slavery existed, but not all of the founding fathers truly believed that institution would last.) That has been lost to paranoia, exclusion, and finger pointing, and xenophobia.

The culture of BM offers an alternative to this, one of acceptance, music, and experiences. In cultures that exist outside of "white" America within the U.S. itself, we have acceptance (to a point), music, shared experiences, and food, yes food. Mmmmm. However, some of us that are considered minorities (up until I was a teenager, I had to check "other" on the racial box) find that even our own culture is lacking something, and we seek to expand our knowledge of other cultures. I find this the common link with whites. There are those who seek to understand for a deeper understanding of humanity (those who are in a culture day in and day out, and make lifelong bonds with people from other cultures), and those who seek to understand only on the surface, simply for the novelty of it (cool, let's get drunk in Bali!)

In finding BM, I found a culture outside of my own Mexican-American heritage that promoted community first, something I had not seen before in white America. However, there were things that I found in the BM community that I had not seen in my own culture. For one, there was the acceptance of being different, having different ideas, and *gasp* it's okay to be an artist!

That being said, I don't think BM is radically exclusive to minorities, I simply think that most minorities have no interest in BM, because they already have a culture, and it serves them just fine, thank you very much. For whites who have lost their culture, BM fills that hole, and therefore in my opinion, whites seek BM out more fervently than minorities with a culture. For those of us who are considered minorities, and for those things we think are lacking in our own culture, we will seek out beyond our own culture. Don't worry too much about finding us, we will find you.

I think this is my favorite thread. . .

whoops. damn demographics,