Burning Man as a Framework for Racially Inclusive Community Design
Can this desert event set a precedent for building equitable communities?
By Diara J. Townes
For a little more than a week at the end of August, a dusty patch in the Nevada desert comes alive with larger-than-life art and a sea of lights and bikes. This is Burning Man, an experimental “do-ocracy” community that’s created by tens of thousands of people.
I’ve attended three Burns myself, and will be joined by my mother, brother and sister for my fourth journey to the Playa, aka the expansive dusty zone where Burners explore hundreds of art pieces, play with and climb structures, drive mutant vehicles and bike from one side of the city to the other for more adventures.
A city whose ethos has evolved around the Ten Principles, including my personal favorites of radical self-reliance, civic responsibility, immediacy, and gifting, Burning Man is a real but temporary society. Everything that is needed or wanted is brought in (and later removed) by the participants who attend.
Like the early days of the Internet, the radical environment of the Burn is portrayed as a colorful utopia, full of limitless creativity and self-expression. But, again like the Internet, more guidance is needed to make this Radically Inclusive space a Racially Inclusive, sustainable community.
Experience, testimony and even data have revealed the racialized challenges that exists in this quirky, Alice-in-Wonderlandesque desert city.
And when you look at the data, Burning Man’s populace is not diverse, and doesn’t reflect the racial makeup of America’s own multicultural population.
According to the 2019 Black Rock City Census, (yes, there are census takers at the Burn) less than 10 percent of Burning Man participants identified as a person of color, with 1 in 100 identifying as Black.
Previous reporting has explored the absence and experiences of people of color within the city. Community and artist-led efforts have worked to address this diversity — or the lack thereof — on Playa, such as the Black Burner Project and Project Radical Inclusion.
Burning Man is not typically a political environment, and generally more accepting of diverse cultures. However, the push to acknowledge Black lives matter within this predominantly white city, online and offline, has been met with racialized discontent.
This could be due to the trolling tone and attitude of the Burning Man community (a common phrase you hear on Playa is “Fuck Your Burn;” thoughts vary on whether its connotes good or bad wishes). It’s also a result of America’s inability to effectively address race and racial injustice.
The following screenshots are examples of the aforementioned challenges Burners of color encounter online, this set from the “Burning Man Ticket Begging” Facebook group which boasts 18.4K members.
This behavior is more common than not, according to some of the group’s members. Comments suggested that leaders within the Burning Man Organization, who are majority white, consistently lacked racial awareness and exhibited little effort to curb this activity.
The organization’s leadership was challenged by Oakland artist and social justice activist Favianna Rodriquez in 2019. She launched a petition to Burning Man Board of Directors, “Radical Inclusion Must Mean Racial Inclusion.”
She also organized a peaceful protest march during the Burn to deliver the results and pitch initiatives to the org’s leadership in-person. During an interview following the event, Rodriguez shared that the board was not receptive to her camp’s, Que Viva, effort.
It took the anti-police brutality protests after George Floyd’s murder and subsequent pledges for racial justice in professional settings to push Burning Man leaders to honor the principle of Radical Inclusion.
The organization launched their Radical Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (RIDE) initiatives in 2021, “a cross-departmental team of key Burning Man Project leadership who hold pivotal roles across the entire Burning Man network, have interest and experience in R.I.D.E. work, and/or identify as people of color.”
The goals of this work aligns with the transformational shifts occurring within professional organizations in the default world.
List of RIDE initiatitves:
- R.I.D.E. Stewardship Group
- R.I.D.E. Advisory Committee
- R.I.D.E. Anti-Racism Pledge
- R.I.D.E. Courses and Learning Opportunities
- 2020 Diversity + Radical Inclusion Town Hall: What We Heard and What We’re Doing
Comments on a blog for this virtual town hall demonstrate the racial complexity of what the Burning Man Organization agreed to support: a designated Multicultural People of Color Neighborhood, crafted from the ideals of previous Burners of color, Project Radical Inclusion and members of the RIDE Advisory Committee.
Around 330 people, who identify as Black, indigenous or a person of color, (with an additional 100 or so white allies), are coming together in a safe and inclusive space within a predominantly homogenous desert city of 75,000 people.
To capture the journey and impact of this “self-organizing community committed to co-creating a safe and inspiring neighborhood at Black Rock City 2022 to showcase and celebrate a global POC culture,” I’ve launched a media research project to be conducted during the Burn, officially titled, “Re-designing our Connected World.” I will explore how MPOCN members feel prior and after the Burn, how the wider Burning Man community receives the neighborhood, and where this inclusive design work can go from here.
On August 25, I’ll be putting on my cowboy boots and my astronaut onesie and heading out into the dust. I’ll be collecting audio testimonials from the members and leaders of the MPOCN, an outcome of the RIDE initiative.
As a member of this community, I will support Camp Mo’Better, including building our shared infrastructure and acting as a host for our Mo’Better 90s party for the city (copy by yours truly).
The aim of this research is to showcase the perception and reception of a home-grown, inclusive —perhaps unintentionally exclusive—community in one of the most progressive environments on the planet that also has a history of cultural appropriation, wealth divides and anecdotal reports of racist behavior towards people of color.
Taking off my journalist/researcher cap and doning my Playa personality, Scout:
I’m curious and a bit apprehensive about creating a neighborhood of color in a space where there’s a general disregard for wealth inequity, uninhibited cultural appropriation, and a “this is a place to be free of judgment” attitude.
I can’t control how others perceive and receive me as a Black woman. I can only control how I let them affect me and my Burn vibes. I will impart this advice to my fellow Burners of Color as we venture back into the dust.
