Harvey assumes that what keeps black people from not coming to burning man is pure choice. Any number of factors could be involved that have nothing to do with choice. Cost (not just of the tickets, but traveling there, bringing in supplies with you, etc) could be one factor. The culture of burners might keep people who might otherwise be interested away if they feel that they would not be accepted. Plus, his assumption about black folks and camping is extrapolated from his experiences with a small group of people, in a particular space - urban environments - and a particular urban environment, his own neighborhood.
Whenever issues like this are brought up, people often just get offended and double down. He might think he’s doing enough by bringing his family or encouraging people of color that he knows to come along. But there is still a rather large gap. If he’s interested in radical inclusion, then perhaps looking into why the number of African Americans are so low is a question worth exploring and trying to address. But he just immediately goes to the knee jerk reaction of “I’m not racist, I’ve got black family/friends, and it’s a choice people make.” Have black people gone and experienced racism while there? We don’t know, because he doesn’t care to ask that question.
His life may include a wide variety of choices and an endless buffet of wonderful things to chose from. There are many, many, many people, for a whole host of reasons, who may not have the same set of choices to make. I feel as if our goal in crafting a better society should be to make as many choices available to as many souls on this planet as possible. Harvey just comes off as a tone death libertarian to me, at least in this article, assuming that everyone has the same opportunities in life that he currently has. No. That’s untrue. And to have someone just ignore that when talking about something like this is just irritating at best.
