Re: what is diversity
From: Elizabeth Magill (pastorlizverizon.net)
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:43:22 -0700 (PDT)
But it seems a little forced and artificial to try to engineer
'diversity' into a community.
Perhaps the simple fact of wanting to live in community (any
intentional community or co-housing) is itself the bonding agent that
will form a genuine and long-lasting  community.  The degree of
diversity in any given community will probably always vary depending
on location and circumstance, and perhaps there's nothing wrong with
that.


I agree that it is forced to achieve diversity. I also believe that our lack of diversity over history was forced. I don't believe that we have a "natural" inclination to divide by color of skin, rather we went through a period of history where it was encouraged.

So today we live with the consequences of that history. I can choose to say "ah well" and "those people are probably different from me anyway" or I can choose to say "what an odd division, I think I'll force myself to try to end it."

I certainly believe that if I could really find out which people want to live in community, regardless of race, I would NOT discover that mostly white middle class people like me want what I want.

Each of us has a different inclination to make a difference in the way things are. I'm not opposed to some people choosing to say "I accept the way things are" about one issue or another. I personally do that about many issues.

But I disagree pretty strongly with the argument that things just naturally fall out that way, so we must accept it.

-Liz
(The Rev.) Elizabeth M. Magill
PastorLiz [at] verizon.net
Worcester Fellowship
PO Box 3510 Worcester MA 01613
www.worcesterfellowship.org
508-450-0431



On Sep 9, 2008, at 8:39 AM, Fred H Olson wrote:


James Kacki <jimkacki [at] mts.net>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
after deleting quoted digest (which was mistakenly still included?)
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

Another take on diversity:
It seems to me that communities form quite naturally both in cities
and rural areas. Ethic communities are drawn together by common
background, farming communities are drawn together by location &
common lifestyle, urban communities can sometimes  form naturally
from a diverse mix of people who find themselves lumped together by
circumstance, academic communities form often by location (e.g
housing near a university) but also by like minded intellectual
pursuits, etc. etc.
The core idea of co-housing is that for a variety of historic /
societal /economic reasons communities do not form as readily as they
once did, so individuals who yearn for that are now seeking each
other out to find something (community) that has been lost.
But it seems a little forced and artificial to try to engineer
'diversity' into a community.
Perhaps the simple fact of wanting to live in community (any
intentional community or co-housing) is itself the bonding agent that
will form a genuine and long-lasting  community.  The degree of
diversity in any given community will probably always vary depending
on location and circumstance, and perhaps there's nothing wrong with
that.
Just a thought
James

On 7-Sep-08, at 10:41 AM, Susan Coberly wrote:


This is a fascinating issue.  As a member of what Sharon V. calls
the European American majority, and as an early member of a forming
cohousing group, which is now soon-to-move-in, and still looking
for a few more close neighbors with whom to share a community, I
can say that we have always wanted & sought "diversity" by which I
think we probably meant mostly ethnic, religious, economic, and
sexual orientation diversity.  (Since several in this string have
identified other forms of diversity, e/g., political, educational,
etc.)

However, the high Calif land prices, together with no mandate from
the city or help from the city to create "affordable" units (and no
real ability on the part of the community members themselves to
fund affordabilty for others since many are striving to buy anyway)
resulted in somewhat "high" prices. Hence, no apparent significant
economic diversity - at this point.

We have some of what many might deem "ethnic" diversity - Korea,
Guatemala, Chile, Egypt. Why do I say "many might deem 'ethnic'
diversity" by calling out those areas of origin? I guess it stems
from my wondering what qualifies as European American?  For me -
really polygot perhaps summarized as British Isles/Northern Europe
- Cornwall, Wales, England, Dutch/ the Netherlands, Bohemian
[Slovakia, now], Germany? But then, how can we be sure what came
before, besides those "places of origin"?  (Absent genetic
testing.) Originally we all come from a very small number of
ancestors.  Per Ramsey Lewis on the radio the other morning genetic
scientists have traced blue eyes to one maternal ancestor. So maybe
the cultural traits that we develop and magnify in our group/
groups is what creates the comfort zone (for all - not just
minority populations) and then reinforces the sense that someone is
or isn't different, both looking out and looking in.

Also, we have to examine whether a person whose ancestors came from
Kenya and who has darker skin but whose family lived in London for
three generations, who speaks with an English accent, and graduated
from Oxford and is a professor, or who didn't graduate from Oxford
and owns a fish and chips store, English? Or Kenyan-English?

Hence, am I Cornish, Welsh, English, Dutch, Bohemian [Slovakia,
now], German?

Wow. Such interesting stuff.

I love the L-serve.

I have to go pack to move, now.

Susan @ Fresno Cohousing
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  • Re: what is diversity Fred H Olson, September 9 2008
    • Re: what is diversity Elizabeth Magill, September 11 2008

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