Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Attracting Seniors & Ethnic Minorities

[lilbert (lilbert]

This year in California, white people of non-hispanic ancestry officially 
became a minority. I figure you don't mean me, though. ;)

It's always been my opinion that I would not want to be a part of a group
just because of my outward appearance. I think most thinking people feel the
same way. Would you change what you say to prospective members based on
their ethnic background?

If I were in your situation, I wouldn't change anything in the materials I
gave out to attract new members. I would just give them out in places that
had the kind of people I'd want to attract. The only thing I could recommend
as a change is to make some units more affordable with grants or loans. The
biggest block to diversity in Cohousing that I have seen is that it's too
expensive for income diversity, which, IMO, leads to other kinds of
diversity. Still, don't expect to someday have the perfect rainbow of people
that is held as the ideal in many progressive people's minds. It doesn't
exist.

Diversity can mean many different things. I think it's more a matter of open
mindedness and acceptance of differences, rather than skin color or age or
whatever.

As an example, my partner is English. When I fell in love with him, it never
occurred to me that there would be issues around our different ethnicity.
But after we had our first child, I realized that we did come from different
cultures, and had to make adjustments about what our approach to parenting,
and our relationship with each other, was going to be. Granted, it was not a
huge obstacle to overcome, but it was there nonetheless. Very few people
would think of us as a mixed couple of any kind, and we're the same on the
US census, but we are very different.

I think you'll find living with each other that no matter what the exterior
appearance of your community, there will be more than enough diversity to
make life interesting!

--
Liz Stevenson
Southside Park Cohousing
Sacramento, California

----------
> Hi all,
>
> In pursuit of diversity, we're looking to attract Seniors and ethnic
> minorities to our group (pre-land-search).  Anyone have any tips for us?