Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Diversity Problem

[Gerald Manata (gmanata2003]

well written. I'm glad that you brought up these points.
--------------------------------------------
On Sat, 8/4/18, Philip Dowds via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> 
wrote:

 Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Diversity Problem
 To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
 Cc: "Philip Dowds" <rphilipdowds [at] me.com>, "Alan O’Hashi" <adoecos [at] 
yahoo.com>
 Date: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 7:24 AM
 
 I don’t want to minimize the
 significance of “race”, or the degree to which race and
 ethnicity have had both constructive and destructive impacts
 on American society.  But I’d like to offer this
 counterpoint:
 
 For those of
 you who think diversity means skin color, I’d like to
 suggest that the real diversity challenges in cohousing are
 not ones of race and ethnicity; they are ones of divergent
 value systems.  For a few simple examples:
      (a) Some households expect to invest
 their personal time and money to “improve" their
 community.  Other households think a community is
 “improved” when it minimizes its demands for the limited
 time and money resources of its members.
  
    (b) Some families think children develop best when they
 are allowed to run free, express themselves fully, and
 self-develop creativity and initiative.  Other families
 think children need some supervision, discipline and
 guidance — and, should behave with restraint when in the
 presence of (non-family) adults.
      (c)
 Some people favor very clear rules governing most
 situations, and reliable adherence to those rules.  Others
 feel that most of life is a special case, and instead of
 rigid rules, a community should operate with common sense,
 flexibility and empathy.
 
 I
 think these divergences in world view are far more
 significant to diversity, and possible conflict, than skin
 color or gender preference.  And thus far, I’ve been
 unable to observe much consistent correlation between these
 basic alternative value systems, and race / ethnicity /
 income variations.  So the diversity challenge in front of
 all our communities, in my opinion, is not What we do to
 ensure skin color variations, but rather, How do we react
 when confronted with values diversity?
 
 Thanks,
 Philip Dowds
 Cornerstone Village Cohousing
 Cambridge, MA
 
 mobile: 617.460.4549
 email:  
 rpdowds [at] comcast.net
 
 > On Aug 3, 2018, at 12:52 PM, Sharon
 Villines via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
 wrote:
 > 
 > In recent
 years I pushed a conversation on diversity for many
 back-and-forths to get to the bottom of what diversity
 represented to those who wanted it so much. I love it but I
 think trying to force it doesn’t work. Being welcoming
 with the people who find you and publicizing in as many
 places as possible I think is the best you can do.
 
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