Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: diversity (was Sexually Diverse)

[Michael D (ohanamd]

> First of all, mostly when people talk about wanting
"diversity" they seem to
> me to mean this: "We are a bunch of economically advantaged
white people and
> we will feel better about ourselves if our group includes
some people who
> are not white or not economically advantaged."

I suspect that the problem with diversity is that many people
want people who appear to be different but who don't have
different values or radically different lifestyles.  I see the
same issue in churches, for example.  People say they want
more diversity, then they don't want to do what it would take
to attract people who are different.

For example, I know one church with mostly upper middle class
to upper class white folks in which there was a lot of talk
about attracting people of different races.  They hired a
Black man with dreadlocks to be choir director.  When he
turned the choir into a white version of an African-
American choir, some people loved it, but there were also a
LOT of complaints and people who left the church.  He'd sit in
this staid white church, shouting out comments like they do in
Black churches, and people complained about that.  I could go
on for a long time about how much resistance there was to any
changes that would have attracted different people.

So, for anyone who wants more diversity in their community, I
ask: What changes are you willing to make to attract different
kinds of people?

Want to know what kinds of changes you'll need to make?  Go
spend time in an area where a lot of the kinds of people you
want to attract live and see what the culture is there.  And
get to know the people there and ask them what would attract
them to your community.

Or, on the other hand, you could decide that your values and
way of living is a higher value to you than diversity is.  I'd
bet that attracting a lot of different kinds of people without
making significant changes in your community is fairly
unlikely.

Namaste,
Michael
ohanamd [at] earthlink.net
Heart Song Community
Santa Fe, NM

http://www.delphi.com/thisismylife/messages
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