Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: [C-L] Affordability & Culturally Diverse Communities

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> The following message is forwarded to you by jnpalme [at] attglobal.net
> (Racheli Gai)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> I'm forwarding Tim Wise's article in connection to the discussion of
> affordability (or the lackthereof) in cohousing, and its relationship to
> race issues.

> The average Asian household size, for example, is 3.3 persons, compared to
> only 2.5 per household for whites. Likewise, Asian American families are
> more likely than white families to have two income earners, and nearly
> twice as likely to have three earners. So while Asian household and family
> income is higher than that for whites, the median income per person is
> lower for Asians: as much as $2000 less annually.

This is a wonderful article and this is an interesting point of comparison.
It is also a good point to compare the breadth of incomes within minority
groups (and majority groups like women). Some ethnic groups have greater
income spreads within the groups so the average is artificially higher.
There are many very wealthy Cuban Americans for example and comparatively
fewer wealthy Mexican Americans in this county. But if all Hispanic
populations are lumped together, it distorts the figures.

But the issue remains for cohousing -- the real questions are:

(1) how do you build an affordable cohousing project or include affordable
units in an otherwise non-affordable project

(2) and how do you create a culturally diverse or "rainbow" community?

Building affordable housing will not build a "racially" or culturally
diverse community half as fast as building a community in a neighborhood
that is already diverse or already heavily populated with a non-European
descent population.

Assuming that "affordable" is the reason there are few non-European descent
people in cohousing may not be racist in the sense that the person making
this assumption is racist in a negatively prejudicial sense (or even a
positively prejudicial sense) but it is perpetuating racist myths and racist
language to describe needs and wants that may otherwise be noble and good.

Color of skin, same or varied, does not necessarily indicate either a
culturally diverse or homogeneous community. Statistically, it might, but
who is a statistic? Are  we trying to change the statistics or are we trying
to "change the world one neighborhood at a time."

In teaching groups of adult students in New York City, it was not uncommon
to find yourself with a room of "nonwhite" students who are all very
culturally homogeneous and narrow in their thinking as it was to get a class
of "white" students who were very diverse (speakers of rich Israelis, rich
Russians, poor Polish, poor French, well-educated Germans, etc.) Or for my
colleagues teaching English as a second language, to have a group of native
Spanish speakers NONE of whom were from the same cultural backgrounds.

Persons of African descent who are not African Americans can have a very
difficult time adjusting in this country because they don't fit anywhere. As
one such person told me recently, "I just can't relate to people here who
look like me. I just don't see the world they way they do."

Cultural diversity in cohousing, which is necessarily a close community, can
be very difficult. People want to share but not everyone wants to be shared
with.

Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org


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