Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: cultural/racial diversity

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Tuesday, January 14, 2003, at 10:02  AM, Gotogenes [at] aol.com wrote:
> the word "diversity" is almost always included in the vision 
> statements and
> we see diversity by occupation,sexual orientation, religion, politics 
> and
> lifestyle etc. however  the ones we've looked at (for all their 
> undoubted
> merits) appear very wasp-ish.
> my wife is japanese and i'm a brit. we're both naturalized americans 
> and our
> kids have lived here all their life. my wife (even though she's lived 
> in usa
> for 25 years) in some ways is still very much an oriental and is most
> comfortable living with a mix of races and nationalities, at least a
> smattering of color. myself also.

The problem with any new and thus marginal social phenomenon is that it 
is marginal. For those who are in the minority to join would be 
duplicating their minority -- minority on top of minority. So getting 
minority households involved is difficult at best.

If you look at the actual numbers, cohousing communities are more 
diverse than their larger communities. Mine is certainly more diverse 
than any community of 43 households that I could choose to live in 
anywhere, even in Manhattan. Urban communities will more diverse than 
suburban communities because suburban communities are probably the 
least diverse in America. Rural communities even less diverse. But that 
is where the land is.

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

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