Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: What is diversity really?

[Gerald Manata (gmanata2003]

     I agree. As a white straight male, I have often looked with envy at the 
strong communities ties that minority communities, as you say, apparently out 
of necessity, have. The only time I have experienced anything like this was in 
my youth as a member of the minority youth 60's counterculture. When this 
collapsed, and most joined the establishment culture, I spent decades looking 
around for a replacement community. That brought me to cohousing, along with a 
bunch of other white straight people.

naomi meyer <fostermamas [at] yahoo.com> wrote: 
As potential cohousers our multi-racial family considers ethnic diversity a 
priority as we seek out a community. While visiting & researching communities 
we've been pondering some theories as to why there is not as much diversity in 
cohousing. 

The general aim of cohousing is to create community.  I think minorities in a 
majority culture , specifically people of color,  do a better job of creating 
and maintaining community out of necessity. In my experience it's not uncommon 
to have multi generational families or even extended family (cousins, kinship, 
etc) as a part of a person of color's close family community. I think it is a 
strong cultural aspect of minority communities. In my personal experience as a 
member of a minority group as a queer person, I find that queer communities 
often create a strong support system in the midst of a majority culture. 
Perhaps this leads to less diversity in co-housing? Perhaps people of color are 
less likely to seek co-housing community for these
 reasons?                                                                       
                                                                        

What do you think? 

Naomi
(Still narrowing down our cohousing community choices) 



      
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