Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: what is diversity

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

James Kacki <jimkacki [at] mts.net>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
after deleting quoted digest (which was mistakenly still included?)
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

Another take on diversity:
It seems to me that communities form quite naturally both in cities
and rural areas. Ethic communities are drawn together by common
background, farming communities are drawn together by location &
common lifestyle, urban communities can sometimes  form naturally
from a diverse mix of people who find themselves lumped together by
circumstance, academic communities form often by location (e.g
housing near a university) but also by like minded intellectual
pursuits, etc. etc.
The core idea of co-housing is that for a variety of historic /
societal /economic reasons communities do not form as readily as they
once did, so individuals who yearn for that are now seeking each
other out to find something (community) that has been lost.
But it seems a little forced and artificial to try to engineer
'diversity' into a community.
Perhaps the simple fact of wanting to live in community (any
intentional community or co-housing) is itself the bonding agent that
will form a genuine and long-lasting  community.  The degree of
diversity in any given community will probably always vary depending
on location and circumstance, and perhaps there's nothing wrong with
that.
Just a thought
James

On 7-Sep-08, at 10:41 AM, Susan Coberly wrote:

>
> This is a fascinating issue.  As a member of what Sharon V. calls
> the European American majority, and as an early member of a forming
> cohousing group, which is now soon-to-move-in, and still looking
> for a few more close neighbors with whom to share a community, I
> can say that we have always wanted & sought "diversity" by which I
> think we probably meant mostly ethnic, religious, economic, and
> sexual orientation diversity.  (Since several in this string have
> identified other forms of diversity, e/g., political, educational,
> etc.)
>
> However, the high Calif land prices, together with no mandate from
> the city or help from the city to create "affordable" units (and no
> real ability on the part of the community members themselves to
> fund affordabilty for others since many are striving to buy anyway)
> resulted in somewhat "high" prices. Hence, no apparent significant
> economic diversity - at this point.
>
> We have some of what many might deem "ethnic" diversity - Korea,
> Guatemala, Chile, Egypt. Why do I say "many might deem 'ethnic'
> diversity" by calling out those areas of origin? I guess it stems
> from my wondering what qualifies as European American?  For me -
> really polygot perhaps summarized as British Isles/Northern Europe
> - Cornwall, Wales, England, Dutch/ the Netherlands, Bohemian
> [Slovakia, now], Germany? But then, how can we be sure what came
> before, besides those "places of origin"?  (Absent genetic
> testing.) Originally we all come from a very small number of
> ancestors.  Per Ramsey Lewis on the radio the other morning genetic
> scientists have traced blue eyes to one maternal ancestor. So maybe
> the cultural traits that we develop and magnify in our group/
> groups is what creates the comfort zone (for all - not just
> minority populations) and then reinforces the sense that someone is
> or isn't different, both looking out and looking in.
>
> Also, we have to examine whether a person whose ancestors came from
> Kenya and who has darker skin but whose family lived in London for
> three generations, who speaks with an English accent, and graduated
> from Oxford and is a professor, or who didn't graduate from Oxford
> and owns a fish and chips store, English? Or Kenyan-English?
>
> Hence, am I Cornish, Welsh, English, Dutch, Bohemian [Slovakia,
> now], German?
>
> Wow. Such interesting stuff.
>
> I love the L-serve.
>
> I have to go pack to move, now.
>
> Susan @ Fresno Cohousing