Re: EHO logo in advertising WAS Movies or short videos about cohousing (Malin Hansen)
From: R Philip Dowds (rpdowdscomcast.net)
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2015 09:19:44 -0700 (PDT)
I suspect we can all easily agree that skin color segregation is a blight upon 
America.  But what about age segregation?  Senior cohousing is the hot topic 
emerging for the 2015 conference in Durham, and apparently we will welcome it 
as a new wave of opportunity, not a reprehensible act of discrimination against 
young families.  As an off-the-clock eldercare architect (specialized in 
retirement housing, nursing homes, assisted living, Alzheimer’s suites and the 
like), I have strong opinions about age segregation.  I’m not sure they will be 
welcome in Durham.

In Cambridge, we had a City Manager who specialized in diversity.  He always 
ensured that his appointed commissions included black people, yellow people, 
pink people and so on.  What his commissions did NOT include was anyone whose 
opinion differed from the Manager’s.  Was this in fact adequate diversity?  How 
would our cohousing community feel about acquiring new households that are 
collaborative, participatory, contributive, and just plain fun … but 
nonetheless deeply opposed to the consensus process, and deeply committed to 
voting within the framework of Roberts’ Rules of Order?  Is that too much 
diversity?  If so, how do we prevent this?

One of the things almost all homeowner’s associations argue about is money.  
Some households want to make improvements, and do special assessments for 
capital projects.  Other households are dead set against any special 
assessments for anything, and think even annual operating costs are always too 
high.  Income diversity within the community is usually a driver of these 
disputes.

So:  I’m not yet persuaded that skin color should be at the top of our 
cohousing list of diversity challenges.  But if others feel different, then 
obviously that’s a diversity of opinion I should be able to accommodate.

RPD

> On Apr 12, 2015, at 11:30 AM, Elizabeth Magill <pastorlizm [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> I hear concerns about blame but that is not what is asked here! I would 
> reiterate Ann's suggestion that we try to not feel attacked or blamed or 
> guilted simply because a discussion of race has come up. 
> Instead it is valuable to engage in the discussion of what it would mean to 
> do something different, to approach the topic differently, to look for 
> strategies of outreach?
> 
> Perhaps people want a "defined range of difference" but I don't think that 
> skin color or disability is actually a good marker for knowing if the person 
> is like me. 
> 
> In any case, if the intent of a marketing piece is to get people to buy homes 
> it is illegal to not have the EHO logo and to show people in the same 
> representative portion as they are in the geographic area they are marketing 
> within. Your chance of getting caught is approximately 0% (organizations 
> devoted to fair housing look for the primary advertising resources in an area 
> and then go after them--which is a long and difficult process, even when the 
> owner of the advertising resource is a blatant racist. Don't ask me how I 
> know this.) But what would be our argument for choosing not to follow the law?
> 
> Cohousing faces many opportunities to be the same as US society, or to be 
> different. 
> 
> This includes issues around the environment, car usage, community building, 
> gender, and family style, where many coho's have chosen to be radically 
> different; 
> disability, economic difference, where we have varied success/interest in 
> being part of the status quo, 
> and race and ethnicity where only a few communities have made more than a 
> limited effort in being different from the status quo.
> 
> I was once in an group discussion oppression of various sorts and we were 
> divided into people of color and white people, and I spent the whole time in 
> that group talking about how I was oppressed as a woman. Then I was put in a 
> group of all women and I spent the whole time talking about how I was 
> oppressed as a queer person. 
> 
> It wasn't until much later that I realized that sometimes I should spend some 
> time thinking about the advantages I automatically get as white person, as a 
> comparatively wealthy person, as a person with access to formal education, 
> etc. Not to feel guilty, but to think about how I can use that information to 
> affect the status quo.
> 
> -Liz
> Elizabeth M. Magill
> www.mosaic-commons.org <http://www.mosaic-commons.org/>
> 508-450-0431
> Berlin, MA
> 


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