Cohousing-L Mailing List: New diversity statement

[Juliette Corazón (jrcorazon22]

Ditto to what Crystal and Carol said, and thank you, ladies, for saying it. I 
am another person of color and a lesbian  (please note: many despise the "M 
word") on this list. Others, I appreciate you are trying to learn, so I 
encourage you to pipe down and take note to what they are saying. You are being 
offered precious and practical feedback on how to build a healthier and more 
just community. 

I love cohousing - have been involved on and off since 1992 - and have lived in 
cohousing since 2009. There are pieces of it that feel like home to me - like 
some aspects of neighborhood life in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico when I was growing 
up: strong communal sensibility and working together, some sharing of resources 
and caring for neighbors. I carried that over into my communal lesbian 
households - mostly with white women-  as a young person. Those of us fortunate 
enough to have experience with community-oriented environments don't have to be 
sold on cohousing as a new concept. Telling stories about your community 
experiences will resonate with us. When searching for a community, I needed a 
place where I knew I could express the many different facets of me, be 
respected as a whole person, and have allies to help me deal with or run 
interference on the occasional stupid comment. ( Thank you, T in Oregon.)

Please note that we come from many belief systems and backgrounds . Just 
because the census may label us in a category doesn't mean we are all the same, 
any more than white or straight people are. Most of my middle-class and mixed 
race family lives far away, and I am not a church person. BTW, my family loves 
to visit my community, too.

Juliette Corazón
EcoVillage at Ithaca
Which has a small and growing presence of Asian and Asian-American, 
African-American, Latina/o, LGBT and disabled folk within an intergenerational, 
mostly middle-class community of interesting,  generous, creative and active 
human beings in upstate New York :)



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