Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Racial Diversity in Cohousing

[Kathleen Lowry (kathleenlowrylpcclmft]

Carol, thank you for speaking up. I am sorry- I didn’t really know that to some 
people it is offensive to talk about a “different culture” Thanks very much for 
the education! Kathleen

> On Feb 18, 2023, at 4:35 PM, carol collier via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
>  As a life long African-American, I really take offense to whomever 
> described us this way. I say shame on them for stereotyping their own people 
> in such an ignorant way.  We come in all flavors. No one in my family talks 
> that way. Actually, no one I associate with talks that way , except people of 
> all ilk that I see in the criminal justice system, and very few of them would 
> dare to do this around me. The majority of my African-American children are 
> vegan/vegetarian. I can well afford to live in cohousing. Yeah, I have 
> Boulder income. We can talk about the biases that have been ingrained in ALL 
> of us about African-Americans. There is some testing from Harvard University, 
> The Implicit Association Test, that one can do for free. For me, I don’t need 
> a certain percentage of POC around me. I just want to feel welcomed, not an 
> outsider. There are things, sometimes subtle, that suggest to me that I will 
> likely or unlikely be welcomed. 
>    On Saturday, February 18, 2023, 04:46:18 AM HST, Zev Paiss <zevpaiss [at] 
> gmail.com> wrote:  
> 
> Friends,
> While I applaud the desire to have racial diversity in our Cohousing 
> communities, what is required for this to happen is typically far beyond the 
> ability (or comfort level) of most current residents or development 
> professionals. I do not say this lightly as diversity is something I have 
> worked to achieve for the past 30 years.
> 
> Racial diversity appears to be a desire of the mostly white upper middle 
> class college educated residents. Why is that?
> 
> I worked on a Denver Cohousing project many years ago where low income 
> residents were the primary demographic. A comment from a black pastor 
> highlighted the challenge. When white folks think of diversity, they imagine 
> having at least one black, Hispanic, and Asian household in their community 
> to help satisfy their desire for racial diversity. From the perspective of 
> the black community they would begin with 50% black households and go from 
> there. I am curious how us lilly white residents would feel living in a 
> cohousing neighborhood where 50% of your neighbors are black, use language 
> you might consider offensive. (Yo nigga wass up?) and sharing meals where 
> vegan and vegetarian options are nowhere to be seen?
> 
> As much as we would like to add this kind of diversity I do not see existing 
> coho residents being up for the task. My opinion only.
> 
> Zev Paiss
> Nomad Cohousing, Founding Member
> Boulder, CO
> 720-232-3826
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