Cohousing-L Mailing List: Diversity in Cohousing

[Zev Paiss (zevpaiss]

Greetings Everyone,

Since my initial posting has generated such a wonderful and diverse collection 
of responses, I wanted to clarify an important point.

The black pastor I mentioned who advised our development team in Denver over 20 
years ago, was only making the point that a “diverse” Cohousing community from 
his congregation’s perspective would contain at least 50% black households as 
no one wants to be a “token” and wants to feel close to a significant number of 
other residents.

The comments I made with regard to language and cultural differences came out 
of a very recent diversity talk I was part of in a forming community in Costa 
Rica, where the currently almost all white middle to upper class group of 
potential residents, were asking how to bring POC into their group. One 
extremely articulate and wonderful black man who is married to a white 
pediatrician made the comment that differences in culture and language would 
most probably not be welcomed so readily in that community.

I added the challenge of a sterotypical Italian family where yelling is just 
how they communicate. Imagine a mother who sticks her head out the front door 
and yells to their kinds to come in for dinner or do homework at a decibel 
level far exceeding the “norm.”

Or better yet, the fact that we run most cohousing communities using consensus 
which is foreign to most Americans of any background. Would we accept a 
resident who refused to work under a consensus decision making model?

Just more food for thought as we strive to make our communities as diverse as 
possible.

Sincerely,

Zev Paiss
Nomad Cohousing, Founding Member
Boulder, CO
720-232-3826