Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Diversity in Cohousing

[Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

I’ve been in dialogs _about_ the N* word, and things go along medium-OK … until 
someone makes the mistake of fully spelling out, or pronouncing the syllables 
of, the N* word.  At which point, all h*ll breaks loose.

Sharon says, Context is everything.  What I find is that many people of 
specific ethnicity (biological anthropologists tell us there’s no such thing as 
“race”) can and do use the N* word in full — frequently, in speech, song, and 
published text — because it shows _they_ own the word.  That the word has no 
power over them.  Fine by me.  But woe unto the person of whitish ethnicity who 
tries to use the word in full.

Culture is everything.

------------------
Thanks, RPD
617.460.4549

On February 21, 2023 at 2:27:20 PM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L 
(cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org) wrote:

> On Feb 21, 2023, at 12:18 PM, Kathleen Lowry <kathleenlowrylpcclmft [at] 
> gmail.com> wrote:
>  
> But certain terms used in a derogatory way like “c” words for women or “n” 
> should be banned, right?

I wouldn’t use these words and wouldn’t inhabit situations in which they were 
used, I but offer this:

When my son was about 2 and a half, he was attending a free school in which 
salty language was encouraged. We were going for a daylong Unitarian Church 
picnic at a friend’s home on the edge of a large permanent forest preserve that 
my friend had donated to the county. He and his family were _big_ 
preservationists.

To prepare for this visit I had to have a talk with my son about language and 
words that could not be used while we were there. The most important word not 
to be spoken was “snow mobile.”

Context is everything.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org




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