Cohousing-L Mailing List: Diversity

[Zev Paiss (zevpaiss]

Morning Everyone,
Wow this has been an amazing discussion. I deeply appreciate all the various 
comments and have been surprised by the diversity of responses. I even received 
a private message from a contributor asking me to stop posting and apologize 
for what I have said.

I am curious why anyone would assume I think all blacks speak any certain way. 
The gentleman I referred to was sharing how his language changed when he went 
back to his childhood neighborhood and began to interact with old friends who 
still live there. His point was that his culture includes a language that many 
others would feel offensive. When I asked him why his friends uses the dreaded 
“n” word, he shared that they are reclaiming it so it can not be used against 
them which was a mind bender for me but made perfect sense in that context. He 
reiterated that it was not okay for me as a white man to use that word unless I 
had grown up with these folks.

To be clear I have no intention of allowing any of this group to block my 
participation as that would only stifle the conversation.

Keep up the excellent, uncomfortable and complex discussion!

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