Race Amity: Will Unity in Diversity Require Cultural Awareness?
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“The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord. If you meet those of a different race and colour from yourself, do not mistrust them and withdraw yourself into your shell of conventionality, but rather be glad and show them kindness." ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Quoted in Advent of Divine Justice, p.32.
The Baha’i teachings say that our virtues find their highest expression when we use them to promote the oneness of humanity. In this way, spiritual growth and social action are in a reciprocal relationship, joined together as one. The Baha’i teachings also posits that, one’s two-fold moral purpose is service to others, and to develop one’s spiritual capacity, which include: truthfulness, trustworthiness, patience, kindness, understanding and love, to name just a few.
“what Baha’u’llah has done for us all is to provide a standard by which to determine what is pleasing in God’s sight, thereby freeing us to maintain those elements of diversity which are unique to our different cultures. The adoption of this divine standard enables each people to be confident in the permissibility of what it can retain from its past.” (23 June 1995, written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, retrieved from: http://bahai-library.com/
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“Eliminating individual prejudice is a necessary, but insufficient, part of promoting racial unity. Human beings have embedded racial disunity within geographic space, where it is hard to change and is reinforced by political, economic, and social boundaries. Thus, individual people may believe themselves free of racial prejudice, but they may face no or weak testing of this belief if they are isolated in geographic circumstances that solidify racial disunity.” (June Manning-Thomas/ https://bahaiworld.bahai.org/library/spatial-strategies-for-racial-unity/)
Reflection Question:
• How Do You Develop Intercultural Empathy?
The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord. If you meet those of a different race and colour from yourself, do not mistrust them and withdraw yourself into your shell of conventionality, but rather be glad and show them kindness." ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Quoted in Advent of Divine Justice, p.32.
In this discussion, let’s reflect on the passages that guide our discussion, and consult on actions we can take to guide humanity on a better path of unity and harmony. Change is inevitable. How might we contribute to the imminent ever-advancing civilization together, by once again addressing the vital issue of race relations in the U.S.? Baha’is are working through-out the world to advance the whole of humankind toward unity and justice. People of all backgrounds, religions, and beliefs are welcome to walk this path of service with us.