From the love and resilience passed down from your ancestors to the modern-day family traditions and undeniable cultural creativity, there\u2019s so much to celebrate about being Black. But it can sometimes be hard to be Black in America and not give up hope that racial justice and unity will one day be a reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s because Black people regularly experience racial microaggressions<\/a>, overt racial slurs, derogatory comments, housing, schooling, and employment discrimination, and hostile, sometimes even violent, behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RELATED: Why Black People Need Safe Spaces to Heal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, it\u2019s essential for Black people to know who our allies are, for our own survival, as we navigate through the world. We\u2019re often asking ourselves: Who are our true friends? Who can we trust? Fortunately, the Baha\u2019i community has been a spiritual and social refuge for so many people of African descent. The Baha\u2019i<\/a> writings say<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCleanse ye your eyes, so that ye behold no man as different from yourselves. See ye no strangers; rather see all men as friends, for love and unity come hard when ye fix your gaze on otherness. And in this new and wondrous age, the Holy Writings say that we must be at one with every people; <\/strong><\/p> \u2026For each of the creatures is a sign of God, and it was by the grace of the Lord and His power that each did step into the world; therefore they are not strangers, but in the family; not aliens, but friends, and to be treated as such.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Indeed, Van Gilmer, a Baha\u2019i living in Chicago, says that when he became a Baha\u2019i in Greensboro, North Carolina, he began spending time with \u201cwhite people that I never imagined would be in my life.\u201d This was a relief because everywhere else he experienced overt racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou hear the n-word now, but that was a regular word when I grew up,\u201d Van says. \u201cI could even be in the back of my parent\u2019s car riding down the street and stop at a stoplight and see white children in the car next to me who were sticking their tongues out at me and calling me all kinds of names.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baha\u2019is have to work to eliminate prejudice from their hearts just like everyone else. But because of the Baha\u2019i principle of the oneness of humanity and the recognition of the spiritual significance of people of African descent, Van says spending time with Baha\u2019is who were white \u201cwasn\u2019t hard for me in that community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n RELATED: Finding a Loving Home in the Baha\u2019i Community<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n However, he couldn\u2019t spend all his time in Baha\u2019i prayer gatherings, study groups centered on the Baha\u2019i writings, or engaging in community service activities \u2014 and he experienced racism just about everywhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat was hard for me,\u201d Van says, \u201cwas all the rest of the white people who didn\u2019t have the same love for me, who I had to be very cautious around, who I had to now figure out whether I trusted or not, and I pretty much knew better than to trust anybody who either was not a Baha\u2019i or was not a friend of the Baha\u2019is in Greensboro, North Carolina.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this video for the Race Unity Project<\/a>, Van shares how the Baha\u2019i community provided refuge because it was full of people he could trust. Produced by Journalism for Change, Inc, a nonprofit media organization founded by filmmaker and human rights activist Maziar Bahari, \u201cThe Race Unity Project\u201d tells \u201cthe century-long story of the American Baha\u2019i community and its efforts \u2014 as well as its tests and challenges \u2014 in promoting race unity.\u201d Videos from \u201cThe Race Unity Project\u201d include candid conversations with Baha\u2019is about a variety of topics \u2014 including stories of people discovering the beauty of worshipping in a diverse community<\/a> when they found the Baha\u2019i Faith and reflections on how the Baha\u2019i Faith affirms and empowers Black people<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch as Van shares how painful it was to be the only Black person in a white space outside of the Baha\u2019i community, and how being a Baha\u2019i has helped him heal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the love and resilience passed down from your ancestors to the modern-day family traditions and undeniable cultural creativity, there\u2019s so much to celebrate about being Black. But it can…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64356,"featured_media":70399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2948,1060],"tags":[3156,2976,2986],"series":[2934],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70398"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64356"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70398"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=70398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}