From the time the first enslaved Africans arrived in England\u2019s colonies in America to present-day efforts to bring about racial equity in the United States, Black people \u2014 and other people of color \u2014 have demonstrated extraordinary resilience in the face of adversity. But given the nonstop onslaught of racism, It\u2019s understandable that people subjected to injustice and inhumanity sometimes feel hopeless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Makeena Rivers<\/a>, a Black Baha\u2019i<\/a> based in New York City, says the Baha\u2019i Faith<\/a> gives her hope despite living in a time when racism is a daily reality. She also believes that hopelessness about racial injustice \u201ccomes from people not knowing how to change the root\u201d cause of racism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n RELATED: <\/strong>Staying Hopeful in a Racist Society<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe always talk about institutional and structural racism,\u201d says Makeena. But \u201cat the root, there are people who have diseased hearts \u2014 their hearts are diseased by racism.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a Baha\u2019i, Makeena understands that racism \u2014 and the failure to recognize the oneness of humanity \u2014 is a spiritual illness. In this interview for the Race Unity Project, she explains that our \u201cculture is fueled by\u201d this ignorance and negligence of the spiritual reality that \u201cwe are one\u201d and \u201cinterconnected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Baha\u2019u\u2019llah<\/a>, the prophet and founder of the Baha\u2019i Faith, wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n That unity is our ultimate goal, but people of color are still suffering because of racism. As the National Spiritual Assembly, the national advisory body, of the Baha\u2019is of the United States wrote<\/a> in 1991:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is entirely human to fail if that which is most important to people\u2019s self-perception is denied them \u2014 namely, the dignity they derive from a genuine regard by others for their stature as human beings. …Absence of the genuine regard for others fostered by such truth causes hopelessness in those discriminated against; and in a state of hopelessness, people lose the coherent moral powers to realize their potential.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Experts say members of marginalized communities who experience the trauma of racism, in addition to being disproportionately negatively affected by the coronavirus, may be experiencing more depression and hopelessness than ever before. The killing of innocent Black people, like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd \u2014 and recently, teenagers Daunte Wright and Ma\u2019Khia Bryant \u2014 contributes to this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to The Washington Post<\/a>, \u201cThe rate of black Americans showing clinically significant signs of anxiety or depressive disorders jumped from 36 percent to 41 percent in the week after the video of Floyd\u2019s death became public. That represents roughly 1.4 million more people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baha\u2019is understand how debilitating racism can be and how paramount achieving race unity is for the welfare of humanity. In 1938, Shoghi Effendi<\/a>, the Guardian of the Baha\u2019i Faith, instructed<\/a> Baha\u2019is to have \u201can abiding sense of undeviating justice\u201d<\/strong> and foster \u201ca fraternity freed from that cancerous growth of racial prejudice.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Makeena, the global Baha\u2019i community is actively involved in fostering interracial fellowship at the grassroots level through hosting interfaith prayer gatherings, mentoring adolescents, facilitating discussions about personal and community development, and teaching children about their spiritual qualities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RELATED: <\/strong>How Community Service Created Lasting Friendships<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sharing honest reflections about race relations \u2014 like Makeena\u2019s \u2014 is the goal of The Race Unity Project<\/a>. The initiative is produced by Journalism for Change, Inc, a nonprofit media organization founded by filmmaker and human rights activist Maziar Bahari. Through interviews with Baha\u2019is from around the country, the project 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<\/p>\n\n\n\n Videos from \u201cThe Race Unity Project\u201d include a variety of candid discussions \u2014 including heartwarming stories of how an interracial couple helped changed minds and hearts<\/a> and inspiring reflections about how the Baha\u2019i Faith has helped people find their life\u2019s purpose<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch as Makeena also discusses the constructive resilience of the Black community in the face of racial oppression and injustice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think that our music, the things we contribute to arts, the academics and scientific advancements we made \u2014 all had to have been the fruits of constructive resilience,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the time the first enslaved Africans arrived in England\u2019s colonies in America to present-day efforts to bring about racial equity in the United States, Black people \u2014 and other…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64356,"featured_media":70505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2948,1060],"tags":[3000,3041,2976],"series":[2934],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70496"}],"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=70496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70496"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=70496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}