{"id":70518,"date":"2021-04-24T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-24T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/?p=70518"},"modified":"2021-04-24T09:34:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-24T16:34:18","slug":"bahai-teachings-inspire-positive-race-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/bahai-teachings-inspire-positive-race-relations\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Baha\u2019i Teachings Inspire Positive Race Relations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThe only answer to the race problem in our country is the [Baha\u2019i] teachings,\u201d says Wilma Ellis Kazemzadeh<\/a>, a Black Baha\u2019i<\/a> based in the Los Angeles area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Baha\u2019i teachings, \u201cracial prejudice, the corrosion of which, for well-nigh a century, has bitten into the fiber, and attacked the whole social structure of American society,\u201d<\/strong> should \u201cbe regarded as constituting the most vital and challenging issue.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ceaseless exertions which this issue of paramount importance calls for, the sacrifices it must impose, the care and vigilance it demands, the moral courage and fortitude it requires, the tact and sympathy it necessitates, invest this problem, which the American believers are still far from having satisfactorily resolved, with an urgency and importance that cannot be overestimated,\u201d <\/strong>wrote<\/a> Shoghi Effendi<\/a>, the Guardian of the Baha\u2019i Faith.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this video for the Race Unity Project<\/a>, Wilma reflects on how she often referred to the guidance of the central figures of the Baha\u2019i Faith \u2014 the Bab<\/a>, Baha\u2019u\u2019llah<\/a>, and Abdu\u2019l-Baha<\/a> \u2014 to inspire her in her pursuits for racial justice. Produced by Journalism for Change, Inc, a nonprofit media organization founded by filmmaker and human rights activist Maziar Bahari, 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 Videos from \u201cThe Race Unity Project\u201d include a variety of candid interviews about race \u2014 including stories of how the Baha\u2019i community was an interracial refuge<\/a> for Black people during segregation and reflections on how a Baha\u2019i advocate for justice showed Baha\u2019is the path to race unity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe [Baha\u2019is] had to learn how to respond [to racism] in a Baha\u2019i context,\u201d Wilma says. \u201cI always went to the book. What did Abdu\u2019l-Baha say when he came here and saw for himself the good, the bad, and the not so good?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RELATED: What Does a Racism Intervention Look Like?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, in 1912, Abdu\u2019l-Baha, the son of Baha\u2019u\u2019llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha\u2019i Faith traveled to North America and gave more than 400 talks coast to coast about peace and unity. On his 14th day in the United States, Abdu\u2019l-Baha deliberately broke the color line by insisting that Louis Gregory, a prominent Black attorney, sit on his right side in a place of honor during a dinner hosted by some of Washington, D.C.\u2019s wealthy white elite.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on the present-day, Wilma shares how one Baha\u2019i community in California engages with its local government and police department about the equality of and inherent, God-given nobility of people of African descent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we have a long way to go [to get] to race unity, but at least, I think, we\u2019re on the path,\u201d Wilma says. \u201cBut it\u2019s slow. It\u2019s very, very slow. And it\u2019s not that people want to be bigoted, it\u2019s simply they don\u2019t know how not to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe only answer to the race problem in our country is the [Baha\u2019i] teachings,\u201d says Wilma Ellis Kazemzadeh, a Black Baha\u2019i based in the Los Angeles area.  According to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64356,"featured_media":70573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2948,1060],"tags":[2976,2986],"series":[2934],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70518"}],"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=70518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70518"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=70518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}