Racial Unity: An Imperative for Social Progress
Author: Richard W. Thomas
Publisher: Association for Bahá'í Studies, Ottawa, 1993. rev. ed., 224 pages
Review by: Nassim Berdjis
Richard Thomas traces the quality of black-white relations from the ancient
Mediterranean world to contemporary America. He shows how perspectives
on race have shaped societies. Thomas paints a complex picture of the evolving
application of the Bahá'í teachings on racial unity in the American Bahá'í
community. He closes his book by opening vistas of interracial harmony with the
help of a transformational model that needs to affect as many people as possible.
In the first part of his book, Thomas describes the rather harmonious
interaction between Egyptians and African Kushites and among the Greeks,
Romans, and African peoples such as the Ethiopians. The Africans were
appreciated as traders and warriors. Classical writers portray, for example, the
Ethiopians as pious and just people. In early Christian communities, the
inclusion of black believers served as proof for the all-embracing mission of the
new religion, and only later was Christ's image transformed into that of an
increasingly white-skinned Messiah. The depiction of colonialism is convincing
in that Thomas shows that conquests and colonisation efforts went hand in hand
with enslaving the African peoples in order to strengthen the economies of
European empires. When slavery proved to be profitable in the New World,
racist ideologies emerged which attempted to conceal the conflicts with Christian
and Enlightenment ideas. The discussion of Thomas Jefferson--who described
black people as mentally inferior to whites while he granted Native Americans
a slightly higher status--sheds light on the complexity of the issue.
In "Barriers to Racial Unity and Multiracial Progress," Thomas continues
to use his effective approach of dealing with history on a global scale when he
discusses both American history and European colonialism in Africa. The idea
of manifest destiny ascribed the right of discovery to European-Americans, thus
sanctioning the taking of land from native peoples whose concept of land
ownership did not include private claims. Additionally, slavery fostered the view
that slaves were better suited for hard labour than their masters. Between 1815
and 1855, ideas about liberty and the progress of human beings (derived from
the Enlightenment and the American Revolution) were replaced by the concept
of white supremacy which resulted in the removal of Indians from their native
lands and in the perpetuation of slavery. Black men were seen either as sex-hungry savages or as affectionate imbeciles who were grateful for being held as
slaves. This image of subhuman slaves served the purpose of avoiding moral
issues in favour of preserving the economic status quo. Both religion and science
cooperated in this ideological effort. People closed their eyes to the paradox of
scientific "proof" for the existence of distinct races and of the Christian belief
that humankind derived from Adam and Eve.
In twentieth-century America, racial segregation in the South went even so
far as to force people of different races to use particular telephone booths. When
World War I created a need for labourers in the northern states, the migration of
vast numbers of black people led to race riots and to the ghettoisation of black
workers. Between the late 1940s and mid-1960s, several Supreme Court and
other court rulings gradually led to crucial changes. For instance, the 1954
Supreme Court Decision Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka signalled the
end of segregated public schools. Nonetheless, the bussing of children in order
to enforce that ruling still caused much conflict in the 1970s. In the 1960s,
Martin Luther King Jr, was a champion of the civil rights movement that
promoted non-violent change; other groups demanded more radical measures.
Thomas concludes that the last ten years have been characterised by a
diversification of race issues, as Middle Eastern and Asian immigrant groups
have been added to the factions that compete for equality. It has become clear
that this problem affects the whole of society.
Readers dissatisfied with books that focus on the horrible reality of racism
rather than on movements against racist attitudes will appreciate Part III of this
book. Here, Thomas describes non-racist trends in America and introduces
Bahá'í teachings on the issue. Already in the seventeenth century, the majority
of the Quakers openly opposed slavery and racism, and several Quakers were
involved in the Underground Railroad two centuries later. During the Civil War,
black and white soldiers fought together for the North, and the Emancipation
Proclamation of 1863 emphasised the determination of the North to end slavery.
In the early twentieth century, biracial organisations such as the National
Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and the
National Urban League (NUC) worked for the abolition of racism. The First
Universal Races Congress of 1911 (held in London) was attended by NAACP
leader W. E. B. DuBois who already then connected the struggle against racism
with efforts towards achieving world peace. 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent a message to that
conference and encouraged the participants to let their efforts be shown in deeds
rather than only through words.
'Abdu'l-Bahá also spoke at the African-American Howard University
during his visit to the United States in 1912 and encouraged the interaction
between black and white people outside and inside the Bahá'í community. He
encouraged interracial marriage, and as a result of his vision, the American
Bahá'í community hosted its first racial amity conference in Washington DC in
1921. 'Abdu'l-Bahá demanded that segregation and any form of prejudice be
abolished in the community, and an increasing number of believers took the risks
involved in living their beliefs without heeding their society's mores. Shoghi
Effendi continued to encourage the American community in its efforts. In 1939,
the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada and the United States
appointed a Race Unity Committee; among its five members were Louis
Gregory, a leading African-American Bahá'í, and Dorothy Beecher Baker, the
great-granddaughter of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
The committee stressed the role of education and culture, thereby giving parents
recommendations for educating their children in the spirit of racial equality and
encouraging all to acquaint themselves with African-American culture. At a
racial amity meeting in New York in 1924, James Weldon Johnson, a writer,
addressed the Bahá'ís and their guests and also appealed to cross-cultural
understanding. In 1940, the National Spiritual Assembly held a meeting in
Atlanta, Georgia, in order to admonish the community with regard to following
the Bahá'í teaching concerning racial unity. Thomas refers to this event as "a
watershed in American Bahá'í history" (143). He describes numerous instances
of the community's increasing activities promoting racial unity which included
working with a growing number of immigrant groups as well as involvement in
assisting Native American peoples. Since 1957, the American Bahá'í community
has celebrated Race Amity Day on the second Sunday of June. During the
turbulent 1960s, the Bahá'ís publicly supported the non-violent civil rights
movement by, for example, sending telegrams to President Lyndon B. Johnson
and to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and by participating in the
1965 march on Montgomery, Alabama. Similar activities have continued to this
day, and Thomas concludes his book by offering the American Bahá'í
community as a model of study in the same way that the Universal House of
Justice encouraged the world to scrutinise the Bahá'í teachings, its community
and administration as offering solutions to a struggling humanity.
Thomas unabashedly portrays racist problems in American Bahá'í history.
This approach makes the book all the more suitable for readers who expect a
balanced discussion of religious beliefs and community practice. Repeated
references to teaching plans and efforts may, however, strike non-Bahá'í readers
as bothersome, because those details veer attention away from racism as a global
phenomenon towards the expansion of the Bahá'í community. Similarly, the
discussion of the relationship between the Bahá'í community and Native
Americans could be misunderstood. References to the growing number of Native
American believers might give the impression that conversion in the Bahá'í
community takes precedence over other concerns.
In the epilogue, Thomas describes "a transformational agenda for racial
unity and social progress" which is based on changing each individual's
"perceptions and values about people and communities." Although the path
towards racial harmony is a stormy one, Thomas describes the tools of healing
that are available today: the concept of the unity of humankind, a history of
cooperation among diverse people, and interracial friendship. Thomas's book
does not only show how racist concepts have been twisted and manipulated by
economic and other forces, but he also makes clear that trends towards unity and
harmony have long existed. He argues that the Bahá'í community needs
unflinchingly to pursue the goal of living up to its teachings so that--with the
cooperation of like-minded people--Bahá'u'lláh's vision may be realised before
long.