10/09/2021
Just as the community has been growing in its capacity to grow its capacity to Express Oneness the tours of DC have grown in their capacity to capture and represent those of African Descent included in the tour.
The Washington, DC, Baha’i community has a rich history in working for justice. It was the site of the first Race Amity Conference in 1921, as directed by ‘Abdu’l-Baha, then head of the Baha’i Faith. It has been home to advocates for racial amity such as Louis G. Gregory, Pauline and Joseph Hannen, Coralie Cook and Pocahontas Pope.
As it reads its current reality, DC is among many Baha’i communities navigating these issues with the aid of guidance from global and national Baha’i institutions. One admonition from the Universal House of Justice, global governing council of the Bahá’í Faith, is to make “freedom from racial prejudice the watchword.”
The Assembly has developed the habit of asking itself two questions when it consults on any particular topic:
“What are the racial, cultural, class and gender implications of this decision?” This question, it was noted, has increasingly become natural in other community-wide spaces.
“How does this decision promote the nobility of African Americans and draw on their experience?”
Giving these questions proper time and thought, the Assembly has noted, can help prevent unconscious biases from seeping into vital decisions.
One action cited in the report came soon after the killings of Mr. Floyd and Ms. Taylor. The Assembly prepared a statement “acknowledging the pain and heartbreak” connected with these deaths. That statement was read at the next two community Feast gatherings, and consultation followed on what members are “doing and learning about advancing freedom from racial prejudice. These Feasts generated insight, experiences, questions, and desires from the community at large,” the report states.
This raised awareness, says Assembly member Nura Sadeghpour, of an urgent need for community members to educate themselves on structural racism and explore internal biases, so they can more deeply understand the writings of the Faith and the framework for its growth and development.
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