SPECIAL FEATURE

RACISM:  A Black Perspective

“Racism, one of the most baneful and persistent evils, is a major barrier to peace. Its practice perpetrates too outrageous a violation of the dignity of human beings to be countenanced under any pretext. Racism retards the unfoldment of the potentialities of its victims, corrupts its perpetrators, and blights human progress.” (1) 

Who will win the RACE?

The principle and spirit on which this article is based, “is the fundamental basis upon which the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh is built”, which many of us aspire to promote. Racism on the other hand is much less examined and understood. Many of us may be oblivious to its effects on ourselves, on others and on the world around us, yet we advocate its most potent cure: the oneness of mankind. This is not a healthy state of affairs. Can the proponents of so potent a cure induce health, lacking a complete understanding of the disease they seek to heal? This article is designed in the humblest way to highlight some of those evils that can corrupt and destroy noble souls on grounds of racial prejudices. It will seek to highlight some of the effects of racism on the black psyche. I hope it will in some way bring to attention some points for thought when teaching people of colour, given the few in number. Race in this context is important, as Rúhíyyih Khánum recalls the Guardian’s words to the first Japanese pilgrim, “... when people of different races are incorporated in the world-wide community and in local communities, who can doubt that it will possess far greater power and perfection and be something quite different from what we have now.” (2)

An embarrassing subject to talk about...

How intriguing that the English word “race”, means competition or contest. For far too long, people of different races have been in competition with each other. We have been taught to see only differences and never in a positive way. In this competition we see each other as “black” and “white”, in this “race”, winner and loser and its implication “superior” and “inferior”. It is also interesting that the words “black” and “dark” have such negative connotations, generally connected with dirt, evil and malicious forces. As Bahá’ís we say “we are all one”, that we are “flowers of one garden” but we do strive for “unity in diversity”, thus, celebrating and appreciating our different racial backgrounds.

Black men’s Bahá’í gatherings?

Confronted by racism, we all in our own ways either feel guilty, defensive or simply take the view that there is no such thing anymore and/or that it does not affect us personally. Perhaps if we do not speak about it, it does not exist or it will simply disappear. Those who dare speak of its ugly face may be seen simply as arrogant trouble makers. It is at times an embarrassing subject to talk about. If we cringe at the mention of this topic and want to avoid it, then we are in denial. What is your idea of racist and racism? Someone belonging to an extreme right wing organisation? Those who do not mix or intermarry with other races? Is it confined to racially motivated violence? Is that it? Think again! It would be nice to say that we are not prejudiced and get away with it, because we simply think the problem is out there and not “in here”.

My pain, quiet contemplation and to some extent a little known booklet, Black Men’s Bahá’í Gatherings inspired me to write this article. Reading it was an experience. There are certainly issues in this booklet I can relate to, growing up as I did in a humble African Bahá’í  home. I was puzzled at first and wondered; Why do we need a Black Men’s Bahá’í Gathering in this day and age, when the spirit of the faith is about unity and oneness? Isn’t it divisive? I began reading this booklet at speed, a little embarrassed, (even I wanted to believe we are fine). Answers to these questions and many more came in droves as I contemplated my own upbringing and my short life.

 Why black men’s gatherings? Counsellor Dr William Roberts, “had for years wondered why black men had not made more significant contributions to the faith as envisioned by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He also noticed something that had puzzled and saddened him: black men appeared to avoid each other deliberately in order to seek the company of white Bahá’ís. In other words, and with a high degree of predictability, black Bahá’ís were trying very hard to become invisible to each other, especially if non-black Bahá’ís were around." (3) How true, l thought! Were they embarrassed, and if so what about? Being black? Slowly, the need for and the importance of these meetings began to sink in. It is about knowing oneself before you know others, putting your house in order, learning from and connecting with each other, discovering who you really are - a very Bahá’í teaching.

How can a whole race be healed after slavery?

Time may have passed since the days of slavery and colonialism, but to a large extent, black culture, its images and psyche have been shaped by them. “Now look at an entire race of people who were not just in slavery but, ultimately, abused in every way imaginable, not just during their formative years but from birth until death, century after century. How do you heal an entire race?... “To be human and not to be treated as such then, and for many of us, even now; to be living in the ‘land of freedom’ and for most of us, not to be ‘free’; to carry our individual yearnings and pain while accommodating  the collective yearnings of our race and forebears; these are the burdens we carry. This is the primary cause of our pain, this is our plight. We have so much to unlearn about who we are before our collective healing can begin and a new identity can be created”. (4)

My puzzle and pain at seeing so much disunity, hatred and violence among black men, gets some illumination from this booklet: “Ironically, we tend not to trust or love other black men, deemed to be on the bottom rung of society’s ladder .... Whether due to maladies of self-hatred, the social necessity of avoiding others who also have the stain of powerlessness, our emotional deprivation can be directly traced to the fragmenting social mechanisms imposed by slavery, and later, by our inability to find healing in a society which is, itself, disintegrating”. (5)  Amazing!

The effects of racism on grievous wounds

Consider for a moment the effects of colonialism on the African psyche and slavery and its aftermath on the AfricanAmerican/Caribbean psyches. This article affords insufficient space to detail the true extent and nature of the damage done over successive generations, nor is that the intention. These wounds include internalised inferiority beliefs and feelings that black people are less civilised, less intelligent, less worthy and that being black is a shameful thing. As a result, some do not set their goals high. Some black women have internalised these beliefs to such an extent that, for example, they use dye to lighten their skin. The inherent belief that a white person knows best, is very much evident even among Africans today, even among some African Bahá’ís. I have personally witnessed how a white (compared to a black) speaker can attract much larger Bahá’í gatherings in Africa, whether local or from overseas. 

To some extent black people are not aware of the effect which racism has had on them. I could give many examples. One example is cited by the American Bahá’í author, Nathan Rutstein in his book “To Be One”. He narrates the story of Pete, his black friend, who felt he was inferior and that black people are. He did not feel safe whenever he saw a black man drive the subway. Rutstein explains that: “the indoctrination has been so complete that they often accept the prevailing white man’s view of themselves. Simply put, blacks harbour a subconscious sense of inferiority, while most whites harbour an inherent sense of superiority.” (6)   This social conditioning or “brainwashing” can be so complete that the effects of colonialism and racism on the culture, on the individual and the collective psyche remain unquestioned and come to be perceived as “normal”.

Confronting History

The history of racism is dirty. I do not wish to “release skeletons from the closet” nor do I intend to make anyone feel guilty. I believe that we need to look at where we’ve come from, where we are going, and to take a glimpse, however inadequate, of the origins of our so called “institutionalised” racism. Racist views have been propagated by so-called learned people, by “intellectuals” and God forbid, some church ministers, who people regarded as fathers of free speech and civilised thought at the time. History is awash with injustices done to the black race, whether through slavery, colonialism or simply what the Church called “Christianisation of the pagans”, or civilisation of the savages. In fact, history shows us that the Church gave its blessing to the slave trade by deliberately manipulating the story of Ham in the Bible and the master servant relation. Islam is no exception. After all, the East African slave trade was conducted by Arab slave traders, who, themselves, had no qualms about it.

For centuries, a black man was seen as less of a person. In fact the American constitution of 1787 declared a slave to be three-fifths of a human being. In “The Mismeasure of Man” which examines the history of so-called “scientific” evidence about race, Gould quotes the Douglas debates (1858) “....There is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favour of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” (7) Our own Nathan Rutstein quotes from the “The Inequality of the Human Race” “some of his [the Black’s] senses have an acuteness unknown to the other races, the sense of taste and that of smell, for instance... But it is precisely this development of the animal faculties that stamps the Negro with the mark of inferiority” and the “Texas Almanac” (1857) “...the African is an inferior being, differently organised from the white man, with wool instead of hair on his head - with lungs, feet, joints, lips, nose and cranium so distinct as to indicate a different and inferior grade of being”. (8)

“Pour the healing salve of His Praises”

“How deep this acid has bitten into the souls of other men...” Rúhíyyih Khánum observes “...When we Bahá’ís go to teach these people, our first act, I firmly believe, should be to try and give them back their self-respect. Probably the greatest crime of the white man is that in his folly and conceit in the great power of his money - civilisation, he has made other men feel inferior .... How deep this acid has bitten into the souls of other men I suppose we white people will never know. But I was startled and moved by something I saw during my African trip. Invariably, whenever I mentioned this injustice of ours, and denounced it as such, there was a spontaneous burst of applause from my listeners, whether at the Teaching Conference in Kampala where the cream of the African Bahá’í Teachers was present or an illiterate audience way out in the bush ... the arrow is far deeper in the hearts than we dream and we Bahá’ís should draw this arrow, in the name of Bahá’u’lláh and pour the healing salve of His Praises and love into the wound.” (9) “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth”.

For many people, genuine friendship with other races has not been easy. However, black people have moved on, although cautiously. “After becoming Bahá’ís ... after experiencing a quality of fellowship with White Bahá’í Males and Females that we never imagined possible, we could see a future world far different from the present and the past.” (10)  The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh for most of Africa were not black. They had massive teaching successes among those who understandably, may have had cause to distrust them at first. My parents, for example, became Bahá’ís in Colonial Africa at the height of the freedom movement. It must have been pretty challenging for them to strike the right balance between supporting the fight for independence and pursuing a peaceful Bahá’í cause. How did it go down? The recognition of the message of Bahá’u’lláh is a beginning and not an end in itself. It can be difficult for us to admit to our inherent prejudices,  arising as a result of what might be our very existence in a world that is corrupted by the evils which surround it, racism included. After all, the world and the environment in which we as Bahá’ís live is not perfect, nor are we.

The way ahead

We must guard our institutions against what can become institutionalised prejudices. As Rúhíyyih Khánum frankly shares: “... As up until very recently the Bahá’ís of the world were almost exclusively white, it is only natural that their virtues and their faults should have coloured the faith and its community life. It is illogical to suppose that what we have now is either mature or right. It is a phase in the development of the cause .... And let us ask ourselves frankly if we do not believe that what we North American Bahá’ís, what we Western white Bahá’ís have, is the real thing, practically a finished product and it is up to the rest of the world to accept it? I think this is our mentality, it was mine up until a few years ago.” (11) Phew!!

We must be patient with each other

The words of the Guardian: “He does not doubt - though it pains him to have to admit it that there are believers who have not overcome their racial prejudices. Bahá’ís are not perfect, but they have made a great step forward by embracing the Faith of God. We must be patient with each other, and realise that each one of us has some faults to overcome, of one kind or another”. (12)

Not about mastering political correctness

The Guardian’s words to Bahá’ís of European Descent: “Let the white make a supreme effort in their resolve to contribute their share to the solution of this problem, to abandon once and for all their usually inherent and at times subconscious sense of superiority, to correct their tendency towards revealing a patronising attitude towards the members of the other race, to persuade them through their intimate, spontaneous and informal association with them of the genuineness of their friendship and the sincerity of their intentions, and to master their impatience of any lack of responsiveness on the part of a people who have received, for so long a period, such grievous and slow healing wounds”. (13)  Equally, addressing Baha’is of African Descent, the Guardian wrote, “Let the Negroes, through a corresponding effort on their part, show by every means in their power the warmth of their response, their readiness to forget the past, and their ability to wipe out every trace of suspicion that may linger in their hearts and minds”. (14)

It is not about mastering political correctness or merely by changes in the law, however important that may be. As Bahá’ís  we cannot afford to fight every social injustice directly. However by our continued efforts in spreading the “Divine Elixir”, teaching first by example and by the collective will of the whole, our bright future destiny, as one human race, will emerge. We have to acknowledge that prejudice is not confined to one particular group. “Both sides [Blacks and Whites] have prejudices to overcome; the prejudice which is built up in the minds of a people who have conquered and imposed their will, and the other the reactionary prejudice of those who have been conquered and sorely put upon.” (15)

A South African Bahá’í youth, [not long in the Faith then] once told me, “the message of Bahá’u’lláh instils in me self respect and peace I have never known elsewhere, but I regard myself a black man first, a Bahá’í second”. It never dawned on me what he meant and I never thought much of it. However, in his short life he had lost so many friends, been tortured, scarred physically and mentally and he saw human life as worthless. He saw white people as evil and heartless. I thought he could let go and let live. Forgive and forget. It was perhaps too soon. Is it not assuring to know that despite what my South African friend had endured, he had found a caring white Bahá’í who had taught him the Faith, as he himself puts it, by his example and conduct. Probably the journey towards inner peace with himself and eventually with other races had began. There are good people out there.

There is hope!

Aziz Maher Golova

1. The Power of Unity: Beyond Prejudice and Racism, Bonnie J Taylor, p36 (BPT Wilmette)

2. Bahá’í News, (Rúhíyyih Khánum Shares Teaching Observations)  No. 40,  June 1961

3. The Black Men’s Bahá’í Gatherings: A Spiritual Transformation, James A Williams and Ted Jafferson

4. Ibid

5. Ibid

6. To Be One: A Battle Against Racism, Nathan Rutstein, p112, 

7. Ibid, p35

8. Ibid, p118

9. Bahá’í News, (Rúhíyyih Khánum Shares Teaching Observations)  No. 40,  June 1961

10. The Black Men’s Bahá’í Gatherings: A Spiritual Transformation, p15, James A Williams and Ted Jafferson

11. Bahá’í News, (Rúhíyyih Khánum Shares Teaching Observations)  No. 40,  June 1961

12. The Power of Unity: Beyond Prejudice and Racism, Bonnie J Taylor, (BPT Wilmette)

13. Racial Unity: An Imperative For Social Progress, Dr Richard W Thomas Pp135-136

14. Ibid, p136

15. The Power of Unity: Beyond Prejudice and Racism, Bonnie J Taylor, p29 (BPT Wilmette)

Please note the use of the terms “Negro”, “Coloured”, “AfricanAmerican” etc., are consistent with the terms which were in current usage at the times of publication of the various cited excerpts.

 Bahá’í International Community working against racism

The General Assembly of the United Nations has decided to  convene a Third World Conference against Racism, Racial  Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. The Conference will take place in 2001 in South Africa.

As an international non-governmental organisation, the Bahá’í International Community will be involved in the World Conference as well as in all the activities surrounding it. In fact, the Bahá’í International Community is currently chairing the Interim Steering Committee of NGOs for the World Conference against Racism, which is based in Geneva. The Steering Committee’s task is to move the NGO preparations forward.