Comments on Bahá’í Thought: Proud To Be White

Thanks Mark for jumping in, even with jet lag! I a...

2007-05-26T13:04:00.000-03:00

Thanks Mark for jumping in, even with jet lag! I agree, I doubt the author of this statement would want to be an ethnic minority for even one hour.

Hey Phillipe,My first thought after reading it is ...

2007-05-26T12:11:00.000-03:00

Hey Phillipe,
My first thought after reading it is that I think that I have seen it before and the author seems too forget that the 'playing field' has not been equal and still is not. Prejudice of various kinds are dynamic and changing and seem to be a struggle between the ego of attachment and the soul of detachment. The ego yearns for control and power, while the soul yearns for justice and peace. The author seems detached from the historical context and present day contexts that shape our world. Perhaps it would be interesting if he lived just one day as a minority. But, perhaps even better, it would be wonderful if he could meditate on what is best for the soul and not the ego. Anyway, these are just simple thoughts from your friend as his body tells him that jet lag is a reality.
Take care...

Thanks Dan for the comment. I have some other inte...

2007-05-15T12:27:00.000-03:00

Thanks Dan for the comment. I have some other interesting stuff coming down the pike that I hope stimulates more discussion.

wow.I wanted to wait before leaving a comment to s...

2007-05-15T11:12:00.000-03:00

wow.
I wanted to wait before leaving a comment to see what sort of conversation would naturally result... some deep and righteous utterance in here. kudos for tackling this challenging and controversial topic Philippe.

i just published it!love from leila

2007-05-10T17:39:00.000-03:00

i just published it!

love from leila

Thanks Leila, I look forward to hearing more of yo...

2007-05-10T17:19:00.000-03:00

Thanks Leila, I look forward to hearing more of your comments and it's nice to know that this blog is considered useful to people. I did visit your blog just now but did not see your response. Where can I find it?

phillipe, i don't comment as much as i should: as...

2007-05-10T17:09:00.000-03:00

phillipe, i don't comment as much as i should: as much as your posts make me think. i totally admire your courage in writing so forthrightly about such sensitive subjects. i've written a response on my blog.

love from leila

Judith in PA, thanks for your thoughts and I agree...

2007-05-09T18:36:00.000-03:00

Judith in PA, thanks for your thoughts and I agree that there needs to be a change of hearts. We have not been very good at thinking our way out of the racial nightmare with all due respects to the great intellects black and white who have dedicated their lives and much ink to the effort. Only true religion can cure this disease which is why we must free ourselves from the superstitions, theological presumptions and clerical privilege of the past. The Hidden Word you quoted is worthy of several posts all by itself. Also, happy Mother's Day in advance.

You are very concise and "on the money" as usual P...

2007-05-09T17:53:00.000-03:00

You are very concise and "on the money" as usual Phillipe. I also agree with Liz W. overall (and not just because I'm her mom).
By the way, in the incident Liz related, my co-worker was especially upset because our family received financial aid, while hers did not. So here we go again, with the antipathy and struggle between the "have's" and the "have nots", with the truly powerful easily manipulating the barely or recently "have's" to think that the "have nots" are the enemy. A familiar scenario in many arenas of politics, economics and what passes for religion.

It is very difficult to air these issues without inflaming passions --especially one's own-- which is ultimately, at best, not constructive. But we can't ignore them either.

So the question for me has always been-- how can we change hearts?
It seems that the mind will dutifully follow when the heart is changed, and otherwise, it seems hopeless.

For example, as praiseworthy and instrumemtal as most of these instititions and laws/policies designed to advance racial justice, economic, civic, educational and political, and to create in general a sense of empowerment for minorities, so necessary to the advancement of any group of people, have been in the past, and still, to some extent, are, it is a fact that racial prejudice has not been eliminated! It is like a virus which is capable of seemingly endless permutations in order to survive.

I have found nothing short of the penetrating power of the Word of God capable of bringing about a more permanent change. The quotation of 'Abdu'l-Baha by Liz, about refuting what is vain and false, and establishing truth, is intricately linked with "promoting the sacred verses".

For a venue that comes to mind, a weekend in a retreat-like atmosphere, with skilled facilitators, where divergent people could share their feelings and absorb relevant spiritual material.

I don't have The Hidden Words, so please correct any errors in the following, which, for me, is something to regularly ponder on to continue to adjust my feelings, attitudes and deeds:

O CHILDREN OF MEN!
Know ye not why we created you all from the same dust? That no should
exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times how you were created. Since we have created you all from the same substance, it is incumbent upon you 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 by your actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of
detachment may be made manifest. Heed ye this counsel, O Concourse of Light, that ye may obtain the fruits of holiness from the Tree of wondrous glory
,.. Baha'u'llah
Judith in PA

Thanks for the clarification Pauline. I have the s...

2007-05-09T17:02:00.000-03:00

Thanks for the clarification Pauline. I have the same wish for myself which is why I do this blog, because I need lots of practice in that area.

Good point Phillipe, I'm not sure I said exactly w...

2007-05-09T14:13:00.000-03:00

Good point Phillipe,

I'm not sure I said exactly what I meant! Just to clarify what I meant. Maybe shame is not the right word. Sometimes I think that we have to be sensitive of that what we do or say may be jugded by people mindful of history. In a majority group there are times and issues when words or actions could be interpreted as threatening or trying to keep the minority down.

How I wish I was more articulate and could get my views across in a more succinct way than I do!

Pauline

Pauline, you raise some good questions but I do no...

2007-05-08T23:14:00.000-03:00

Pauline, you raise some good questions but I do not believe that you or anyone else should be ashamed of European ancestry. Throughout history Europeans have been on the receiving end of barbarism, conquest and oppression. This does not excuse the things that Europeans have done and sometimes continue to do but there must be justice and fairness when we look at these things. People of European ancestry have much to be legitimately proud of, of which their involvement in the Cause of abolition and other kinds of social justice are noteworthy. Developing an inferiority complex is not the answer to having a superiority complex but to become conscious of the oneness of humanity and what makes us truly special which is our spiritual reality and our relationship with our Creator.

Neysan, thanks for weighing in and crossing that invisible boundary between reader and commentor. You've joined the few and the proud. My understanding is that people in your part of the world have some prejudice towards Turks as well. We all have our prejudices to over come on our long walk to world unity and justice.

The mind and heart of the author is at this time i...

2007-05-08T21:15:00.000-03:00

The mind and heart of the author is at this time irrelevant. Although here in central Europe we do not face many black/white racism challenges, we do have racial prejudice against, for example, the Romas ("Gypsies") In the context of a blog on Baha'i thoughts on race, i think was highly adequate to give this piece airtime. We Baha'is are always very much concerned with moderation, justice, which, as Aristotle already explained, is the balance between extremes. It is refreshing for the mind to read about the other version of a story, be it true or untrue. And i like the analysis and description of the problem, both by Phillipe and by my fellow commentators.

Race will always be an issue, until we are all medium-brown! Thank you for the challenging entry.

My reflections on your article are these:I grew up...

2007-05-08T21:08:00.000-03:00

My reflections on your article are these:
I grew up in an area where the vast majority were white and British. I was brought up to think that everyone should be pround to be British and that this was indeed a superior thing to be. I found the Bahá'í Faith and learned that people are people. The main prejudice in the society I live in is still probably against those who are not British. It has changed very much and now we are a multi-racial society with quite a few mixed race marriages. This feels much more healthy. I feel like it makes us much more part of the world. As I have grown older I have grown to view that being British and living where I live as a lucky accident of birth as I live in quite an affluent sociey with good free education and medical services etc.

You may be interested in my daughter's reaction when she was about ten. She heard a bit about slavery at school and asked me about it. I explained a bit about the slave trade as I had studied it in the context of slaves being brought to Britain. Her eyes filled with tears and she said "Mummy, I am not sure I want to be British any more" It reminded me of the words of a song by a British Reggae group, UB40, "I'm a British subject and proud of it though I bear the burden of shame"

It seems to me that any opressed minority who has been constantly treated as less than the majority must stand up and say "It's O K to be what I am and I am proud of that". I am so thankful that Baha'u'lláh tells us mankind is on an unstoppable journey to the Most Great Peace, where oppression of a section of the community should not happen.

My final thought is this. I find it increasingly hard to draw a line between black and white. Will my mixed race children call themselves oriental like their dad or white like me? Does it really matter? It is a bit like the number line. Between every two numbers, however close together, there is at least one other, infinitely. I am increasingly seeing race as a continuous thing, like the number line rather than discrete.

The poem made me feel uncomfortable. It reminds me of the sort of statements that I heard on a documentary about the "national front" (a very right-wing racist political group). Lets just say my vision of the future is different to theirs.

Pauline

Thanks Barney for making the connection to gender....

2007-05-08T16:24:00.000-03:00

Thanks Barney for making the connection to gender. It's true that those with power and privilege are slow to give it up, unfortunately. It is the power of the Word of God that frees both oppressors and oppressed.

Those who have privilege and power always feel par...

2007-05-08T16:13:00.000-03:00

Those who have privilege and power always feel particularly hard done by if they think they're losing it. It's the same when things are done to overcome gender inequalities - men tend to think women are getting an unfairly good dea, when all that's happening is some evening up of the imbalances.

What blocked the abolition of the slave trade and of slavery itself for so long? The strenuous efforts of the slave owners to stop their privilege and power being taken from them.

It's pretty much standard practice for the powerful and privileged to represent any loss of power and privilege as a terrible injustice against them.

Yeah well we always thought he got in because he h...

2007-05-08T10:41:00.000-03:00

Yeah well we always thought he got in because he had straight A's but you know ...(shrug)

I see your point and I agree that there's a false sense of "we're all equal these days" that permeates the atmosphere of our lives. Like most people of color, I've seen a million variations on this annoying theme intrude into my daily life. (Have I mentioned the word "annoy" enough times?)It's like one of those anxiety dreams where you're trying to complete one simple task but no matter how many times you close the door, start the car, pick up the phone, etc, it just doesn't work.

I can see why you would feel ambivalent about my c...

2007-05-07T23:34:00.000-03:00

I can see why you would feel ambivalent about my choice to give airtime to this kind of statement but my thought is that I would rather fight a tiger in the light of day than in the dark of night. I think there are people of all colors who have bought into the propoganda that America is now color-blind, so we don't need to deal with racial prejudice anymore. Statements like the one this author made are the antidote to the narcotic qualities of our feel-good society. I like what your mother said, simple and profound. Not to mention the fact that the only people who know why your brother was accepted to an Ivy League school are the people involved in the admissions process. To assume it was because of his race, itself exposes the racial bias of the person who made the comment. If her own child got accepted to the same school she would probably assume that he/she got in because they deserved it. My mother had to endure similar comments from white colleagues when I was accepted to Harvard. It's amazing the things the unearned privilege encourages people to say and then they express shock that someone takes offense to it. We have a long way to go still in America.

Let me start by saying that I have very mixed feel...

2007-05-07T21:26:00.000-03:00

Let me start by saying that I have very mixed feelings about this post. While I agree with every point Phillipe made, and in some ways rejoice to see such an airtight response to this white pride rant / poem, another part of me always feels a touch of disappointment when these kinds of messages get the glory of being responded to in print. I feel like we perpetuate their existence and somehow even strengthen the foolish pride of the ignorant at the same time we're pointing out why their thinking is backwards. It irks me to think that the author might be happy to see that their twisted logic gets any airplay whatsoever. Phillipe, I don't think your post would change the mind of the person who wrote this. The last line of the rant seems to confirm this.

On the other hand, there's a good chance that some folks, in their secret heart of hearts, might be inclined to agree with this rant simply because they don't understand the history of our country and its relevance to our way of thinking. Or, another person may intuitively feel the rant is wrong without knowing exactly why. For these souls to be exposed to this kind of dialogue might be just what they need in order to "rent the veil asunder." I guess it just annoys me that this is where we're at --- we have to spend time formulating responses to confused and "conveniently clueless" individuals. It reminds me of a comment a woman made to my mother against affirmative action when my brother was accepted into an Ivy League school, saying it wasn't fair because her daughter couldn't get in. My mom asked the woman (a co-worker of hers) if she liked the home she lived in. The woman said yes. My mom asked her would she prefer to come and live in the housing project where we lived if it meant her daughter could go to Yale. The woman thought about it, and then said "I guess not."

In any event, 'Abdu'l-Baha does speak of the need to "refute what is vain and false, establish the truth, reveal the splendours, and make the morning's light to dawn in the hearts of the righteous." It seems appropriate to close with the following selection from His writings, a selection that comes to mind when I read many of the posts on this blogspot:

O thou who art enamoured of the Covenant! The Blessed Beauty hath promised this servant that souls would be raised up who would be the very embodiments of guidance, and banners of the Concourse on high, torches of God's oneness, and stars of His pure truth, shining in the heavens where God reigneth alone. They would give sight to the blind, and would make the deaf to hear; they would raise the dead to life. They would confront all the peoples of the earth, pleading their Cause with proofs of the Lord of the seven spheres.

It is my hope that in His bounty He will soon raise up these souls, that His Cause may be exalted. The lodestone which will attract this grace is staunchness in the Covenant. Render thou thanks unto God that thou art firmest of the firm.

O my God, aid Thou Thy servant to raise up the Word, and to refute what is vain and false, to establish the truth, to spread the sacred verses abroad, reveal the splendours, and make the morning's light to dawn in the hearts of the
righteous.

Thou art verily the Generous, the Forgiving.

('Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdul-Baha, page 251)