Comments on Bahá’í Thought: Black Like Me?

Fascinating and insightful as always, Phillipe. Wh...

2007-11-27T09:32:00.000-03:00

Fascinating and insightful as always, Phillipe. What a shock! People are different. We have created an imaginal world that categorizes people and then assumes that because two people have been assigned to the same category (on some spurious criterion) they have the same interests, think the same, are undifferentiated. What an insult to the divine humanity in each of us, whether Black or white!

We have to speak of power, when we try to understand how this lumping together of people came about. Those with political and economic power seek to justify their exploitation of those who work for them on the grounds that they are really less human than the powerful. Slavery was the most extreme form of such dehumanization, but it happens wherever there is any form of imperialism (think British Empire).

How do we overcome this? Only by accepting and living according to the teachings of Baha'u'llah. The opening passage in Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha is the recipe.

Nicely put Lev, thanks for weighing in on this one...

2007-11-26T15:49:00.000-03:00

Nicely put Lev, thanks for weighing in on this one. The role that blacks play in white psychology is worth a whole series of posts which I hope that you or your brilliant spouse Negin will take on. Also welcome to the recent visitors to this blog from Jamaica. Share your thoughts and spread the word about this post.

Thank you for posting this, Phillipe! How did you ...

2007-11-26T14:53:00.000-03:00

Thank you for posting this, Phillipe! How did you put it -- "Obvious Things Proven By Science?" Another theme of the Pew study seems to be that blacks and whites continue to have vastly differing perspectives of racial reality. (Shock!)

On questions like the wealth gap between blacks and whites, as well as whether blacks are better off now than 5 or 10 years ago, whites see the black experience through much rosier glasses.

I think it's easier for whites to see Americans of African descent as a single block. I guess we do this with anyone we want to ignore. They fade into an undifferentiated mass, and it makes it easier on our souls. I can put up with the daily violence done to people of African descent as long as I delude myself into not giving you as much diversity and humanity as I give my white peers.

So if a survey comes along that shows "Blacks are Not All the Same," it directly challenges that complacency. But somehow I don't think that will be the takeaway here.

Your commentary speaks with clarity and truth. As ...

2007-11-25T11:45:00.000-03:00

Your commentary speaks with clarity and truth. As you often do, the follow-up quotation from the Bahá’í writings adds even greater insight into the topic.
The PEW research is important, I guess, as a step along the road to progress, but I agree that the real goal, the effective path of healing and of social maturity, of peace, harmony and true freedom is a genuine unity in infinite diversity based on our shared spiritual natures and our reliance on God.

Phillipe,
I appreciate your perspective about t...

2007-11-24T15:58:00.000-03:00