Race Unity: A spiritual imperative for global peace

Discrimination due to race is a major challenge preventing humanity from living in a just and peaceful world. Racism continues to exist as people merely live side by side, without meaningful opportunities for interaction. Through genuine and purposeful interactions, people can encounter different perspectives, build connections, and gain a deeper understanding of each other’s lived experiences. 

Racism originates not in the skin but in the human mind. Remedies to racial prejudice must accordingly address first those illusions that have for thousands of years given rise to false concepts of superiority and inferiority among peoples.  

According to the statement of the Bahá'í International Community to Durban Conference, held in 2001, “The reality is that there is only the one human race. We are a single people, inhabiting the planet Earth, one human family bound together in a common destiny, a single entity created from one same substance”. 

And according to Universal House of Justice, the international governing council of the Bahá’í Faith, “Racism retards the unfoldment of the boundless potentialities of its victims, corrupts its perpetrators, and blights human progress. Recognition of the oneness of mankind, implemented by appropriate legal measures, must be universally upheld if this problem is to be overcome”. 

Recognition of the oneness of humanity goes beyond mere tolerance, and advocates a change in attitudes, and requires that an active effort be made towards establishing genuine unity among races.

The reality of human oneness is fully endorsed by science. Anthropology, physiology, psychology, sociology and genetics demonstrate that there is only one human species, although infinitely varied in the secondary aspects of life. Recognition of this truth requires the abandonment of prejudice of every kind – race, class, colour, creed, nationality, gender – everything which enables people to consider themselves superior to others.  

The principle of human oneness is not some vague hope or slogan. It holds a number of implications. It implies that justice must be the ruling principle in all our interactions and social structures.  

“It implies that any law, tradition or mental construct that grants superior rights or privileges to one grouping of humanity over another is not only morally wrong but fundamentally at odds with the best interests of even those who consider themselves to be in some way superior’, as the Bahá'í International Community says.

Race unity is a spiritual imperative for global peace. If we wish to eliminate racism entirely, we must wholeheartedly embrace the concept of the oneness of the human race, eliminate prejudice, and turn to the spiritual values of love, compassion, and justice and humility,.  

According to a statement of Bahá'í International Community, “Racism, rooted in ignorance and perpetuated by division, can ultimately only be overcome through a profound understanding of the inherent oneness of humanity. This understanding transcends the mere acknowledgment of our equal rights—it calls for a recognition that, regardless of our diverse origins, backgrounds, traditions, beliefs, or lived experiences, we are all members of a singular, interconnected family. It is precisely this diversity that enriches and beautifies the fabric of humanity”.

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