REGISTER HERE FOR THESE TWO NIGHTS

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. The Bahá’í Faith is one of specificity and particularity on the issue of race. Not only do we believe that the Revelator brought Divine Teachings, but much like a skilled physician, He has diagnosed the malady and issued a prescription for healing. He has refined the vocabulary necessary to revolutionize the discourse. We are also blessed to have the work of racial justice personified in the person of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and this is essential in an environment where words are consistently twisted and perverted and used to undermine the Cause of Justice. The workshop will focus on the following areas: The Covenant and Racial Justice Lessons Learned from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Seeing Through The Pupil of the Eye: Black People and the Bahá’í Faith RE-Assessing the American Dream: The Immigrant Experience of Race

Derik Smith is a professor in the Department of Literature at Claremont McKenna College. His work focuses on African American literary culture, with a particular interest in poetry. He also teaches and writes about representations of blackness in American filmic and musical culture. His 2018 monograph, Robert Hayden In Verse: New Histories of African American Poetry and the Black Arts Era, recently won the College Language Association’s annual book award. His current scholarship focuses on the poetics of rap, and the rise of the genre during the final decades of the twentieth century, as well as the connection between critical race studies and the Baha’i Faith. Smith regularly teaches courses in American prisons and nurtures activist interests in prison studies and pedagogy. He and his family live in Southern California.

In the late nineteenth century, Baha’u’llah likened people of African descent to the “pupil of the eye” through which the “light of the spirit shineth forth.” In this presentation hosted by the Wilmette Institute, Derik Smith suggests that the “pupil of the eye” metaphor is a deeply consequential, distinguishing feature of the transformative social and spiritual system laid out in Baha’u’llah’s Revelation. 

Let’s gather our energy and share healing words. Sharing divine scripture, poetry, songs, Affirmations, prayers, etc.

A Space for…
People of African Descent

”Thou art like unto the pupil of the eye which is dark in colour, yet it is the fount of light and the revealer of the contingent world.”
- `Abdu'l-Bahá

These gatherings are on Zoom and you must receive an email invite from Bahais4raceunity@gmail.com.

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing (Published Works Dr. Joy DeGruy authored the book entitled Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, (newly revised) which addresses the residual impacts of trauma on African Descendants in the Americas.

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS) lays the groundwork for understanding how the past has influenced the present, and opens up the discussion of how we can eliminate non-productive attitudes, beliefs and adaptive behaviors and, build upon the strengths we have gained from the past to heal.     Ms. DeGruy’s research focuses on the intersection of racism, trauma, violence and American chattel slavery. She has over thirty years of practical experience as a professional in the field of social work. She conducts workshops and trainings in the areas of intergenerational/historical trauma, mental health, social justice, improvement strategies and evidence based model development. .

 Professional:  I have been a consultant and trainer for over 20 years on issues of racial and social justice. I was appointed to co-design the City of Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative Anti-Racism training (with Darlene Flynn). I have worked with a wide-range of organizations including private, non-profit, and governmental. Personal: “I grew up poor and white.  While my class oppression has been relatively visible to me, my race privilege has not.  In my efforts to uncover how race has shaped my life, I have gained deeper insight by placing race in the center of my analysis and asking how each of my other group locations have socialized me to collude with racism. In so doing, I have been able to address in greater depth my multiple locations and how they function together to hold racism in place. I now make the distinction that I grew up poor and white, for my experience of poverty would have been different had I not been white” (DiAngelo, 2006).

Birth of a White Nation is a fascinating new book on race in America that begins with an exploration of the moment in time when "white people," as a separate and distinct group of humanity, were invented through legislation and the enactment of laws.

The book provides a thorough examination of the underlying reasons as well as the ways in which "white people" were created. It also explains how the creation of this distinction divided laborers and ultimately served the interests of the elite.

The book goes on to examine how foundational law and policy in the U.S. were used to institutionalize the practice of "white people" holding positions of power. Finally, the book demonstrates how the social construction and legal enactment of "white people" has ultimately compromised the humanity of those so labeled.

Positionality is the social and political context that creates your identity in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability status. Positionality also describes how your identity influences, and potentially biases, your understanding of and outlook on the world.

The primary purpose of the documentary project, An American Story: Race Amity and The Other Tradition, is to impact the public discourse on race...

The documentary discusses the “better in us” a needed collective perspective in the current climate of national disunity across racial, religious, and political lines. This has significant implications for addressing public issues from immigration to health care and the myriad of governmental, educational, business, and religious challenges that we must successfully meet to weave the fabric of unity which is indispensable to survival as a nation.

As Seen on  “An American Story: Race Amity and The Other Tradition” on Local PBS Stations