COLLEGE PARK, Maryland, United States — A conference co-organized by the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland brought together scholars and artists to examine racism at its roots, arguing that lasting justice demands not only countering prejudice but transcending the very idea of separate human “races.”
The online event, “Abolishing Racism: Creating a Future without Race,” drew some 200 participants from 18 countries to examine what the Chair called “racial eliminativism”—the concept that ending racism requires dismantling the notion of “race” itself.
Over the Bahá’í Chair’s 13-year exploration of racism as a barrier to peace, the issue has come into greater focus, said Hoda Mahmoudi, holder of the Chair.
“For thirteen years, we have approached racism from numerous angles,” she said. “But now we are looking at a critical issue: that race is a human-made construct,” she explained. “As long as we keep that word in our vocabulary as a divider, we place another barrier to peace.”
Dr. Mahmoudi explained that the conference highlighted several spiritual principles essential to addressing prejudice, among them the oneness of humankind, the independent investigation of truth, and the harmony of science and religion.
Founded in 1993, the Bahá’í Chair pursues five themes it sees as essential to removing obstacles to peace: structural racism and the root causes of prejudice; human nature; the empowerment of women; global governance and leadership; and environmental degradation. Through research, publications, and educational programs, the Chair fosters dialogue and deepens understanding of the prerequisites for a more harmonious future.
Challenging racial categorization
Biologist Joseph Graves Jr. from North Carolina A&T State University demonstrated that genetic diversity among humans is far too small to justify biological “races.” Dr. Graves Jr. stated: “Our FST (a measure of population differentiation due to genetic structure) is quite low—roughly 0.15.”
He noted that this figure is nowhere near the threshold that defines subspecies in other mammals, which is typically above 0.5.
Jacoby Carter, Professor of Philosophy at Howard University, explored how racial categories were invented to legitimize exploitation. “Race exists to carve out classes of human beings... for victimization,” said Dr. Carter.
Rev. Starlette Thomas, director of the Raceless Gospel Initiative, offered a perspective that resonated with the Bahá’í principle of the soul’s essential nobility: “We must recover an understanding of the human being that is neither self-negating nor dependent on antagonism.”
Art and culture as a mirror of shared humanity
The transformative power of art was discussed by Angélica Daas, creator of the Humanæ Project, who has photographed over 4,500 people across 20 countries, revealing the impossibility of fitting human diversity into simple racial categories.
“I was never able to find any human being that fits into ‘black’ and ‘white’,” Ms. Daas explained, describing her observation that human skin tones span a beautiful spectrum that defies categorization.
Greg Thomas of the Omni-American Future Project referred to an “omni-American” identity rooted in the rich mingling of cultures. Mr. Thomas explained that education must strive to “develop citizens who are fully oriented to cultural diversity and are not hung up on race.”
Co-organizer Sheena Mason of the State University of New York at Oneonta highlighted the need to examine the language of discrimination in efforts to define human identity beyond racial categories. Dr. Mason’s work explores the idea that discussions about race often actually concern culture, ethnicity, social class, or racism itself. A more precise use of language, she indicates, will help to avoid a presumption of essential racial categories.
“Racialization is the process of applying to humans an inescapable economic and social class hierarchy... that creates or reinforces... power imbalances,” she explained.
A vision for humanity’s future
Reflecting on the conference, Dr. Mahmoudi highlighted the principle of the harmony of science and religion. “The findings of science provide empirical evidence that dismantles the notion of biological race, while spiritual insight affirms a single human family.
“The scientific method purges illusion,” she explained, “and spiritual principles broaden the heart, allowing us to see all of humanity as part of one race.”
The conference represents what Dr. Mahmoudi described as part of the Bahá’í Chair’s mission to contribute to discourses that can help humanity move beyond the barriers that prevent it from recognizing its oneness.
The Bahá’í Chair is compiling a volume comprising the conference presenters’ papers, including Dr. Mahmoudi with co-author Tiffani Betts Razavi’s chapter on the Bahá’í perspective on transcending racial divisions.
In the coming academic year, the Bahá’í Chair will organize a lecture series to continue exploring the important topic of structural racisms and the root causes of prejudice.
