University of Maryland, USA – Bahai News– In a pioneering step towards a more just and peaceful world, the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland recently hosted a conference bringing together academics and artists. Titled “Abolishing Racism: Creating a Future without Race,” the conference emphasized that achieving lasting justice goes beyond merely countering prejudice, extending to transcending the very notion of separate human “races.”
The virtual event drew approximately 200 participants from 18 countries. Its aim was to explore what the Chair termed “racial eliminativism”—the concept that ending racism necessitates dismantling the idea of “race” itself.
Dr. Hoda Mahmoudi, holder of the Chair, explained that this issue has gained increasing prominence during the Chair’s 13-year exploration of racism as a barrier to peace. “For thirteen years, we have approached racism from numerous angles,” she stated. “But now we are looking at a critical issue: that race is a human-made construct. As long as we keep that word in our vocabulary as a divider, we place another barrier to peace.”
Dr. Mahmoudi highlighted several spiritual principles crucial for addressing prejudice, including the oneness of humankind, the independent investigation of truth, and the harmony of science and religion.
Established in 1993, the Bahá’í Chair pursues five core themes vital for 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 presented evidence 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 this figure is nowhere near the typical threshold (above 0.5) that defines subspecies in other mammals.
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 resonating 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
Angélica Daas, creator of the Humanæ Project, discussed the transformative power of art. Daas has photographed over 4,500 people across 20 countries, revealing the impossibility of fitting human diversity into simplistic racial categories. “I was never able to find any human being that fits into ‘black’ and ‘white’,” Ms. Daas explained, describing how 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 concern culture, ethnicity, social class, or racism itself. More precise language, she indicated, helps to avoid presuming 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 underscored 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.”
She explained: “The scientific method purges illusion, 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 preventing it from recognizing its oneness.
The Bahá’í Chair is compiling a volume of the conference presenters’ papers, including a chapter by Dr. Mahmoudi with co-author Tiffani Betts Razavi 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 racism and its root causes….More
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Lina Rami
Journalist and Translator
ABN Bahá’í News Institute
Contact: lina.rame@abnnews.net
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Bahá’í Chair for World Peace, University of Maryland, Abolishing Racism, Future Without Race, Racial Eliminativism, Racial Categories, Oneness of Humankind, Harmony of Science and Religion, Structural Racism, Prejudice, Women’s Empowerment, Global Governance, Environmental Degradation, Joseph Graves Jr., Jacoby Carter, Starlette Thomas, Angélica Daas, Humanæ Project, Greg Thomas, Sheena Mason, Human Identity.
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