With regard to the question of what public role might be
played by the Bahá'í Faith in America to ameliorate in the immediately
foreseeable future the plight of African-American males, the size and influence
of the Bahá'í Community are, alas, too limited for it to have a determining
impact on conditions which have, after all, been hundreds of years in the
making. As is well known, since at least the middle of the last century
significant numbers of Americans, both black and white, have long labored,
often with immense resourcefulness, to counteract the baleful legacy of racism
in their country, in all its complex dimensions, structural and otherwise.
Indeed, when one meditates on the sweep of United States history, one can see
how unlikely it is the bitter predicament of black males will be quickly or
easily resolved. The obstacles are not of such character that, for example,
legal reforms could dissolve them. This is not a counsel of despair. Nor is it
an equivocation or a suggestion that the requirements of divine justice ought
to be deferred. Nor is it to say that Bahá'ís have no critical role to play. On
the contrary, the concern is with Bahá'í fundamentals, with looking deeply into
underlying causes and identifying strategic lines of action which make the
wisest use of our limited resources at this point in the development of the
Bahá'í community.
(From a letter dated 1 April 1996, written on behalf of the
Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)
