One of the greatest problems faced by every human society is the administration of justice. In fact, one of the great difficulties of applying justice is that we don’t even have a common understanding of what is just.
Justice is variously defined by different people and theories as:
- Something issuing from God
- A natural law
- Social contract (mutual agreement)
- Based on the best outcomes for the greatest number of people
- Proper distribution of societal benefits
However justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people should receive that which they deserve. What is considered “deserving” is influenced by numerous fields including ethics, rationality, law, religion, equity and fairness. It becomes even more difficult when people are attempting to define justice in a multicultural society.
Bahá’u’lláh, the Manifestation of God and founder of the Bahá’í Faith wrote hundreds of books that are considered to be holy text by the millions of His followers from around the world. In many of His books He wrote on the theme of justice. He didn’t attempt to define justice, preferring to paint with a wide brush and thus allow humanity to add the fine strokes, but He did make numerous statements regarding the value of justice, equity, equality and fairness such as the following:
Justice and equity are twin Guardians that watch over men. From them are revealed such blessed and perspicuous words as are the cause of the well-being of the world and the protection of the nations.
We entreat God to deliver the light of equity and the sun of justice from the thick clouds of waywardness, and cause them to shine forth upon men. No light can compare with the light of justice. The establishment of order in the world and the tranquility of the nations depend upon it.
We hope that thou wilt cause the light of justice to shine more brightly. …Justice is a powerful force. It is, above all else, the conqueror of the citadels of the hearts and souls of men, and the revealer of the secrets of the world of being, and the standard-bearer of love and bounty.
In brief, the pride and vanity of certain of the peoples of the world have made havoc of true understanding, and laid waste the home of justice and of equity.
The United States is one of many multicultural societies on earth. Unfortunately, our internal unity is, at this time, fractured into two major camps, one being those citizens who cling to the outdated view that America is a mono-culture, as it once was, and an opposing group who acknowledge that our country has evolved over the last hundred and fifty years into a true multicultural society.
This true multicultural society requires us, its citizens, to accept that the minority groups that live here deserve special acknowledgment of their differences within a dominant political culture. In sociology, this is called multiculturalism and it describes the manner in which a given society deals with its cultural diversity. It is based on the underlying assumption that members of often very different cultures can coexist peacefully.
Multiculturalism expresses the view that society is enriched by preserving, respecting, and even encouraging cultural diversity.
The opposite to multiculturalism is racial nationalism. Racial nationalism is an ideology that advocates a racial definition of national identity.
Racial nationalism seeks to preserve a given race through policies such as banning race mixing and the immigration of other races.
In America there are several government policies that bear witness to the truth of its racial nationalism. Probably to most blatant of these is our current immigration policy on our Southern border. Our current President has referred to citizens of Mexico who are attempting to migrate to the United States as rapists, murders and generally bad people. Our State Department which is responsible for setting immigration policies has set up rules that favor North Europeans over all other people. Africans fare as badly as South and Central Americans.
Although “race mixing” laws are no longer on the law books, a minority person who marries outside of their ethnic group are still likely to be criticized and even ostracized by their own group. Minorities are also subject to having more difficulties securing housing loans, regularly pay higher interest rates on similar housing loans as Whites.
Race nationalists in the United States identify White Northern Europeans as the core of the nation state, believing themselves to be a race. This belief of dividing the human race into sub-categories, sub-races or individual races is in opposition to the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh who plainly states that there is only one race, the human race.
That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race. The Great Being saith: Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth. In another passage He hath proclaimed: It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.
“O ye children of men! The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become a source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity.”
The great dread of multiple races is that sooner or later, and unfortunately it turns out to be sooner, racial nationalism rears its ugly head and one race decides it is the “master race.”
This is in essence National Socialism. Seventy-Five years ago the entire world fought a war that killed approximately eighty-seven million people to stop National Socialism from taking over the world.
Today our school systems gloss over the Second World War and the younger generations fail to see that the White Supremacy and White Nationalist movements of the United States are neo-Nazi groups. Are we destined to re-fighting this war over and over again?
To me, a seventy year old White male, and a committed believer in the ‘one human family’ or ‘one race, the human race’ concept firmly believe that my people have a place within one human race, therefore there is no reason for elements of my people to draw themselves apart from the peoples of the world.
You may be losing your position of primacy on the world stage, but you continue to have a role to play, and it is a significant role, and a much needed role. Please don’t waste your future by pushing yourselves away from your fellow brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and cousins.
Once again, I wish to call your attention to the words of Bahá’u’lláh.
The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men.
