Baha’is believe in the power of prayer and you’ll find Baha’is and their friends, throughout the world, getting together to pray. This is often referred to as a ‘devotional gathering’ or ‘devotional meeting’, and they happen in diverse settings, whether in cities or villages.
In this talk, produced by Bahaiteachings.org, Derik Smith, a teacher in the New York State Prison system, reflects on racial justice, unconscious bias and the inner human reality as a mirror capable of reflecting divine light.
“I see that light of divinity shining within my students,” says Professor Derik Smith, “every time I enter the razor wire.” But he has also encountered bias –including being mistaken for someone who committed a crime rather than a professor of those who are incarcerated. In this riveting video, Smith passionately discusses unconscious bias and how it impacts poor black and brown people, who are unjustly deemed less worthy of love and compassion and more deserving of the harshest punishments a society can perpetuate. If we believe in justice, Dr. Smith proposes, we have to find ways to make it work, not just for some of us, but for all of us.
In her innermost heart, Sonjel is a stay-at-home parent and a bookworm with a maxed out library card but professionally she is a museologist with a background in English Literature. She currently lives on Prince Edward Island, an isle in the shape of a smile on the eastern Canadian coast. Sonjel is a writer who loves to listen to jazz when she's driving at night.
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia.
We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their cultures; and to elders both past and present.
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