Things have changed greatly since I was a kid. In the fifties, if a Black family moved in to the neighborhood, the white families started moving out. There were zero Black kids at the High School I went to, and that was in the late sixties. As you I'm sure know, at the start of the Rock and Roll Era, white singers covered songs that were performed and written by Blacks. But there was prejudices against Whites too. I was raised in LA. We thought we were better than whites from NY. And definitely better than the Whites from the South.
But I don't remember anybody worrying or caring about Muslims. Little did the average American know what was about to happen in the late 70's. In fact it seemed overnight that the Soviet Union was our enemy, then they dissolved and out of no where came Iran, Iraq, Libya and the others. We were led to believe all of them were evil and backwards, mostly because of their religion. In college is the first time I heard the other side of the story, that we wanted their oil and put in leaders that played along with us.
But money and politics play their part, and I think were at the beginning of creating a negative image of people that America saw as enemies. But religion did too. I never heard any religious person say any positive about Islam until I met Baha'is. I heard many Christian preachers say how Islam is a false religion and of the devil. That they were going to attempt to destroy Israel, then Jesus would intervene and destroy them. However, we heard that they felt the same way about us... that America was the Great Satan.
Yes, America is getting much more integrated and accepting of others. But, there's still way too much distrust and anger toward people that are different... and that's with each other here in America. Sure, we had a Black President, but unarmed Blacks are getting shot by police. So now what about Muslims? Our latest President had a solution. He tried to ban all Muslims from entering America. But, it's not only Muslims. He believes that people are invading our country from across the southern border. While kids in the inner cities are shooting each other and mass shooters have shot up schools, movie theaters, and music concerts. So things aren't that good. We seem to be afraid of ourselves too. And then we wonder, what went wrong?
You know what is wrong, pretty much everything. And that is the strongest and most positive thing about the Baha'i Faith. Differences in the color of skin, cultural differences and religion, the differences between the very rich and the very poor... and maybe, the going along with the status quo by the middle class. Because, for them, things aren't that bad. For a long time, things weren't that bad for the average American, the average White American. But things are changing fast. The world demands equality, fairness, and justice. But in the fight, I'm afraid there will always be those few that think they need to use violence. And, unfortunately, they can come from any color or ideology.
