Bahá’í perspectives on reparations: Reflections from the ABS Africana Studies Working Group
Channel: Association for Bahá’í Studies
Date: 2022-09-21

June Thomas, Derik Smith, Guy Mount - 2022 ABS Conference

The Universal House Justice has stated that the Bahá’í community needs to be able to “offer, as a unified body, its considered perspective…on issues that weigh on the minds and spirits of those with whom it interacts.” Furthermore, the House of Justice explains that the Bahá’í community will increasingly “be called upon to explicate the principles it advocates, and to demonstrate their applicability to the issues facing humanity.” Certainly, reparations is among those weighty issues to which Bahá’í principles can be productively applied. With the growing prominence of calls for contemporary reparations for harms originating in historical contexts, many individuals, communities, and institutions are seeking a shared understanding of prominent themes in the discourse concerning reparations. Hoping to advance its understanding of these themes, the ABS Africana Studies working group has taken up a collaborative process of learning focused on assessing reparations discourse in light of Bahá’í principles. In this presentation, three collaborators share thoughts on the working group’s ongoing endeavor to develop considered Bahá’í perspectives on reparations.