Is this still happening?

I saw this article on CNN the other day, and wondered if I had gone back in time to the time of the Civil Rights movement.

“Black and white students attended the prom together for the first time on Saturday. In previous years, parents had organized private, segregated dances for students of the school in rural Ashburn, Georgia, 160 miles south of Atlanta.”‘” ‘There was not anybody that I can remember that was black,” she said. “The white people have theirs, and the black people have theirs. It’s nothing racial at all.’ “

The first thing I thought was, “Aren’t there any students who come from mixed ethnicities? Do they have to ‘identify’ as a particular race to attend the white or black dances?” I was happy to see that the initiative was finally taken to have one prom, but the fact that it has taken so long (and that there is still resistance to it) is so sad.

There is no reason that I can possibly fathom to separate based on skin color. I was lucky enough to be raised in a Baha’i family, and the Baha’i Writings are very clear on the subject of racial harmony:

“It is racial, patriotic, religious and class prejudice, that has been the cause of the destruction of Humanity.”“One of the great reasons of separation is colour. Look how this prejudice has power in America, for instance. See how they hate one another! Animals do not quarrel because of their colour! Surely man who is so much higher in creation, should not be lower than the animals. Think over this. What ignorance exists! White doves do not quarrel with blue doves because of their colour, but white men fight with dark-coloured men. This racial prejudice is the worst of all.”

-Abdu’l-Baha, 1911

Our children deserve better than to be taught to hate each other, for any reason.