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[Page 1]Newsletter of the Bahá’í International Community "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens"—Bahá’u’lláh

Inside

The Salman Rushdie affair made religious intolerance a hot topic last winter. Where do we go from here? Perspective.

Bahá’í Education: more than 600 schools and learning centers world-wide focus on women and the underprivileged.

A new temple blossoms in India: the New Delhi Bahá’í House of Worship wins both architectural—and popular—acclaim.

"To Be One: A Battle Against Racism" - A Review of Nathan Rutstein's new book.

Bahá’í tutorial schools like this one in upper Zaire teach moral values, consultative skills and human oneness - in addition to reading and writing.

Decade-long Effort to Promote Literacy Launched

27 Non-Governmental Organizations - including Bahá’ís form international task force to assist UNESCO effort

NEW YORK—cbvgefs betrxwty qwerty onhfertx.

For one-fourth of the world's adult population, writing looks like this: a string of unintelligible symbols. Nearly one billion adults cannot read, according to estimates by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a cause and effect of social and economic misery on a world-wide scale.

In an effort to break the grip of illiteracy, 27 international non-governmental organizations—including the Bahá’í International Community—have formed the International Task Force on Literacy (ITFL) to promote and support efforts to end illiteracy. The ITFL plans a decade-long action starting in 1990—a year which has been designated as International Literacy Year (ILY) by the United Nations.

Coordinated by UNESCO, this 10-year initiative will include increased action by UN-member states to eliminate illiteracy, particularly through education of girls and women, among populations with special needs, and in poor rural and urban slum areas. It will also include efforts by various international organizations to increase public awareness of illiteracy, improve cooperation between various education agencies and stimulate new literacy projects among volunteer, community and other grassroots-

(Continued on page 3, "ITFL launched") [Page 2]ONE COUNTRY is published quarterly by the Office of Public Information of the Bahá’í International Community. The Bahá’í International Community is an international non-governmental organization which encompasses and represents the worldwide membership of the Bahá’í Faith.

For more information on any of the stories contained in this newsletter, or any aspect of the Bahá’í International Community and its work, please contact:

ONE COUNTRY Office of Public Information Bahá’í International Community - Suite 120 866 United Nations Plaza New York, New York 10017 U.S.A.

Editorial Board: Douglas Martin Hugh Locke Brad Pokorny Sandra Todd

Editor: Brad Pokorny

Inquiries about subscription information should be directed to the same address. All material in this newsletter is copyrighted by the Bahá’í International Community and subject to all applicable international copyright laws. International parties are free, however, to republish stories from this newsletter provided that they are attributed as follows: "Reprinted from ONE COUNTRY, the newsletter of the Bahá’í International Community."

© 1989 by The Bahá’í International Community

Ending Religious Conflict

With so many grave problems facing humanity, it sometimes takes a dramatic event to focus the world's attention on a given issue.

Early this year, the furor surrounding the publication of Salman Rushdie's novel, "The Satanic Verses," suddenly propelled the question of religious intolerance to center stage.

Dramatic headlines and harsh diplomatic exchanges prompted extensive discussion about respect for diverse religious beliefs. Yet, like so many other problems placed in the spotlight by leaders of thought and the media, the attention to religious intolerance was fleeting and — as of this writing — has quickly faded.

Yet differences of religion stand at the center of many of the world's most troublesome disputes. They are also used to inflame conflicts that are otherwise essentially political, cultural or economic.

The problem of religious intolerance is a puzzling one. People feel strongly about religion, and strong feelings often provoke disputes. At the same time, it is ironic that religious beliefs should create or exacerbate conflict. Without exception, the Founders of the world's major religions taught their followers to eschew conflict, practice tolerance and follow the "Golden Rule" of respect and love toward their neighbors.

In recognizing the seriousness of the problem of religious conflict, the United Nations General Assembly in 1981 adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, the culmination of two decades of work.

Such international standard-setting, coupled with national laws that protect religious belief, although important in combatting religious intolerance, are insufficient to stem the tide of violent religious conflict. Legislation can protect against many abuses and create an atmosphere for change. True change, however, comes only when individuals re-think long-held attitudes and alter their feelings and responses.

The teaching of comparative religion in the world's classrooms is one step toward promoting real change. By working to eliminate ignorance of other religions in children at a young age, and thereby promoting understanding of various systems of belief, we could largely eliminate one source of religious intolerance. When everyone is familiar with the world's sacred literature and the history of religions, fanatics will find it increasingly difficult to distort religious teachings for their own purposes.

Bahá’ís are optimistic about the future. They see the world moving inexorably beyond tolerance towards unity—a unity that will encompass even the diversity of religion and belief. Believing as they do that the Founders of all the great religions were sent by one God, they also find an essential harmony in the basic spiritual messages of the world's faiths.

...contention over religious belief is unacceptable and counter to the essence of religion itself. If religion becomes a source of conflict, hatred or enmity, it would be better to be without religion.

They believe that contention over religious belief is unacceptable and counter to the essence of religion itself. The Bahá’í sacred writings state that if religion becomes a source of conflict, hatred or enmity, it would be better to be without religion.

Should one question whether children are able to grasp the complexity of religious comparisons, a response by school children in India provides an encouraging note. A group of young children at an elementary school... [Page 3]

International Task Force on Literacy launched

level groups.

As its contribution, the Bahá’í International Community will draw on its worldwide membership of more than four million individuals to promote a number of activities aimed at fostering education for all, including:

• Creating networks of educational institutions on three continents - Asia, Africa, and South America - to further develop both the theory and practice of basic education. Currently, Bahá’ís operate more than 340 schools and learning centers in Asia and more than 160 in Africa.
• Sponsoring, co-sponsoring or attending various regional and national conferences on literacy and education for all.
• Launching an information campaign to encourage its more than 151 national affiliates to become involved in ILY activities.
• Assisting in the formation of selected national organizations to foster increased literacy activity at the national level.

"Literacy and education for all is a basic part of the global agenda," said Mr. Daniel Wegener, a Bahá’í International Community representative to the United Nations and the ITFL. "Throughout the world, we are involved in a variety of educational activities, including literacy. Universal access to education is a basic principle of our Faith."

"Literacy campaigns that operate in isolation from full human development have proven not to be effective," Mr. Wegener said. "People simply have to have a reason to become and remain literate, a reason that springs from the realities of daily life.

"So our educational efforts address the total situation and the entire range of humanity's capacities," Mr. Wegener said. "They derive from a conviction that spiritual development is as essential in promoting social progress as is the training of the other aspects of mind."

Some of these literacy programs stress the use of indigenous language, for example.

"People learn better in their own language, especially when learning to read and write," Mr. Wegener said. "Those skills can then be transferred into another language. This connects with our belief in encouraging cultural diversity."

Perspective: Ending Religious Conflict

school in Chickhali, Maharashtra State, India, participated in a program of moral education, which included the study of sacred literature from various religions. Their own contribution to the program was a song that said:

"We are all children of God and we must mingle with one another as brothers of one family.

"Eat together and praise the name of God. Forget high and low.

"Love one another, Hindu, Muslim, Chinese, Russian, Americans and Jews.

"Don't have prejudice of country, religion, because your deeds will show the truth.

"One who hates another is not human. Forget hatred and have faith in God. This is the way the prophets showed us."

Left: Symbol of the United Nations International Literacy Year (ILY), to be observed in 1990, which will launch a decade-long effort to eliminate illiteracy around the world. [Page 4]Right: The concept of global citizenship and human unity are among the underlying principles taught in most Bahá’í schools and learning centers. Pictured are students of the Tadong Bahá’í School in Sikkim. More than 870 students, ranging from nursery to Class IX, attend this school, which is known locally for its high academic standards and harmonious integration of a multi-ethnic student population.

INDIA

More than 600 schools and learning centers worldwide focus on women and the underprivileged, but with the emphasis on moving beyond simple skills.

Education has long been a primary focus of Bahá’í activity. Because of priorities stressed in the writings of the Founder of the Faith, attention to those who have been bypassed by traditional school systems, such as women and people living in rural areas, has been a special concern.

Worldwide, Bahá’ís operate more than 600 schools and learning centers. The majority of these institutions are in the developing world, and a high percentage of the students are women.

Their commitment to education, however, goes beyond plugging a gap left by other institutions or promoting a specialized curriculum or ideology.

Bahá’ís view education as the key to unlocking human potential, on both an individual and a societal level. Convinced that the rapid unification of humanity opens the way to profound changes in human behavior, they advocate re-thinking educational theory and practice. The focus of education is on the whole person, on the individual's relation to the community and society, and on the necessity of moral, ethical and spiritual training in the creation of a peaceful and just society.

"Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value," wrote Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Faith. "Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and to enable mankind to benefit therefrom."

A Century of Effort

In the 1880s, Bahá’í communities in Iran established schooling programs and, over the next 50 years, built more than 40 schools for girls and boys, which were among the first modern educational institutions in that country. By the early 1950s, these communities had achieved nearly total literacy within its ranks through a campaign that emphasized educating women and populations in rural areas.

Attention to educating girls, and to those in rural or otherwise disadvantaged areas, continues to characterize educational efforts today. Equally important is an emphasis on community organization and grassroots participation in the construction and operation of educational institutions.

In the Kivu region of northeast Zaire, for [Page 5]example, a regional committee, working closely with local Bahá’í councils, assists in the operation of more than 100 learning centers, which serve about 2,500 people. Women and girls comprise 73 percent of the students.

Underlying these efforts is another distinctive feature of Bahá’í education: moral and spiritual training that engenders a sense of world citizenship and helps the individual to understand his or her role in building a global civilization.

Teaching Consultation

Consultation, a method of non-adversarial group problem-solving, is the preferred method of decision-making and administration in all activities. Many of the schools and learning centers train students in consultation, aiming to help prepare them for a world society in which change is rapid and often threatening.

"In general, we have attempted to go beyond the acquisition of functional skills in our education programs," said Dr. Falairiva Taafaki, who directed the social and economic development component of the New Era School in India during the mid-1980s. "We are concerned with the more intricate process of enabling people to understand who they are, to get to a greater sense of purpose, and to better integrate the individual into society."

Bahá’í schools aim to develop in students the capacity to analyze social conditions and discover the forces behind them; to take part in community planning and action; and to investigate the truth for themselves.

Such programs are often coupled with practical training in social needs, such as health and sanitation, agriculture and food production, and forestry and the environment, as local conditions require.

Asia (342) Pacific (10) Below: As this chart of the geographic distribution of Bahá’í schools and learning centers shows, educational efforts are focused mainly in the developing world. Africa (168) Americas (82)

Left: The New Era School, in Panchgani, Maharashtra, India, serves students from all over the world. Established in 1945, the school offers classes from pre-school through junior college to more than 400 students. It is closely associated with an extensive regional development program in literacy, women’s education, agriculture and health improvement. More than 190 adult literacy classes, for example, are offered through the school's outreach institute in nearby villages. This program is partially funded by the government and serves more than 6000 people. [Page 6]Below: Inspired by the lotus flower, the Bahá’í House of Worship in New Delhi has won numerous architectural awards-and the hearts of India's people.

The Newest of India's Temples Draws an Extraordinary Response

NEW DELHI-Architects have extolled its beauty. Engineers have marvelled at the mix of high and low technologies in its construction. Critics have granted it some of the architectural world's highest awards. Dedicated to public worship in December 1986, the Bahá’í House of Worship in India's capital city is an expression in concrete and marble of Bahá’í belief in the essential unity of all the world's great religions. Services include the reading of excerpts from the Bhagavad Gita, the Qur'an, Old and New Testaments, and the Bahá’í scriptures, among other sacred texts.

The concept has evoked an extraordinary response from India's people. They have embraced the newest of India's temples by visiting in numbers that must be compared to a sacred pilgrimage.

Last year, more than 2.2 million people visited this House of Worship, putting it on a par with other major visitation sites in the world. The Taj Mahal, for example received an estimated 1.9 million visitors in 1988.

"It is easy to build a beautiful building," said architect Fariburz Sahba, who designed the white marble and concrete building. "But the challenge is to build something that people accept as holy, something that makes them want to come and pray. And" [Page 7]now we do see them come to pray."

Completed after 10 years of work and an expenditure of US$10 million, the lotus flower-shaped House of Worship has received steady acceptance as both an architectural—and a spiritual—triumph.

• In 1987, it won a top international award for religious buildings, granted under the auspices of the American Institute of Architects. That same year, the Society of Structural Engineers of the United Kingdom granted it a special award for structural design and execution. And in 1988, the Indian House of Worship won a special citation from the Illuminating Engineering Society for excellence in outdoor illumination design.
• More than 300 architectural and engineering journals around the world have featured articles on the building, including Architecture, Progressive Architecture and Builder. Many reviewers compared the House of Worship to the Taj Mahal or the Sydney Opera House.
• In addition to the general public, the steady stream of visitors has included dignitaries from around the world. In recent months, for example, the site has been visited by the Dalai Lama; Mr. Vsevolod V. Sitnin, the Deputy Minister of Finance for the USSR; and Mr. John K. Galbraith, the American economist and author.

"When we plan for dignitary visits, I do recommend to them to go and see this place, a place of humanity and peace," said Mr. R.K. Sachdeva, the protocol officer for the Indian Ministry of Defense. "So we generally include it on their itinerary. Because whenever they come back, they have

4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Annual visits in millions: Bahá’í House of Worship (1988) Eiffel Tower (1988) Grand Canyon (1987) Taj Mahal (1986) United Nations (1988) US White House (1988)

Above: Last year more than 2.2 million people visited the Bahá’í House of Worship in New Delhi, opened to the public in 1986. The above chart of estimated numbers of visitors compares the building with other major tourist and visitation sites in the world. The scale is in millions of people. The data has been compiled from a variety of sources, using the most recent year available.

Right: Interior photo of the New Delhi Bahá’í House of Worship shows how the entrance is from all directions, a symbol of the Bahá’í conviction that all faiths lead to one God. During worship services, chairs are brought in and arranged to suit the size of the group. [Page 8]Below: As this architectural sketch shows, the Indian Bahá’í Temple is composed of 27 poured-in-place concrete petals, arranged in groups of three to form nine sides a design inspired by the lotus flower. The design and construction process involved a mix of high and low technologies. Computers were used to calculate the stresses on the concrete petals, which are extremely thin for a self-supporting structure. The process of pouring the concrete required that concrete be carried in baskets balanced on people's heads. The exterior was then clad with white marble.

A Symbol of Hope

Funded with contributions from Bahá’í communities around the world, the House of Worship stands as a symbol of hope for peace. Its distinctive design is patterned after the lotus flower, revered as a symbol of life, beauty and rebirth in all of India's major religions. The lotus flower theme is executed through 27 billowing concrete and marble "petals," raised around a central point. The concrete petals are arranged in groups of three to give the building nine distinct sides.

Each side has a door, and this is symbolic, too - the nine doors facing in every direction stand open to the followers of all faiths, proclaiming that all religions are paths to one God.

"We have visitors, who are not themselves Bahá’ís, who nevertheless feel that this is their own holy place," said Mrs. Zena Sorabjee, director of the House of Worship. "People call it 'Mandir.' That is the Hindi word for temple. The moment people enter, they know this is something that has a sanctified atmosphere. It is peaceful, it is serene. They come with respect."

Each day, crowds line up to tour, pray in, or admire the building. The average is more than 6000 visitors per day. On some holidays, the number swells to more than 50,000.

"We are now getting people who come every day, regularly," Mrs. Sorabjee said. "Some come before they go to work in the morning. And many women come during the day, to meditate quietly and pray."

Added Mr. Sachdeva, who is not a Bahá’í: "a good feeling." [Page 9]"People like it because India is becoming a secular state and people feel that this is a temple where we can learn that we should all believe in humanity, and that we should renounce violence and all other things which are against humanity."

For India's 1.3 million Bahá’ís, this widespread acceptance has become a special source of pride.

Said Architect Sahba: "In India, everyone respects the lotus flower. All religions accept it as a symbol of beauty, purity and the manifestation of God. So this temple really crystallized the concept of the Bahá’í Faith—that there is a great universality to all religions."

CONSTRUCTIONAL REVIEW

• "The Bahá’í Temple now nearing completion in New Delhi will probably be recognised in years to come as one of the building masterpieces of the 20th century.... Not without justification the eminent German engineer Dr. Fritz Leonhardt has described the New Delhi Temple as the Taj Mahal of the 20th century." — Construction News, April 10, 1986, p. 16.

• "[The] high quality exemplifies care beyond the normal standards in completeness of context, site design, form and materials expression, circulation and design furnishings. This place of worship is an extraordinary feat of design, construction and appropriateness of expression, both for the Bahá’í Faith and in the context of India." — Statement of the judges who granted the House of Worship the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA) honor award for religious architecture in 1987. IFRAA is an affiliate of the American Institute of Architects.

• "The Bahá’í temple in New Delhi is probably one of the most special and most distinctive buildings to be built in today's world.... When the work was completed, not only could a very important place for meetings and religious meditation go into operation, but an example of excellence of design and construction was concretely realized." — L'Industria Italiana Cemento, January 1988, p. 23.

• "One of the most remarkable achievements of our time proving that the drive and vision of spirit can achieve miracles." — Arthur Erickson, architect, March 1987.

• "Beautiful concrete structures have always been built, as is amply demonstrated by two examples, the Pantheon in Rome and the Lotus Temple in New Delhi, between which constructions there is a whole 2000 year gap; it is indeed astonishing how the ancient Romans could build such a superb concrete structure as is undoubtedly the case with the Pantheon in 27 B.C. long before any theoretical tools for its design were available... It is hoped that future generations will contemplate the recently completed beautiful Lotus Temple in New Delhi with the same admiration and respect, appreciating that in our technological era the sense for beauty and harmony has not been totally lost." — Dr. Rene Walter, Professor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, September 1987.

[Page 10]

U.N. Commission on Human Rights continues Iran investigation

GENEVA For the eighth year in a row, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has expressed deep concern over reports of human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including allegations of continued persecution and religious intolerance against members of the Bahá’í Faith there.

In a resolution passed on 8 March 1989, the Commission called on the Government of Iran to respect the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to ensure all its citizens the rights guaranteed by that Covenant. The Commission also extended for another year its ongoing investigation into Iran's alleged human rights violations "as a matter of priority" and specifically directed its representative to report on the situation of minority groups, including the Bahá’ís of that country.

"The continuing international concern expressed in this resolution remains a primary source of protection and support for Iran's Bahá’ís," said Wytze Bos, a Bahá’í International Community representative to the United Nations.

"While the degree of persecution against the Bahá’ís has lessened somewhat over the past year, the situation of the 300,000-member community of Bahá’ís in Iran remains uncertain," Mr. Bos continued. "Although the state-sponsored execution of Bahá’ís has waned and many Bahá’ís have been released from prison, the Bahá’í community as a whole remains deprived of jobs, property and—perhaps most important—of the fundamental right to religious freedom.

"Bahá’ís are not allowed to meet as a community, to have places of worship, or to maintain the administrative institutions of the Bahá’í Faith. Bahá’ís remain effectively as 'non-persons' and 'unprotected infidels' under Iran's constitution, a situation that implies that anyone in Iran can quite freely rob, assault, or even kill a Bahá’í without fear of punishment.

"The Commission's deliberations highlighted the issues of religious intolerance and respect for religious thought. Bahá’ís have experienced this type of intolerance firsthand. The Iranian Government continues in its refusal to recognize and emancipate the Bahá’í Faith in Iran," Mr. Bos said.

The vote of the CHR went 20 in favor of the resolution, with 6 against. For the first time, the Commission's resolution on Iran was jointly co-sponsored by the twelve member countries of the European Community, reflecting their support for religious tolerance and human rights.

The Commission is composed of 43 member states of the United Nations, which gather each year from January to March to oversee the promotion of human rights and the implementation of international human rights covenants.

Since 1982, the Commission has closely monitored allegations of human rights violations in Iran, paying special attention to the case of the Bahá’ís. Since 1979, more than 200 Iranian Bahá’ís have been killed in a campaign of systematic persecution. Hundreds more have been jailed and thousands have lost jobs, property and/or access to education.

"The Bahá’ís have no recent victims of torture to present to the special representative," Mr. Bos explained, "because Bahá’ís at the present time are not experiencing torture. However, serious problems remain for the Bahá’ís of Iran." The Bahá’í office in Geneva will present people who have been denied business licenses, deprived of education, or denied permission to travel.

"Although people are being released from prison one by one," Mr. Bos said, "we are not yet free in Iran. Our goal is the emancipation of the Bahá’í Faith in Iran, which is to say that we simply want to be treated like the followers of other religions in that country. This is the only status that can protect Iran's 300,000 Bahá’ís against further outbreaks of the abuse they have repeatedly suffered." [Page 11]Left: South Africa's widely acclaimed popular singer, Blondie Makhene, (left), contributed to the success of this year's World Religion Day celebration in Johannesburg. A highlight of the celebration was a song written by Mr. Makhene, quoting from Bahá’í scriptures on the harmony of the world's religions. Shown with him are senior officers of the Bahá’í Faith's Board of Counsellors for the African continent, Mrs. Lucretia Warren, (center), and Mr. Daniel Ramoroesi, (right). World Religion Day, originally an initiative of Bahá’í communities, now enjoys wide support around the world.

Review: "To Be One"

(Continued from back page)

tactics are essential in the battle to end racism, only self-reflection can change the attitudes that promote racial discrimination. For Mr. Rutstein, the most powerful tool in his own transformation was his practice of the Bahá’í Faith. He pulls no punches in saying that prayer and meditation played a key role in helping him to recognize his own racist tendencies, and in effecting a change.

"...overcoming racism is like overcoming alcoholism! What's most important is acknowledging your disease. Seeking and getting the right help is essential, and following the prescription is necessary.... I found the teachings of my Faith essential to solving my problem."

Bahá’ís in America had been challenged to address the racial problem even before World War I, some forty years before the civil rights movement drew national attention in the 1950s. Mr. Rutstein drew inspiration from the life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, who, during a visit to America in 1912, identified racial division as a key problem, warning that it would lead to bloodshed if not quickly overcome. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá also encouraged an interracial marriage between two Bahá’ís, who were particularly close to him, expressing unequivocally the intent of the Bahá’í teaching on racial oneness.

The book ends with the story of how Mr. Rutstein and a group of concerned neighbors organized to challenge the racism within their own community, focusing on the local school system in the central Massachusetts valley where Mr. Rutstein now lives.

Upon hearing of racial attacks on a Black high school student, Mr. Rutstein helped to organize a local citizen's group, The Pioneer Valley Force for Racial Unity. That group succeeded, through a series of meetings with school administrators, fellow townspeople, and the local media, to institute significant changes in the school system's administration and curriculum.

The ending is upbeat, and, like the entire book, offers evidence of what can be done when one person resolves to change, and then makes efforts in good faith to promote change in his community. [Page 12]

True Confessions: One Man’s Journey through Prejudice

In the summer of 1953, journalist Nathan Rutstein shared an apartment with a young Black man in Chicago. He accepted the roommate sight unseen, on the recommendation of a mutual friend. And so begins the opening anecdote in this intensely personal account of one man’s struggle against racism.

Just out of college at the time, Mr. Rutstein relates how until that moment he believed himself to be extremely liberal-minded about race. While in school, he had cheered the advancement of civil rights and refused to join a fraternity that discriminated against non-whites.

Yet living with a Black man generated in Mr. Rutstein previously unknown feelings of both superiority and fear. His roommate worked the evening shift as a bus driver, and Mr. Rutstein stayed up late waiting for him, unable to sleep.

“I couldn’t sleep because I was scared, afraid that Pete might come home drunk or bring home a bunch of drug addicts from the Black ghetto where he grew up. When these thoughts seized me, a sense of shame gripped me as well. How could I think such terrible thoughts? I wondered. Yet I did. They sprang from the core of my being...”

It is in such candor that the power of this book lies. Mr. Rutstein, a white American of Jewish descent, describes with painful honesty how he has come to recognize the deep roots of racism within his own consciousness, and his subsequent struggle to overcome those prejudices.

Despite its setting against the struggle for civil rights in the United States, the book has a universal relevance to the worldwide problem of racial and ethnic strife. This universality comes because of the honesty with which Mr. Rutstein recounts his own struggle to overcome racist feelings — and his ultimate success in doing so. Although he uses few statistics and avoids rhetoric, Mr. Rutstein’s story can be seen as an archetype for the kind of soul-searching that must take place if men and women everywhere are to free themselves of every vestige of racism.

Review of "To Be One: A Battle Against Racism" by Nathan Rutstein. George Ronald, Oxford.

Lying in the darkness, waiting for his roommate to come home, Mr. Rutstein reflected on how childhood experiences had shaped his attitudes towards Blacks. His father once proposed opening a liquor store in the Black section of town, because “the coloreds love to drink.” When a well-dressed African-American couple expressed interest in buying a house across from his boyhood home, his father openly expressed his fears that the neighborhood would become a “slum.”

“After a while it became clear how [these incidents] could have reinforced whatever impression I already had of Blacks at the time. What amazed me was how seemingly innocent those incidents were; and then I thought of the countless other men and women who had had similar experiences.”

As a journalist, Mr. Rutstein covered the civil rights movement of the 1960s and then later, as an educator, confronted it again in the 1970s. He gradually concludes that racism, more than anything else, is a social disease. Only when individuals confront their sickness and stop denying it is a true cure possible.

He further concludes that although social movements, laws and other broad-based...