The Collective Need for Unity Within a Multicultural Country

     ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, a proponent of the Baháʼí Faith, once said that single drops, when collected in one place, will form a mighty sea. That mighty sea is the result of a united society, and we, the individuals, are the single drops of water. Bahal seems to suggest that harmony in the face of both intellectual and cultural diversity is crucial to the growth of a society.

 

     In the 21st century, there have been many tales of political strife, racism, and division among the citizens of Canada. Some may find it absurd to think that there are still many people who disagree with "unity in diversity" in Canada - a nation that takes pride in its multiculturalism. An example that hits close to home is when the COVID-19 pandemic started. Many members of the Asian community became the scapegoat for people to blame the virus on, and the amount of race-motivated hate crimes surged by 300% in 2020. I distinctly remember turning on the TV to shocking stories of violence, resentment, and anger. One day the headline was: One 92-year-old was hurled out of a convenience store to the sidewalk in Vancouver. Another was: An Asian American woman in New York City was struck in the head with a hammer by an assailant who demanded that she remove her mask. More scenes of hatred followed: Two Asian American women were stabbed at a bus stop; eyewitness reports say the assailant "casually walked away in broad daylight.” The stories didn’t stop there. It would get longer and longer, and each day it would be harder for my family to pick up the remote and witness the barbaric butchering of our community. There was not a day that I went without wondering if wearing a mask and looking Asian was all it took for vicious verbal insults to be thrown at me.

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     That’s why in our era of global interconnectedness, the manifestations of different cultural identities can only occur based on mutual respect and acceptance. Then these individual cultures must relate to one another in an open-minded and interactive way without denying their own individual identities. It is only then that we can maintain peaceful coexistence with the many diverse cultures and backgrounds within a society. What does this mean? Simple. There’s only one race—the human race—and we, now more than ever, must unite under the same fundamental values so that our society can become more powerful than ever.