“Our National Spiritual Assembly sent a letter to the American public, not just the Baha’i community, called ‘Forging a Path to Racial Justice,’” Stevens said. “It’s a very powerful letter. It spoke directly and emphatically about racism and calling it out and reminding the Baha’i community that we needed to take it to the next level. It was very galvanizing.”

Stevens was basically sheltering in place in Maryland. She was part of a 5-6 member Baha’i community — the Baha’i is a very decentralized, non-hierarchical faith. And they decided to do something in response to the challenge that the letter presented.

“I wasn’t able to get out into the community,” Stevens said. “Zoom had just come out. I was part of a 5-6 member community. We said, ‘Let’s do this.’ I had public speaking experience and no one else in the community really had that experience. And I was the most adept with the technology. I said that we needed a theme. I knew what I wanted it to be about. The other Baha’is were all White, but they have always brought up race. I never had to bring it up. And they said, ‘This has to be about racial justice.’ I was like, ‘Great, as the Black person in the room, I don’t have to bring it up.’ I was delighted and I pay homage to them every time I tell this story because that’s how it should be.” What resulted was a Zoom show called ‘The Racial Healing, Justice, and Unity Baha’i Inspired Series.’

“I said, ‘Doing this once per month isn’t going to be enough,’” Stevens said. “We need to do this at least twice a month so that it becomes a pattern, a change-making pattern of behavior. Once per month is too easy to forget. That’s how the series was born. I did the very first presentation, which was called, ‘How White Got Made’ because a lot of White people don’t know how White got made. I had about 20 people in attendance. I used to live in California, so people came from all over the country. We’ve had people from Chili, Hawaii and Europe over the course of the series. I had a good turnout and I said, ‘I can’t do this every two weeks. This is too much work.’ And so I began casting about looking for presenters and I ran across this fellow called Masud Olufani. He’s phenomenal. He’s a multi-dimensional artist and activist from Atlanta. I saw him do a presentation on another Zoom thing I was on. I emailed the host of the show to find out how I could get ahold of him. He pointed me to Masud’s site. I emailed him and he said he was giving a presentation and he emailed me back right afterwards. He said that he would love to. And ever since then, we’ve been going strong. That’s been since 2020.”

The show begins with a presentation and then a discussion occurs afterwards.

“I’m the moderator and you could say the producer too,” Stevens said. “I look for ‘presenters’ and invite them to come to present on things that I think address racism or highlight the significance of Black culture, Black people and Black history. Again, this is a learning space. Everyone who comes is there because they want to learn more. They want to understand more, whether it is how to change the personal understanding of what racism is and how to start seeing things personally, socially and institutionally through the lens of justice. What kind of personal skill sets do I need to start adopting so that I can upend my racist thoughts and behaviors? How do I understand systemic racism and what is bolstering it?”

“It's purpose is to provide a space for all people to one embrace Black culture, Black history and Black people, two increase their understanding of systemic racism in its many forms, three examine why anti-Black racism is such a vital issue to all of us, four explore ways to identify and address the insidious prejudices that permeate our individual lives, and five promoting ways in which to see all aspects of our lives through the lens of justice,” Stevens further said. “We strive for ‘honest and truthful discourse about current causes and conditions, understanding, in particular, the deeply entrenched notions of anti-Blackness that pervade our society, what’s being done, what truly makes a difference and why, and building cooperative and collaborative relations with each other focused on the shared belief that racism must ‘be supplanted by the establishment of just relationships among individuals, communities, and the institutions of society’”.

As the Baha’i believe in volunteerism in work inspired by their faith, Stevens does the show for free and unlike most shows on the Internet, they do not look for financial sponsors. It is a work of the heart and of faith.

“It’s on 6:30 central time, the second and fourth Saturday,” Stevens said. “We usually have 100 people from across the country. I’m hoping that more people will join us for these presentations and discussions that follow as we’re all on this journey together and we have to do it collaboratively and collectively. We really have to change. We have no choice. If you are on our subscriber list, we email you and let you know what is coming next week or recording is now available on YouTube. That has over 600 people, Baha’is and friends from the wider community who come.”

Stevens and the others mildly market the series without deluging people with postings and emails.

“If people want to get the email, they can send an email with their name, city and state to rhrj19@gmail.com. Just give me your name — just first name is fine — and say that you would like to subscribe,” Stevens said. “And then I will send you a welcome letter and say a statement about the series and here’s what is coming up. We only send out 4-5 emails a month. Or if there is something else that someone is doing in the Zoom space that I hear about, I will forward that to folks because I know the topic is interesting and it will be professionally done. But mainly, it is just to let people know what is coming up. They can also go to our Facebook page, which is @RHJUBaha’i. We post each event that is coming up and they can get the link to the series there.”