Are we victims or victors?

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9: In the 21st Century, why do 21st Century black Bermudians still place themselves as inveterate black victims of white oppression or suppression? Why?

In 1974, Bermuda’s ruling oligarchy, made up of a white demographic minority, brought in the black American ‘expert’ Dr Kenneth Clark.

Dr Clark’s task — for which he was paid well — was to tell the ruling white minority how to handle Bermuda’s demographic black majority.

Dr Clark delivered. In 1974, he told the ruling white minority that they should “increase the number of blacks in policy making positions.”

That has happened far beyond anything that Dr Clark could have imagined. In 1974, black Bermudians thought of themselves as a ‘minority’.

In thinking of themselves as a minority, black Bermudians fell completely in line with the white oligarchy’s perspective and valuation. Black Bermudians also placed themselves in exactly the same position as Dr Clark and all other black Americans.

In 1974, black Americans were a suppressed and watchful minority. A whole generation later, despite having elected a black American as President, black Americans remain a suppressed and watchful minority.

Obama

The recent shooting of Trayvon Martin and President Obama’s comment that if he had a son he would have looked like Trayvon, reminds us of how much has not changed and did not change in greater America.

Since 1974, has anything changed in Bermuda?

Inveterate victims will shout ‘no’. Others will say that there has been massive change. However, the shouts and cries of the fiercely vocal band of eternal victims tend to drown out the quieter answer.

Look at Dr Clark’s 1974 recommendation. Look at Bermuda today. Look at who occupies the “policy making positions”. Look at this:

• Four of the 36 members of the House of Assembly are white. The House is 89 per cent black.

• Four of the appointed Senators are white. Senate is 64 per cent black.

• 12 members of Cabinet. One is white. Cabinet is 92 per cent black.

• There is only one white Permanent Secretary.

• Government admits that over 79 per cent of its employees are black.

• From Chief Justice down, Bermuda’s Judiciary is 90 per cent black.

• The leaders of all three political parties are black.

• The political party currently providing the Governing group is thought to be over 85 per cent black.

Wherever public policy is made, blacks are overwhelmingly dominant.

In the private sector where commercial and private policy is made, blacks are present and many are positioned to heavily influence or even make that policy. Up to March 31, 2012, the head of Bermuda’s largest bank was a black man.

On top of all that, black Bermudians are the demographic and voting majority forming about 70 per cent of the population of 50,565 Bermudians.

Under-dog

In 2012, despite what I’ve just shown, some black Bermudians, aided and abetted by a small clique of white Bermudians, more frequently by commercially interested white and black Americans; place themselves in the perpetual and eternal under-dog situation of black Americans.

Why do black Bermudians do that? Why do they go out of their way to ignore the reality of their own political power, the reality of their own ability to unilaterally make their own policies, and the reality that they can almost ignore the feelings of Bermuda’s white minority?

It seems to me that there is some quirky masochistic streak that sends some black Bermudians racing for the victims hole as soon as they have any freedom of physical or intellectual movement.

There’s 50,565 of us Bermudians living on this 13,000 acre North Atlantic atoll. About 33,000 of us are black.  Black faces appear in every hall and corridor of power. There may still be tiny enclaves of all-white power; but these will be out-numbered by the many majority black or all-black power enclaves which start out at the top — the very top — of all Government policy-making.

I’m puzzled.

Why do 21st Century Bermudians dash to the victim’s corner and then cry that they are powerless and are being suppressed and oppressed by some kind of ‘white superiority’.

Is a self-declared victim really a victim, or is he or she just a self-deluded nutcase?

If I had a victim’s mind-set, I’d be looking for and crying about the ‘white people’ who created Bermuda’s $1.4bn National Debt.