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Why is it on an island of 21 square miles there are such huge perception disparities in our dialogues around race? What is it about our perceptions that make us all get hot under the collar when we start discussing race? What legacies have we inherited that make us view our miniscule and beautiful piece of the universe in such widely disparate ways? What is it about our beliefs, history, values and attitudes that allow us to each view a singular event from a multitude of interpretations and perceptions?

In order to better understand our difficulties in discussing our perception disparities we have to understand the history of where they came from. The economic disparities that exist in Bermuda between people of colour and white people have deep historical roots that are frequently ignored. These disparities are a product of what was done in the past to the people of colour in our community. As a people we need to examine and study the reasons why these gaps exist, and move to address the racial inequities that continue to affect our society.

The above seems very rational and academic, but how does it translate in our society? For example, how can a white person from a working/middle class background, with no known history of slave ownership in their family, be responsible for and a part of the economic disparity that continues to affect black Bermudians to this day? So perhaps a generic example is in order.

The white experience

You are a first generation Bermudian male, your father/mother having arrived in the late 1960s or 1970s as part of a large influx of whites from the U.K. responding to increasing opportunities in international business and the ongoing general Government policy of encouraging whites to settle in Bermuda. Your parents were working/middle class and they arrived with barely a penny in their pockets and a high school education. Unknowingly your parents jump to the top of the hiring pool, not understanding that at the time of their arrival segregation had only just ceased to exist, and that negative white attitudes/perceptions towards black Bermudians were still firmly entrenched.

Within seven years your parents achieve Bermudian status which opened doors and provided more advantages. They moved up in their organizations, perhaps achieving positions of power and influence. They worked hard, bought a home and sacrificed and saved to send you to private school and then you were the first one in your family to go to university. This was possible because your parents were able to get a loan against the equity in their house. With solid pensions built up over the years and their home fully paid for your parents are now retired. Their major medical is still covered due to an arrangement with their ex-employers to continue to keep them on the company's medical plan at the lower rate.

At 21 you have graduated and are now living in an apartment under your parent's house paying a low rent, while you save towards the down payment on your first house and the knowledge that your parents will more than likely help you secure your first mortgage in a couple of years. You have a terrific job in the international business sector. The sky's the limit.

The black experience

Compare this to the black Bermudian experience in the 1960s and 1970s with a similar high school education. By and large jobs in the service industry were open to them with the concomitant low pay. Due to continued racist attitudes and stereotypes, there were minimum opportunities to move into higher paying jobs with a future or management training progammes.

Mortgages were virtually unavailable due to continued racism, low incomes, and the stereotypes about blacks being high credit risks. Your father had excelled at high school but because of the times could only obtain work in the construction industry and your mother was a domestic. Both industries provided inadequate to non-existent pensions. However, your parents worked hard, saved hard and held down two jobs. Through sheer effort and sacrifice they saved enough to buy a small piece of land in Pembroke, and through the help of friends and neighbours bit by bit built a home, but money was scarce and despite your graduating near the top of your class at high school, there was nothing to spare for further education.

Your parents would like to retire but cannot afford to do so. The government pension combined with the little private pension they have accumulated since 2000 is just insufficient to meet their needs. They only have HIP insurance because they cannot afford Major Medical insurance. A long term illness would be catastrophic for the whole family, financially. You live at home; you've been working full-time since you were 16 and now at 21 realize that you need to take evening classes at the Bermuda College if you want to move up into management.

You hope to be able to eventually save enough to complete your degree overseas or at the very least get a business degree by correspondence courses. This all depends on your parents' ability to keep working and maintain their health, as otherwise you would need to continue to work full time in order to help support them. With luck it will be five years before you graduate and you'll be 26, but then you still have to find a job and get experience in the field before you can start making some 'real' money.

Two life experiences just a few miles apart. Both families with similar values, beliefs and attitudes towards hard work, family and trying to get ahead, but with widely disparate outcomes with regard to education, employment, housing and health!

So how can we explain the outcome? It is here that we must look to our history to explain the legacy we have ALL inherited. The white family gaining advantages simply because of the colour of their skin; and the black family constantly being confronted by obstacles, stressors and stereotypes simply because of the colour of their skin. Both families were living in a post-apartheid society during the late 1960s and 1970s which dictated the opportunities and economic disparity they experienced. But what so many of us fail to understand is that this historic legacy of slavery and segregation continues to dictate outcomes and choices 40 years later as described in the two examples above.

In part two: working toward solutions - see next Wednesday's Bermuda Sun.[[In-content Ad]]

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