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I think people should be a little more sympathetic towards Government's proposed "Workplace Equity Act".

It can't create a pool of qualified employees in country where there is already a shortage of workers of all kinds and colours.

It can't work miracles - it can't turn a hopelessly ill-educated high school loser into the senior vice-president for underwriting.

But it can force more businesses to confront the issue - to do what they can to correct an intolerable racial imbalance in the workplace.

And it can force the Bermudian community to confront its own shortcomings in education and other areas that affect our ability to the best workforce we can.

The fact is that we have a mess on our hands - a society in which whites have disproportionate wealth, and because of their disproportionate positions in the higher-paying jobs, a disproportionate opportunity to keep and increase their disproportionate wealth.

Employers argue that it's not their fault. They say they are keen to hire black Bermudians if only there were qualified black Bermudians to hire.

This is met with scepticism by many, especially black college graduates who complain they return to Bermuda to find doors closed in their faces.

In a sense, the Workplace Equity Act is a way of tackling this opposing perception head-on.

It doesn't appear particularly onerous. It doesn't impose a strict quota system. It doesn't require any business to hire any particular number of blacks.

It simply requires a very limited range of businesses (those with over 40 employees) to make a serious attempt at correcting racial imbalances.

They will be required to set up policies to ensure black Bermudians achieve "a degree of representation in each occupational group in the employers' workforce that reflects their representation in the Bermuda labour force".

The only penalties mentioned are for refusing to cooperate: not for having a racially imbalanced workforce, or for failing to fix it, but for not trying to do something about it.

Isn't this what we're supposed to be doing anyway?

I'm confident that many businesses will work through the process and find they can do more to attract, keep and promote black Bermudians.

Social circles

It's not easy, and even the most sincere business will struggle for success.

It certainly stretches way beyond issues of qualification.

Generations of separation and distrust affect almost every aspect of our lives.

Blacks and whites in Bermuda often don't share the same social circles, for example, participate in the same sports, eat in the same restaurants, go to the same parties, attend the same schools and colleges or live in the same neighbourhoods or belong to the same clubs, or support the same charities.

They almost never have the same family connections.

This makes a profound difference in our ability to learn about jobs, successfully apply for them, and then work our way up the ladder of success.

Smaller businesses are likely to have greater difficulty in overcoming these challenges. Without trained human resource managers, they often rely on family, friendships, and social networks to recruit - and end up with staff that reflect the person who does the hiring.

Despite the improvements that businesses can make, though, there will be many times when the best efforts will produce little or no results: Qualified black Bermudians simply won't be found for the jobs.

When this happens, that shifts the burden back to the Government - and the people of Bermuda - to do a better job preparing Bermudians for working life.

Correcting racial imbalance is hard enough. Inadequate education that hurts black children most of all, and the assortment of other community and social dysfunctions, compound the problem countless times over.

We cannot afford school leavers who are unskilled and unmotivated.

If it is properly managed, the Workplace Equity Act should increase the confidence of Bermudians that Bermuda's economic system will treat them fairly.

The proposed act will not bring about any magical solutions. There are, sadly, no magical solutions available.

The proposed act is far from perfect.

Most notably, the proposal to give CURE (the Commission for Unity & Racial Equality) the power to go anywhere except private homes to search and copy business records is ridiculous and unnecessary. These kinds of intrusions should only be done by warrant, under court order, after all other efforts have failed.

But if the Government can assure Bermudians, and the business community, that it will not be heavy-handed or bullying, that it will manage the act with trained staff who are more keen to teach than to punish, it could be a useful step forward.

It will not change the world.

But if handled correctly, it could help persuade business to do better at hiring and promoting blacks... and help persuade Government to do a better job of ensuring we have the best-qualified Bermudians stepping forward to seize the opportunities.

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