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Perhaps the key reality of the 2007 election was that it was the first time, since 1998, that the 'race ball' had been thrown onto the political field. In 1998, the UBP threw the ball and the ball's bounce helped the UBP lose that election.

This time, by achieving greater PLP turnout, the ball bounce helped the PLP to win. But the ball also bounced against the PLP in that Bermuda's white voters seemed to have been driven into deep and deeper protective mode. So 2008 and the next decade kicks off with increased racial polarization accompanied by a subtle raising of expectations amongst those blacks who may have been swayed by the racial rhetoric of the six week election. All of this took place on a coral atoll in which the Premier acknowledged to a BBC interviewer, and thus to the whole world, that: "The economy of Bermuda...is probably ninety percent controlled by white Bermudians."

The recent outpouring of 'racial rhetoric' has achieved one sure success. It has allowed and enabled the almost complete obscuration of some realities. This happened primarily because of our national Bermudian tendency to compromise. In this case, as has happened so often in our past, our compromising has been with reality. It seems that many Bermudians have been more willing to accept rhetoric and bluster than the reality that falls out of absolute numbers and obviously visible physical fact. Going forward, someone has to deliver something against raised racial expectations.

Global job market

Rhetoric - Black Bermudians are disadvantaged in the International Business corporate pay stakes. Reality? Black Bermudians are generally less well-prepared and less experienced than are the mainly non-Bermudians who are hired as a result of a global job competition. This is the legacy of Bermuda's public education system; a system that has been underperforming for more than twenty-five years.     Rhetoric - All white Bermudians receive a direct and quantifiable economic advantage because they are white. Reality?  The number of struggling white Bermudians may now be growing disproportionately - but invisibly -to their place in Bermuda's population.

Rhetoric - Black Bermudians should get an economic hand-up to compensate for their period spent as slaves. Reality? By getting rid of a higher standard of educational output, the black Bermudians who were - and who still are - running Bermuda's black-led, black-administered, black-managed national education system actually allowed and enabled the removal of two of the first starting rungs on the average black Bermudian's ladder-to-success. These are rungs that Bermuda's private education system never tampered with. Ultimately, better education and sound training combined with disciplined effort provides the only way out and up for any people anywhere in the world!

Rhetoric - Legislation can cure social problems. Reality? In some instances, legislation that is well thought out and fairly applied, is the only way to fix a social problem. Legislation has proven to work best where primarily human factors are at play as in the creation or extension of basic human rights.   Legislation is much less successful - in fact it usually fails - when it attempts to correct structural imbalances created by the combination and creation of socio-economic forces within any human society anywhere on this globe.

Changing economy

Rhetoric - Bermuda's government manages Bermuda's economy. Reality? As with any western government, Bermuda's government responds and reacts to the community pressures created by the new details created, and new differences, caused by the changing economy that underpins and shapes the social community that votes and elects the government.

Rhetoric - Tensions between black and white Bermudians have risen. Reality? Mixed. Certainly the rhetoric of the just passed election caused increased concern amongst some blacks and many whites about the true state of race relations in Bermuda. On the other hand, many younger black and white Bermudians blend and mix and match in a way that older 'stuck in the past' black and white Bermudians are now just learning to recognize and accept.   There are many - but mostly young and younger - black and white Bermudians who have already moved well into the racial future.

All of this leads to an ultimate and current racial reality. A reality that - even in January 2008 - is still a largely unspoken fact. That reality? Those younger black and white Bermudians who have benefited from good educations, do generally get along far better than older black and white Bermudians.

Fact. As a black run, black majority country, Bermuda is the world's richest and most stable country of this kind. That means that Bermuda is at the top. As with General Motors Corporation, we either stay on top or we go down. Going down is easy and natural. Staying on top, though, requires special skills. Staying on top requires excellent analyses of realities, recognition of rhetoric as rhetoric, and the development of actions to deal with the pleasant and unpleasant facts that fall out of honest and rigourous analyses.

And that's what bothers me.[[In-content Ad]]

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