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Despite the progress that has been made since Bermuda desegregated in 1959, here we are 50 years later and there is still equity disparity based on race. Why is it that black Bermudians who hold far more BA degrees, MA degrees and PhDs than white Bermudians still do not hold as many executive and senior management positions as white Bermudians? And why do they not earn as much as their white Bermudian counterparts? (statistics verifying this will be provided at the foot of part III of this series of articles).

It must be understood that through cross generational effects, it is evident that the cumulative effects of discrimination still resonate in our society.

Racism is a dynamic and systemic process which has led it to morph and adapt to contemporary society. If we want to understand our societal problems today, we must look to the legacy of our past. Race equity is a matter of understanding the way power was and continues to be structured in our society.

But knowledge about disparities is not the only reason whites and blacks have different perceptions about racial equality. Social psychologist Richard Eibach at Yale University has shown that whites and blacks often employ different yardsticks to measure racial equality. Whites tend to measure progress by comparing the present and the past. Nonwhites are likely to evaluate racial equality in comparison with an idealized future. These yardsticks create entirely different perceptions.

When Eibach asked each group to use the other's yardstick - that is, whites to focus on the future, and nonwhites to think about the past - the differences disappeared. Now, everyone agreed the country had come a long way - and had a long way to go...

Uncomfortable

The word "racism" has harsh connotations and is one that makes people very uncomfortable. It conjures for many, images from the Civil Rights era of individual and overt acts of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice - something that many cannot associate with the Bermuda we know today. This series of articles focuses on structural racism, which refers to a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations and other norms, much of which we just accept and take for granted, work in various often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity.

Leonard Steinhorn, in an article entitled 'The Color Line: Why Whites and Blacks Measure Black Progress Differently,' commented that "...the only thing certain about race relations... is that whites and blacks sharply disagree about how far we've come and how far we have to go..."

He goes on to say, "the sources for this disagreement are many, but among the most important may be the most unlikely: the great colour-blind dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, articulated nearly (five) decades ago. Whites see the dream one way, and blacks another." That is, "Dr. King's dream... was made of two interwoven strands: desegregation and integration. To [Dr.] King desegregation would tackle our laws, norms, and public behaviours, while integration would wrestle with our very personal and private choices - the matters of heart, home, neighbourhood, and community."

Thus desegregation "would eliminate all discriminatory laws and official barriers..." Whereas integration "would lead to what (Dr.) King called the "beloved community" in which skin colour would become incidental rather than influential, descriptive rather than defining.

"The problem today is that... (we) tend to confuse the two parts of the dream. So whites see... (a) steady though uneven progress toward desegregation as proof we are integrating; while blacks see our failure to achieve anything close to integration as evidence that the rest of our racial progress is built on hype if not illusion."

Other perspectives

There is no right or wrong in either perspective, each person can only stand in their own truth and view the reality from their own experience; therefore to affect social change we must try to see each other's perspective, and understand why it's so very different.

Many companies have been involved in workforce diversity training. Organizations understand that in today's global environment, a diverse workforce creates a focus on new markets, new ideas and increased productivity, all of which lead to higher profits - the very reason a company is in business. Therefore, it makes good business sense to employ diversity training for reasons ranging from profits to protection from lawsuits; to the more altruistic reason that "in diversity there is strength."

For companies it is important to understand the difference between the diversity perspective and the racial equity or racial justice perspective.

Diversity training's perspective is on awareness and appreciation of different cultures, with a resultant hoped-for harmony in the workplace. Focus on organizational change is through the important but limited perspective of looking at hiring practices such as job descriptions, newspaper advertisements and revisions to personnel practices. With regard to racism, diversity views it primarily as the result of individual action, that is, personal prejudice, stereotyping, racial slurs or jokes and intentional acts of discrimination by individuals.

A racial equity or a racial justice perspective includes these individual dimensions but places a much greater emphasis on structural racism and broadens the definition to include racism as a defined set of institutional, cultural, societal beliefs and practices that - unknowingly and regardless of intent - gives benefits to one race over another.

Structural Racism shows how beliefs, history, values and attitudes can and do impact education, health, employment, housing, criminal justice and the environment.

I was recently invited to attend a 5 day seminar overseas at The Aspen Institute for Community Change, and their definition provides further detail by stating that Structural Racism "...describes the complex ways that history, public policies, institutional practices and cultural representations (e.g., stereotypes, norms) interact to maintain racial hierarchy and inequitable racial group outcomes; thereby allowing privileges associated with 'whiteness' and disadvantages associated with 'colour' to endure and adapt."

Diverse attitudes

Diversity training is very important for developing a greater appreciation for each other and is needed as organizations, companies, schools and governments grapple with employees' diverse attitudes and perspectives. It is a boom industry in largely western societies and as such audiences are predominantly white, and by definition an underlying focus is to encourage white employees to change their consciousness and develop a greater appreciation for, and understanding of, people of colour. It is an important step in personal growth and understanding, but it is the first step, and in Bermuda we must have the courage to go beyond diversity in order to understand the racial inequities that continue to plague our people.

By reducing race to one element of diversity, all we end up doing is addressing symptoms rather than the roots of our social problems.

This article is broken into three parts, the second of which will focus on true life examples of structural racism in Bermuda.

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