January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
We need to purge politics of the racial jibes
Finance Minister’s comments were an easy, but reckless, way to avoid hard questions
The habit of using cheap racial insults and innuendo seems to be spreading among Cabinet Ministers — not just for political fun and gains, but to avoid answering questions and justifying Government policies and decisions.
It used to be that our articulate and dignified Finance Minister stood above this kind of stuff.
But when Grant Gibbons, a former Finance Minister and former Opposition Leader, criticized the Government’s budget and financial dealings, Paula Cox hurled herself off her pedestal.
“What I resent is the recasting of inherent privilege and superiority of some who do not look like me!” Ms Cox erupted.
Then, for good measure, Ms Cox added that she was outraged by the notion that some people “can’t be trusted with the strategic marketing of Bermuda because they do not look like them.”
If you haven’t met them, Dr. Gibbons is white and Ms Cox is black.
Both of them are honest, intelligent, educated and charming, and both of them clearly have the long-term interests of Bermuda at heart.
So what went wrong?
Dr. Gibbons’ offence, other than to strongly criticize the Government’s financial affairs in the way all Opposition parties do, was to do so while wearing white skin.
He made no allusion to the race of the Finance Minister — indeed, he said nothing that suggested race at all.
I can see nothing in Dr. Gibbons’ career — which includes serving as a cabinet minister under two black premiers, and working comfortably with black colleagues as Opposition leader – that suggests he doesn’t believe blacks are perfectly able to manage economy and the government.
Yet Ms Cox angrily dismissed Dr. Gibbons’ criticism, based upon his race, without giving the slightest justification to back up her cruel accusation.
She insulted his motives, based upon his race.
She avoided his criticism by accusing him of racism.
She accused him of racism, in other words, to avoid his criticism.
This is wrong.
It is especially wrong in Bermuda, where racial hurt and suspicion lie so close to the surface, and where healing and reconciliation is so desperately needed.
It is especially wrong to come from one of our country’s most important leaders.
This is not about how white people are treated, much less how Dr. Grant Gibbons is treated. It is about the way we in Bermuda choose to treat each other.
Dr. Gibbons can probably look after himself, no matter what invective the Finance Minister hurls at him.
But there are many others on this island, of every ethnic background but mostly black, who cannot thrive or survive if they are judged, or ridiculed, or have assumptions made about their motives, based on the colour of their skin.
CURE and CURB and economic empowerment programmes can do much to make this a better and fairer country.
But it all unravels if we do not build a culture of racial respect, and enforce it from the top down.
We need Cabinet Ministers to show by their example that Bermudians can live and work together with respect and dignity. They set the standards and the tone more than anyone else in the country — they should set these standards high, not low.
Of course, anybody can have a bad day, get riled up, and say things that wouldn’t normally pass through their lips.
All too often
But this is a repeated and offensive trend among Cabinet Ministers here.
It ranges from Premier dismissing criticisms of the Auditor General by calling him a racist, and getting sick of dealing with people who “look like” Tony Brannon, to the Tourism Minister refusing to answer “plantation questions” from the media.
It has been going on for too long, with too much tolerance and with too many excuses made by ordinary Bermudians and politicians alike.
Never has there been any apology or retraction, or any acknowledgement from the Premier or any Cabinet member that this kind of talk is inappropriate, hurtful to Bermudians, and divisive to the community.
It is tempting to blame former Tourism Minister Renee Webb for starting it all: It was she who hurled the phrase “looks like me” into local politics.
But Ms. Webb wanted government contracts awarded to people who “look like me” –- not an unreasonable demand, given Bermuda’s inequities.
Ms Webb did not use the phrase, as too many in Government are doing today, to insult other people, to add to the island’s racial divisions, and deflect legitimate questions and criticism.
The media have a duty to ask hard and probing questions that politicians frequently would rather not answer.
Opposition politicians have an obligation to criticize the Government. Indeed, that is the job they are paid to do.
They, in turn, should expect to be questioned and criticized just as rigorously by the Government.
From this questioning and criticism should emerge a greater accountability, better policies, better government, and a better Bermuda.
Ms Cox has plenty of policy and political and philosophical differences with Dr. Gibbons.
She and her colleagues should do themselves and the country a favour by focusing on them, instead of the differences in their skin colour.[[In-content Ad]]
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