Who taught young men to be in gangs? We did

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30: I was recently speaking to a former teacher of mine. 

I say former rather than old as she sure does not look like I can call her old. 

She asked me why there are gangs in Bermuda. I felt as if she had thrown me a surprise test as I initially had no answer for her.

Absentee fathers? No. Lure of guns? No. Quick way to get a decent girl? No. Desire to be restricted to one neighbourhood? No.

My teacher definitely had me with a severe case of lockjaw.

It was only hours later that I was able to muster an answer. I know why there are gangs in Bermuda. And I know who the gang members are. 

Here is my satirical list of known ‘gangs’. Okay, they are not actually ‘gangs’ as such — more groupings of people who, for one reason or another, are usually diametrically opposed to one another. But you’ll see my point. 

The Curvy Girls gang have no love lost with the Skinny Girls gang. The Yella Skin gang and the Dark Skin Gang have never seemed to gel as one.

The Black Gang rarely socialize with the White Gang. The Portuguese gang has now sided with the White gang. The West Indian gang and the Black Bermudian gang are now joining up.

The OLD Berkeleyite Gang have always been hated on by anyone none-Berkeleyite . The Saltus Old Boys’ gang was always rich but never could compete in any football gang. 

The Union gangs BIU, BPSA ESTU, ABUT were always at war with the Upper Management gangs. Worker gangs never had anything nice to say about the D Boss gang.

Born Bermudian Gangs never quite trust the Guest Worker gangs. 

Bermuda Sun Gang were always ganged up on by the Mid-Ocean & RG Combined Gang.

Blogger gangs on Bernews and RG are forever at war with the entire civilized world.

Lest I forget, annually the island divides into two large gangs. Blue ‘n’ Blue Gang vs Red and Blue gang. At least then everyone shows their true colours so you know who is who.

Blood of Jesus

The AME gang doesn’t follow the path of the Adventist gang. And history shows the Catholic and Anglican gangs, have, well, let the blood of Jesus flow — literally.

So when we ask where  ‘gangs’ have sprung up from — look no further than the reflective glass in your bathroom. 

Each and every one of us has aligned ourselves into social or political or social or sporting groupings that diametrically oppose another grouping. 

We fight each other daily with words, with actions, with policies.

The young men that slay other young men have only taken this social devolution to the next step — and so they fight with bullets.

Make no mistake and make no more excuses, they have learned division and power struggles by watching our every move. They know how to ambush each other by reading how the media ambushes politicians.

They know how to stay far away from each other by looking no further than how the white collar crew stays far away from the blue collar crew.

They witness the 50-year war between the UBP, NLP, BDA, OBA vs PLP and see how to change disguises to defeat the enemy or how to defend the turf to the bitter end.

Yes they see it all. They have learnt well and they are fine-tuning what we have taught them. They are truly the “social DNA” of each and every one of us.

So I say to you, my fellow Bermudians, if you truly wish to see an end to the physical violence and bloodshed, you must be prepared to stop the religious violence, the political bloodshed and the social segregation.

You must be prepared to reach out to “those other people” or organizations. Not merely to show not just a “photo op” but an ongoing dialogue and united determination of the betterment of Bermuda and more importantly all Bermudians.

Social Diversity? Yes. Social Division? No.

We must be prepared to admit we are part of the plague of centuries of; division, strife, power and control over each other. Anything less than that, we can expect the youth to continue the carnage.

So to my teacher, I hope this answers your question “why there are so many gangs?”

You can email me my grade. 

e-mail: [email protected]