Dear Sir,

‘A great civilisation is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within. — William James Durant

Recent events and the discussion which has followed have prompted me to reiterate my own analysis of where we, as a black community, are and the reasons why.

A recent Editorial, (Royal Gazette, February 12, 2014, “The hardest word to say”) commenting on the disrespect shown to the “important cemetery” of black ancestors suggested that if we come together a solution may be found. However those graves were disrespected because we as a black community are still very much “disrespected”.

It is possible that if the Marsden Methodist Church had “come together” and had been united, the graves would not have been destroyed and if we as a black community were united and worked together rather than being so divided we would not be so disrespected and demeaned.

The Editorial also commented: “We don’t do enough on this Island to highlight and commemorate our history”. In fact our black leadership seems to make a point of ignoring our history. In the recent conflict I kept reading remarks about “anti-Bermuda and anti-labour”. Is not Joanne McPhee Bermudian? So was she really anti-Bermuda? We all know that the meaning of the word “Bermudian” depends on who is using it and for what reason.

If we are talking about Bermudians and Bermuda as centre of international business and finance we are likely to be referring to “rich white UBPers”, or those in the white community. However if someone is saying that “Bermudians are lazy” they are probably talking about those in the black community! So why do not our black leadership acknowledge our history and our present reality and say, “anti-black Bermudians”? We all know that our current condition is the result of our history of slavery, segregation and racism. So why do our black leadership insist on ignoring that history?

Tragically, that deliberate policy of ignoring our history with its long term and destructive impact began with the well intentioned founders of the Progressive Labour Party who refused to address the racism and segregation which was so entrenched and widespread, and Government sponsored at the time. As absurd as it was, they looked to Great Britain as their political model.

Britain was a very ancient, racially homogeneous society with a landed aristocracy and monarchy, a middle class of industrialists and manufacturers and a working class of erstwhile peasants. It had evolved its current political system through trial and error and strife and conflicts over a great many years.

Bermuda’s society had nothing in common with Great Britain. At three hundred years of settlement it was a new country with a society that in every aspect was defined by its racial divide. It was race and not labour which defined and divided us.

How could those well intentioned founders believe that a British political model would serve us with its destructive and divisive party politics? The recent debacle in the House of Assembly illustrates the damage to the black community of party politics. They are blacks who were betraying each other, secretly taping each other and indulging in “personal destruction”, while the black community continues to be demeaned and at an economic disadvantage, jobless and losing million dollar homes for the want of a few thousand dollars and economically secure Whites remain politically united and in control.

But our black leaders, or politicians, all of whom have experienced racism in one form or another, seemingly indifferent to the condition of the black community, squabble among themselves.

Ironically the destructive and divisive concept of party politics was only realistic as a result of the successful collective action of a united black community which had achieved universal franchise under the shifting leadership of CUAS (Committee for Universal Adult Suffrage).

It is also ironic that the success of another collective action by the black community also brought as much damage to the black community, as it may have brought financial benefit to a few individuals. Imposed, Government-sponsored segregation was so very demeaning to black folks that they struggled for “integration” when they should have been struggling for social justice. We have received rather superficial integration but we still lack racial and social justice.

In the 1970s this superficial “integration” meant that a younger generation of blacks were taken into the Civil Service and given salaries that an older segregated generation of blacks could not even have imagined. As a result this younger generation of blacks “integrated and salaried” not only turned their backs on the older generation but also on all of those values which had sustained us throughout our many adversities.

A recent Royal Gazette commentator bewailed the total lack of respect among young people. This did not happen overnight. When there was total and overt segregation, the only hierarchy within the black community was the respect shown to those who were older, those who dispensed education and those who openly expressed a belief in God and Christian values.

But those values were often dismissed by those who became ”integrated”. Money and “integration” became the criteria. Who needs God if you have money? Whites with money and power did not really seem to need Him. Who you knew and who you supported politically seem to become more important than education.

The older generation and educators, with little money were no longer respected. The disintegration of the black Community and the disregarding of all of its age old values had begun.

When the black community saw itself as a community and acknowledging the evils of racism they acted together collectively and achieved the social goal of desegregating public places for the entire community. When the black community saw itself as a community and acknowledging the evils of racism they acted together collectively and achieved the political goal of the right for all to vote.

Then, at a critical moment, when we needed to achieve the economic goal of a policy Affirmative Action we formed political parties and threw away our long standing values. We no longer saw ourselves as a community, we no longer wanted to acknowledge our history of racism, we were not prepared to act together and we have not achieved anything at all for the entire community since because our concern became about “the party” and not the black community.

As a result it is not only our ancestral graves that are desecrated and destroyed but it is our entire community that is disrespected and demeaned and our young black men and the most disadvantaged among us that are being destroyed.

DR EVA N HODGSON

Crawl