December 2, 2013

Dear Sir,

Recently several articles have appeared in The Royal Gazette reporting on the enthusiastic comments of Sylvester Jean Pierre. He is a foreigner to Bermuda who is telling us how he has been embraced by Bermudians and how they have allowed him to surpass his dreams. His enthusiasm about the friendliness of Bermudians

Is not unusual. It was the friendliness of Bermudians which contributed greatly to our former success in the Tourism Industry----Until the Powers that be decided to replace it with International Companies which could more successfully exclude black Bermudians.

Within the same time period (November 30) Martha Harris Myron indulged in the now current and familiar rant about the “anti-foreign rhetoric of Bermudians” and the “taking away of our birthright”.

Why this great difference?

The difference is because of the deep racial divide that has been imposed upon Bermuda since 1834 by the economically powerful white community. No one can seriously question the friendliness of Bermudians (often even towards those who have indeed been deliberately brought in to replace them!). At the same time no one can question the fact that beginning in 1849 with the importation of Portuguese the white community have repeatedly used the immigration policy to import other whites to both economically undermine and to control black Bermudians-----and black Bermudians, beginning in 1849, have both protested it and resented it. Throughout the decades the policy of the white community to keep blacks in an inferior role have often led to policies that have been destructive to the entire country---as in the replacing of tourism with International Business.

At the same time, despite obvious changes, no Government has undertaken policies in an effort to eliminate, or even reduce, the deliberately imposed racial divide with all of its economic disparities. The good will and good intentions of a few whites — and there are a few--- cannot do it. It must be Government policies as deliberate as those that imposed the deep racial divide.

The OBA clearly has no intention of doing so. In fact it is following the decades old policies with its numerous proposals to entice back International companies with their foreign workers but not one single proposal to encourage black entrepreneurship. Then there is its “shared sacrifice “ which has applied to black workers but not to our wealthiest institutions. The banks are doing very well, having gotten rid of many of their black employees who went quietly into redundancy without either collective or public protests. I have heard no one ask their wealthy white executives, many of whom are indeed foreigners with thousand dollar salaries, for shared sacrifice.

None of those who put themselves forward as our representatives even bother to acknowledge the deep divide, nor do they seem to recognise that with or without the current economic problems Bermuda will always have problems as long as they insist on maintaining the racial economic disparity.

I hear a great deal of criticism of the PLP. I certainly did not agree with all that the PLP did. But almost all that it did was either in reaction to the racist policies of the economically powerful white community or they were intimidated by them. One example that I have heard recently concerns Mr. Eugene Cox’s consent to changing the 60/40 for the banks on the basis of giving credit to blacks. This was clearly a reaction to the racist policies of the banks and the manner in which they did or did not make loans to blacks and whites. The white community needs to understand that just as their policies to demean and ignore blacks as equal citizens in this country are often destructive to the whole, black reaction can also be just as destructive to the whole country. Those who represent the white community created the divide, they must do something to reduce the divide or everything else they do will amount to little.

Eva N. Hodgson