On Sunday, September 21 2008, I was treated to a movie of a speech by Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary who addressed the traumas that are experienced by African Americans as a result of centuries of oppression which included slavery followed by segregation and the continued existence of white privilege. The end result of this experience, according to Dr. DeGruy-Leary, is that whites in the America's and of course Bermuda, continue to enjoy a privileged existence that is a direct consequence of this history of brutally denied opportunity for African Americans.

Dr. Degruy-Leary spared no feelings in describing the origins of American slavery with respect to the passage from Africa. She noted that several million slaves died during the passage. She declared that this was to be expected when one considers that the slaves sat side by side in an eighteen inch space during an entire passage that might have taken several months. Dr. Degruy-Leary gave vivid descriptions of what it was like to be jammed up on those benches: she noted that the slaves defecated there, they urinated there, they vomited there, they got sick there, and many died there.

I must admit, I had never really thought about the passage in that respect. My thoughts of the passage related to the plight of the slaves during war time when the slave ships were attacked by countries desirous of getting the valuable slave cargo. Many slaves were killed without mercy during these attacks. Further, in the years following emancipation by the British, the slave trade continued illegally for several years. During this period, slaves would be tossed overboard, if a British Warship appeared on the horizon. A friend of mine upon hearing this report said, "At last the poor souls got some relief".

If the passage to America was bad enough, the treatment of the slaves after arriving in the new world, was not much better. Dr. Degruy-Leary described the beatings, the rapes, and the separation of couples who had formed a family and so on. She emphasized that many of the beatings originated because of alleged misbehaviour by slaves towards a white woman. This meant that if a slave looked at a white woman she could just as likely accuse him of insulting her. As a result, he could be flogged within an inch of his life, if he was lucky. However, if his luck was running bad - the white woman would accuse him of attempted rape and he would be lynched.

We might well wonder to what extent these violent attitudes against blacks have continued even today. One is reminded of the murder Mr. Emmet Till during the fifties. He was a 14 year old African American from Chicago, Illinois who was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi. This teenager was dragged from his bed in the middle of the night, beaten severely, shot in the head and dumped in the river attached to weights. The reason for this vicious assault was that he whistled at a white woman while in a grocery store.

The murder of the young man revived the civil rights movement. By the end of the year, Ms. Rosa Parks refused to sit in the black section of a segregated bus and triggered the famous bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.

These events are mentioned by Dr. DeGruy-Leary merely to emphasize that the segregationist policies which followed the institution of slavery, permitted the violence and brutality against blacks which was common during the period of slavery. The Civil Rights movement represented the continuing effort of African Americans to secure equal justice before the law and equal opportunity in the sphere of economic activity. However, even during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans still frequently encountered police brutality, restricted housing, limited education and very restricted employment opportunities.

Dr. DeGruy-Leary made it clear that the continued existence of negative attitudes towards African Americans made progress towards full equality very difficult to achieve. She conceded that although negative attitudes were embedded in the subconscious of Americans of both races, these attitudes were very much alive in determining our every day behaviour.

Thus no matter how much success blacks think they have made in terms of improved opportunity, white privilege persists. Recent surveys indicate that whites still get the bulk of the better jobs even when they are significantly less qualified than blacks who might apply for the same or similar position.

So what has this to do with Bermuda? Much of the fight for equal opportunity in Bermuda has paralleled the struggle in the United States. Still, nearly all white Bermudians and significant numbers of black Bermudians like to extol the virtues of the Bermudian slavers who were said to be kinder and gentler than their American counterparts. This alleged kindness of the Bermuda slaver was probably the reason that over ½ dozen slave revolts were recorded during Bermuda's slave history. Further, in every case the plot was detected because a slave told 'Massa'.

Those of us, who are close to the industrial relations arena in modern Bermuda, have in depth knowledge of unfair practices that still frequently occur, especially in areas where workers are not unionized, even though the government is Black. One really has to stretch the imagination to imagine a friendly, cooperative industrial relations situation in a Bermuda in which both political and economic power was solely in the hands of white Bermuda and where any hint of the institution of trade unionism was vigorously fought. This was Bermuda prior to December 1998.

The value of Dr. DeGruy-Leary's work is to arouse our awareness to the continuing existence of white privilege and the need to erase the existence of this characteristic of Bermuda's population. If we fail to do this, our chances of advancing towards a peaceful, prosperous society in which reward for effort is based solely on merit are greatly reduced.

Dr. DeGruy-Leary made it clear that while some advance had been made in securing equality on many fronts, there remains severely internalized damage that has been the result of centuries of deprivation as a result of racism. For blacks, this brutal history has determined how we relate to our children, our families and to members of our community.

She used funny real life experiences to illustrate what she was talking about. I particularly enjoyed the story about two women in a bank with their children. One woman was black and the other white. The children were aged about three. She stated that the white child was all over the bank having a grand time while the mother kept up a monotonous whine of 'does' and 'don'ts' to which the child paid absolutely no attention. The black child started also to act up, clearly influenced by the behaviour of the white child. Dr. DeGruy-Leary said he soon stopped this behaviour after receiving a "death stare" from his mother. However, she reminded the audience that there were two obvious results from this behaviour: Firstly, the white child sees that he can do whatever he wishes to do, and secondly that the black child cannot behave as he does. Thus even at that early age, the white child learns that he is privileged when compared with a black child.

The clear message from the movie lecture by Dr. DeGruy-Leary is that not only is white privilege alive and well but all of us must learn to recognize it and take steps to remove it whenever it is apparent. While this may be an easy statement to make, it will prove very difficult implement. After all, while whites will no doubt choose to safeguard their obvious privilege and they can depend upon a sizable black minority to assist them in this endeavour. Hence, those of us – both white and black - who abhor this practice must do all that we can to remove it. We must do this, if for no other reason than it reduces our capacity to compete in a global economy in which the players will be happy to secure any advantage even if it is based upon America's reluctance to rid itself of racism.