"…We have to want it…Bermudians have to want equality." The late Julian Hall, The Big Conversation Documentary

I guess that you could call the following a cautionary tale. Cautionary, because it illustrates how difficult it has been to actually achieve racial equality or even racial parity in income and on other fronts even when some of those who would benefit from it are likely to oppose or at the very least not support any realistic effort to address it.

Certainly the recently released "Bermuda Job Market Employment Briefs" by the Department of Statistics once again has been met with the usual hand wringing on the part of some. Its annual chronicling of the income gap between blacks and whites in the workforce indicates that that divide is still significant and moreover, reveals that it has even marginally increased.

One sign of progress and optimism on this issue however is the view – held by a growing number – that the impact of historical racism and its modern offshoot has substantively contributed to these disparities. And this view is getting increasingly harder to ignore or deny.

This being Bermuda though, there are still some apparently who are willing to give it the old college try, including, and let's be honest here – some black Bermudians.

Take for example this wholly unscientific case study which forms part of this cautionary tale: Let's just call the subject Gloria, to protect her identity, a mid-60s, black Bermudian female executive who has worked extensively in the private sector economy in various mid to upper level posts, mostly in human resources no less. Gloria also possesses a Masters degree from a very prestigious American University.

I had the experience about four to five months ago of having a conversation with Gloria where the topic of race and opportunity came up as a consequence of the "Tea Party"-like, white-dominated protest against the Premier at the Cabinet Office and latterly at the House of Assembly. Despite Gloria being a long-time United Bermuda Party supporter and voter, I was still somewhat shocked by her views on the topic at hand.

At the mid-way point of our discussion, she, visibly uncomfortable, uttered the following:

"Look Rolfe, every job that I have been able to get, I got because of a white man." To make sure that I actually heard what I thought I heard, I pressed her to repeat her statement, which she did with pride and with a certain degree of arrogance, as if to say, "take that Commissiong". Obviously, there was no further point to the conversation and I quickly changed the topic.

Even weeks later though, I am still disturbed by that statement. To think that in 2009 there is a black Bermudian who still attributes her professional success, not due to the fact that she was eminently qualified educationally and otherwise to hold the various positions which she has had; but moreover, attributed that success solely to the patronage of relatively powerful white men, tends to speaks for itself.

Although I hoped – in vain as it turned out – that she would offer a more balanced, even more intellectually honest and truthful rational, none was forthcoming.

To Gloria, her Master's degree from a prestigious American University was nice but the real key to her upward mobility in the Bermuda context, was her willingness to always ingratiate herself and defer to the prerogatives of whites and they in turn would take care of her. Merit be damned.

Perhaps her political association and support for the UBP, the party of white business interest traditionally, was predicated upon the same premise I thought. That may have become her affirmative action programme, but it was one designed solely for her.

In Gloria's world view white male paternalism was a good thing. After all, how could we ever shop and eat without it? I could not help but wondering if, over the years as a human resources executive at some of our major companies, she would have been inclined to enable practices which effectively stymied the aspirations of black Bermudians professionally in order to advance herself and find favour with her white superior? Perhaps one will never know at this stage of the game.

Now Gloria's pathology – and let's call it for what it is, a pathology – is one which is not hers alone and frankly is one that even today is still found in certain niches within the black community, even amongst the young. The upside however is that it is not as prevalent as would have been the case up until the 1980s or 90s.

But the conditioning or pathology does remain. To truly understand black Bermuda's complex and at times deferential relationship with white Bermudians, one needs to understand a couple of basic facts.

Firstly, black Bermudians have been conditioned for centuries to always defer to, or appease, white interest as a sort of default position. And secondly, some black Bermudians – although a diminishing number like Gloria – continue to do so even at the expense of their own interest, both individually and collectively in terms of the overall black community.

That is why the profoundly elegant words of my late friend Julian Hall as it relates to the key issues of social and/or racial justice, apply not only to those who have benefited from unearned privilege, as in Bermuda's white community but speaks to some within our black community as well. It speaks to the Glorias among us too.

The big existential question is not whether the disparities exist. That question is settled – but more compellingly – do Bermudians, black and white want equality and if so what are they – including our Government – prepared to do beyond reforming education to at least begin to close, not only the income gap but also the wealth gap between the two dominant racial groups in Bermuda.

Obviously, Gloria's strategy would be to tell her powerful white patrons that all the fuss is really about nothing much at all and that in her eyes they are noble and honourable in their intentions and that the Government and others should simply leave well enough alone.

She would then probably point out that she's black after all and state that she is doing just great, despite what some and the statistics may say. Perhaps, in exasperation she will add if only those people would forgot about the past, stop looking for vengeance against whites and resist the urge to cry racism about everything, then all would be fine … just fine. She would probably add, just for emphasis, that too many of those people are just lazy and shiftless.

And Gloria would remain, loved, protected and valued by those whose approval she seeks or craves the most.

Perhaps the various newspapers would interview Gloria, so that they could say that systemic or institutional racism is not the problem, for after all Gloria made it and she's black, just like you. And everything in the universe, just like before, would be right again.

l Rolfe Commissiong is a consultant to the Premier.