A good friend of mine and I, upon receiving the news of the murders of two young Black men shot in broad daylight in the capital of Hamilton, started a conversation on WhatsApp.

What you will find below was a fairly intense response by me about what is the causation driving these outcomes — something I have been wrestling with for some time, as many of you know. I do hope that the Governor, Andrew Murdoch, and national security minister Michael Weeks will read this.

They did offer comments that were featured in this paper recently over what occurred in the capital. Those murders represent 136 that have occurred over the past three decades — 131 of which were young Black men with the balance consisting of:

• 3 Black women

• 2 White males

Most of the speculation and police intelligence over the years asserted that these so-called, gang-related murders are tied to the illicit drug trade. One of the recently murdered young men was a relative of the friend referenced above. My deepest condolences to the families over their loss.

Causation v Symptom(s)

Bermuda is long overdue in getting serious about the causation producing these deadly consequences.

Too often we focus on the various symptoms — murder being the absolute worst of many — at the expense of causation. Or we confuse the symptom, or symptons, with causation.

Clearly, the focus has to be on the persistent, socioeconomic marginalisation of Black Bermudians — more specifically, Black Bermudian men — which is not a new issue in the present context and its connection with race and existing racial disparities.

It must be understood that all of what is occurring is against the backdrop of the massive rise of income and wealth inequality in Bermuda. In countries with high levels of income and wealth inequality, an overwhelming percentage of the most harmful adverse impacts are concentrated at the bottom of income distribution. In Bermuda, those persons that are disproportionately at the bottom of income distribution are Black Bermudians.

That speaks to the causation we are wrestling with and its deadly symptoms which, among others, includes murder.

A large part of the massive rise in income and wealth inequality has been driven by the consistent expansion of international business since the late 1980s, and particularly its post-2000 cycles of expansion. It generates by most estimates about 80 to 90 cents of every dollar earned in Bermuda and is the most lucrative sector of our economy.

We must point the finger at the failure of Black political elites and those executives running the various non-governmental organisations, and a number of charities who wilfully turn a blind eye in this regard. This is occurring because of the publicly unacknowledged presence of the racial-divide question hovering over this and related issues, which in turn — inasmuch as I can discern — is reinforcing White privilege in Bermuda.

What do I mean by that?

I mean the privilege of not having to face inconvenient truths over what is really going with our young Black men and their multigenerational marginalisation in this country. All of the above groups have been complicit in making Black Bermudians invisible, especially Black Bermudian men. These adverse impacts, the deadly ones that no one can deny, have been affecting disproportionately one sub-group in Bermuda — Black Bermudian men.

The big question starts with a why? It always does. I’m directing this question to Mr Weeks, David Burt, the Premier, the Governor and the executives at the charity Home.

Why, proportionately speaking, are we not seeing the same adverse impacts in Bermuda’s White community, particularly among our young White males? When this population overall represents roughly 31 per cent of the population of Bermuda, in what many like to describe as a multiracial society.

White males, as is the norm, would probably represent just under half of that White adult population. The Bermudian share of the population is 56 per cent. Yet all or most of these racial disparities are egregiously large and find Black Bermudians vastly overrepresented.

My answer

Because in a society such as this with a highly financialised economy and high levels of income and wealth inequality, Whites have higher levels of income and greater multigenerational wealth, on average, to insulate themselves from the worst impacts.

That is why you don’t see these adverse impacts in these communities. It is virtually ringfenced around the Black, lower-income communities. I repeat: those at the bottom of income distribution. At heart, this is a socioeconomic phenomenon that intersects with race in a “multiracial” Bermuda.

In 2024, according to World Bank data, Bermuda’s gross domestic product per capita was $138,935 — more than likely placing us in the top four globally. How many Black Bermudians do you know who earn that amount per year? A high proportion of those who do are found within international business, distorting the GDP per-capita numbers.

In societies with high levels of income and wealth inequality, in a follow-up to those listed above, you will find the following adverse impacts:

• Poor educational outcomes

• Gang formation

• Gang-derived violence

• A rise in poverty (real and relative, as in the Bermuda case, the Black middle class atrophies and erodes)

• A rise in capital crimes (murders)

• Stagnant wages

• Growth of illicit economies primarily around the trade in drugs

• Persistently high incarceration rates

To name just a few…

So is it a surprise, then, that we are continuing to see these adverse impacts of various types — the symptoms — metastasising within those communities and households that are at the bottom tiers of income distribution in Bermuda?

All of those impacts are ringfenced around Black communities and households from one end of the island to the other, and have metastasised throughout the post-2000 period.

Moreover, sadly in this case, we have this societal test lab called Bermuda on this issue precisely because of the multiracial reality of this society. The expansion of international business over the past quarter-century has only placed those impacts on steroids from 2000 onwards.

On December 13, 2018, when I was chairman of the Parole Board, forensic psychiatrist Sebastian Henagulph — consultant to both the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute and the Department of Corrections — was invited to address the issue of racial disparity within the criminal justice system, more broadly with a particular focus on gang formation, the drug trade and other relevant factors. He was also interviewed in the daily newspaper where he addressed the likely underlying causal factor.

As in The Royal Gazette article in September 2017, in his presentation before the Parole Board, he reiterated that the racial divide played a definitive role in gangs in Bermuda, with the majority made up of young Black men.

He stated: “It tends to be people on the margins of society. The disenfranchised don’t have money and don’t see hope in their lives, and drift into the gang lifestyle.

“I would see it more as a socioeconomic issue here in Bermuda, and it is the same in the United States — historically, the Black population has been at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum.”

Those comments were made more than eight years ago. He, too, placed the lens firmly on causation.

One of the worst offenders, other than the Government, is the charity sector — including the new one on the block called Home, which refuses to highlight from its compiled statistics that 92 per cent of the 1,101 homeless people in Bermuda are Black men.

More on that issue in a future op-ed, Home is not alone — the worst offender by a distance is the Burt Administration.

In the next instalment, I will drill down on solutions. And, no, it does not include running international business out of town, as it is part of the solution. The main player here, though, has to be a party and government that has failed Black Bermuda in this regard for too long.

It is time after eight long years in power that the Progressive Labour Party grew some backbone and realise there is no getting out of this without having the courage to make the systemic and structural changes that represent real fairness for black Bermudians — and for the most marginalised of those Bermudians, who are Black males.

I know what fairness in action looks like, and so far I have not seen it.

Bermuda, let’s start here and change the headline from gangs and gang violence — the symptom and most destructive of many — to tackling those issues that have marginalised Black men in our midst for far too long at the causal level.

The proper headline is the marginalised young Black male in Bermuda. Stop acting as if Black men from low-income households in particular are surplus to requirement and should be thus rendered invisible — perpetuated by a government that is Black.

Think about that.

Add the granting and sale of permanent resident’s certificates, leading invariably to more gentrification, and one can see why the cauldron for Black Bermudians is getting hotter.

• Rolfe Commissiong was the independent candidate for Pembroke Central (Constituency 17) in the 2025 General Election