Don't be deaf, blind & dumb

November 17, 2002

Dear Sir,

I assume what touched off Renee Webb's diatribe in the House of Assembly last week about institutionalised racism is the knowledge that the PLP is going to have a very hard time impressing the voters in the coming election on its record alone. So to take attention away from their failing-grade performance she whips out - yes, for the umpty-umpth time - that great old never-miss standby, the race card. This is such a depressing phenomenon; we are like a community standing in a pit of sticky tar, all of us up to our knees.

Just when someone gets close to pulling himself out, some small-minded tub-thumper like Renee Webb reaches up and claws him back. When are she and others like her going to understand that it isn't about race anymore, hasn't been for years, really, except in the PLP's imagination? When are they going to understand that unless we can turn our backs on this destructive obsession, we are never going to be a real community, but just an example to the rest of the world of how bad it can get if race is allowed to define everything.

Everybody, black and white alike, would love to see blacks climbing the economic ladder - starting and running good businesses and being successful in their fields. It would be a good thing, a healthy thing. We all know it. What Renee Webb and her friends in the PLP have done is institute a programme of affirmative action to push blacks ahead quickly. I'm not going to argue that affirmative action is itself racist, unconstitutional and contrary to the terms of the Human Rights Act. No, I can hear the cynical laughter I'd get for that argument, which may be accurate and correct, but is also vulnerable to the facile arguments of those who want to keep us in the tar pit.

No, let me argue it this way: Think about the assumption Renee Webb is making. At the heart of her argument must be a belief that without affirmative action, it wouldn't happen. She thinks blacks aren't capable of getting ahead, otherwise she wouldn't bother with it. She, and others like her, believe affirmative action is the only route to economic equality, because blacks can't do it any other way, or would do it so slowly that it would take generations to make any kind of good progress.

The truth is that whites don't give a damn about whether the people in charge of the Berkeley project are black or white. What they worry about, and I'm sure lots of blacks worry about as well, is that the PLP's little programme of affirmative action has pushed this particular company too far, too fast. They worry that Pro-Active were not ready to take on such a big job in the first place, and simply don't have the ability to get the job done well. They worry that the project will start becoming one of those little sink holes into which money disappears like rain into the ocean.

They worry that the project will end up costing the taxpayer a ton of money because the taxpayer is going to have to bail it out when it gets into trouble. That's what the bond is about. It's not a black and white issue, it's an ability issue. What whites see, and I'm sure many blacks see it this way as well, is Renee Webb and her colleagues in Government trying to put their friends in the way of making a lot of money in a short time. That's what they were doing down at the Housing Corporation. As far as they're concerned, forget about ability, forget about the law, let's just fill some pockets, fast.

Doing this in the name of advancing the economic cause of black people seems to be a wonderful, politically watertight story. But I think they are underestimating the ability and intelligence of the people of the country. Black Bermudians figured out the connection between education and money a long time ago - from a trickle back in the 1960s, the flow of Bermudians going off to get an education abroad has grown to a river. All of us have seen black Bermudians making it here, not on the basis of somebody doing them favours, but on the basis of their own ability. nothing more, no artificial additives.

All of us know black Bermudians can do it, have done it, and that more and more of them are doing it every day. Do you think white Bermudians begrudge that? Do you think they would prefer it didn't happen? Do you think they feel proud when a white Bermudian succeeds, but not when a black Bermudian succeeds? If you do, you're blind and deaf as well as dumb, dumb, dumb.

COREY D

St. George's

Thanks for nothing

November 18, 2002

Dear Sir,

Six months ago I adopted a tiny, motherless, sickly kitten, Sampson. I nursed him back to full health, his story even made front and seventh page in The Royal Gazette. The little fella was very special to many people. Could you please find it in your heart to print the following in a small space?

This is to the guilty driver of the speeding vehicle that was oblivious to the white and black cat crossing the street across from the big green house near (Bailey's) Bay? For if you were doing the speed limit surely there could have been enough time to brake and let him make his way home for breakfast.

What were you doing if not speeding, changing the station, lighting a cigarette or talking on the phone? You could not have the decency to stop and knock on a door, that could show you care.

But to leave his lifeless body to more traffic, to deprive him of a full body burial. Well shame on you, shame on all of you. He may not be a human but he was part of a family. No longer will we watch him swim or bask in the sun on 'Bay Beach'. He won't be hiding in the tall grass waiting to pounce on unsuspecting feet and race you to the door after a long day of work. No more sitting on our face when breakfast wasn't in his bowl by 7 a.m.

How dare you think he was just another animal and not part of a loving family. All I have left is his broken collar and belt and the memories of where I picked him up. Please, to all road users if you can watch out for your children, then do the same for our pets.

SADLY MISSING SAMMY

The Bayside family