I started to write about Bermuda and the stunning lack of diversity in our island’s boardrooms.

I started to write about how Bermuda has one of the highest percentages of people of African descent holding college and advanced degrees in the world.

I started to write about how Columbia University Professor Mincy revealed in his “Study of Employment, Earnings and Educational Gaps between Young Black Bermudian Males and Their Same Age Peers” that racism played a more dominant role than education in the success or lack thereof of black Bermudians.

Then I realised that these points had been rehashed for decades, if not centuries, with little to no positive results.

Without more business leaders willing to take the lead on diversity, strong legislation, or direct incentives, the state of diversity is unlikely to change.

So I decided to write about “Doing for Self.”

With rising unemployment and the threat of massive privatisation of the Civil Service, the old adage of “work hard and study hard” no longer provides a guarantee of employment or economic prosperity.

In this new economic climate, we must consider the words of PLP Leader Marc Bean: “Bermudians must cooperate and compete. We must do for self.”

Doing for self involves, but is not limited to:

•Acquiring education and technical qualifications to create employment for ourselves and others.

•Cooperating with like-minded members of our community or within our global community to build capital.

•Identifying goods and service needs within our community and ways that we can provide them to the public.

•Using our collective buying power to demand better service, better prices and better employment opportunities, including boycotting businesses that engage in price gouging, that treat their employees badly or that do not hire Bermudians.

•Supporting financial institutions such as the BIU Credit Union that have fair lending practices and that give back to the Bermudian community directly through charitable donations or through fair hiring and promotion policies.

•Engaging in honest and fair business practices and treating our employees well.

Here are but a few examples of Bermudians who are doing for themselves:

•Bailey’s

•Baxter’s

•Beauty Day Queen Spa

•Bernews

•Building Blocks Construction

•Ceasar’s Pharmacy

•Channel 82

•Chartis Chambers Law firm

•CN Hair Loft

•Fish N Tings

•Greenlite Café

•Hott 107.5

•Irie 98.3

•Junius H Burrows Plumbing

•Maxilous Salon

•Mr Chicken

•People’s Pharmacy

•Smash Table Tennis

•Soul food Restaurant

•Telford Electric

These are prime examples of Bermudians willing to sacrifice short-term gains for long-term goals.

With the America’s Cup 2017 coming to Bermuda, we must position ourselves in a way that no one can deny us a fair and equitable stake in the build-up to and duration of the series of events.

We must also ensure that, as employees, we give a full day’s work for a full day’s pay.

Most importantly, we must do all we can to better ourselves. Whether by taking advantage of training opportunities from your employer or through self-study, we must stay on the cutting edge of our chosen professions.

We believe that working to expand fairness and diversity in the workplace should be a priority.

Yet as we seek to climb the corporate ladder, we must also encourage and assist Bermudians in their efforts to OWN the ladder as well.

As Bermudians, we must seek self-determination through self-reliance.