MPs debated into the night yesterday the report by Professor Ronald Mincy entitled 'Study of employment, earnings and educational gaps between young black Bermudian males and their same age peers.'

The debate began with a speech by Premier Dr. Ewart Brown, which is published in full in today's newspaper on pages 4 and 5. Here is the first part of a report on the extensive debate in the House of Assembly.

Minister without Portfolio Zane DeSilva called for businesses to give opportunities to young black men as he reflected on the findings of the Mincy Report.

Mr. DeSilva said Government has been doing its bit with initiatives such as Mirrors and reform of the education system, and added: "I ask the businesses in Bermuda to do their part. Give our young black men chances. Show them their are opportunities if they are willing to go after them."

The construction boss spoke very early in the debate – before the United Bermuda Party had made its official response so that he could attend his daughter's wedding – then made a plea for the Opposition to focus on young black males, and not young males as a whole.

"I hope that this debate today, in particular the Opposition, we do not lose sight that this report is the study of young black males. That's what this report concentrates on," he said.

"Not young white males. There may be some, but we know it's young black males that need our help."

Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons said: "This is all about education. I think the community is now getting very tired of some of the rhetoric around this, where the blame game is and where are we going.

"I think the community is more interested in what are we doing to fix these problems?"

He said: "It's not just a problem for the black community, it's a problem for the whole community."

Dr. Gibbons said he agreed with Prof. Mincy's observations on the social climate in Bermuda.

Referring to pages 203-4 of the report, he said: "I think Professor Mincy was a very perceptive observer of the current situation in Bermuda. He refused to play the game of not only debating the past but also getting into a very difficult area here.

"You can either be pragmatic or go down memory lane, like the Premier did. You can be stuck in the Sixties or the here and now.

"I think Professor Mincy understood it. Acknowledging the legacy of racism does not necessarily mean the way forward."

Prof. Mincy stated in his report: "No one denies the legacy of racism, but there is much disagreement about its relative importance, when measured against other forces responsible for the persistent inequities between black Bermudians and others on the Island (The Bermuda Job Market Brief 2009).

"While efforts to address discrimination must continue, Bermudians may be sensing that this debate is at an impasse, because acknowledging the legacy of racism does not necessarily suggest a way forward, given the persistent educational and occupational gaps and the high demands for college trained workers, which should resume after the worldwide recession ends."

He said debates such as the Big Conversation and the Workplace Equity Bill would "take a long time to resolve".

"What is needed is a third alternative, a pragmatic, thinking out of the box alternative that does not require entrenched stakeholders to abandon their positions, but does provide them with a way to move forward.

"We believe our programmatic recommendations would do just that if accompanied by policy changes," said Prof. Mincy.

Dr. Gibbons told MPs: "We can debate on some of these issues until the cows come home but it's not going to get us where we want to go in the here and now.

"We need to get on with it. So the half-hour the Premier took to go down Memory Lane and about his tortured past, we need to get on with it.

"What we should be debating today is how is this Government going to address this and what has it done already to move this initiative forward?"

He said: "We commission report after report after report and we think dialogue and rhetoric are going to get us there. But this is not going to address the problems of the education system."

l Further coverage of the debate will be published in Tuesday's Royal Gazette.

n Premier's speech in full – Pages 4 & 5.