Black Racial Identity Transnational Exploration

May 17, 2013

Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda will be hosting a form entitled “Black Racial Identity: A Transnational Exploration of Belongingness and Awakening” with Dr. Helen Neville

It will be held from 7pm – 8.30pm on Wednesday, 22 May 2013 at Christ Church Hall, Middle Road, Warwick

A statement from CURB said, “Research for this project has been carried out in Bermuda, Australia, South Africa and the United States, and is designed to address the gaps in the literature by exploring the diversity in experiences and interpretations of Black(ness) using a racial life narrative methodology.

“There has been considerable advancements in the psychological racial identity literature. However, there also has been stagnation in the creativity and timeliness of the research. In an effort to provide replicable, quantitative findings supporting the link between racial identity attitudes and important psychological and educational outcomes, there has been little exploration of process issues (i.e., how and under what conditions people develop and change their racial beliefs over time).

“Cross’ earlier Nigrescence model began to address a piece of this, but he later abandoned examination of what he called an “encounter” stage because of the difficulty in measuring this type of change process. Other noteworthy limitations include the following – most of the psychological racial identity models are U.S. centered, yet some researchers insist on applying the models to other countries without addressing the necessary social, cultural, political and racial context of the site. Researchers also have rightly noted the need to consider the ways in which racial experiences and interpretations intersect with other social identities; few psychologists have begun to substantially address this dilemma.”

Dr. Neville received her doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She was on the faculty in Psychology, Educational and Counseling Psychology, and Black Studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia where she co-founded and co-directed the Center for Multicultural Research, Training, and Consultation.

Currently, Dr. Neville chairs the counseling psychology program and is a professor of Educational Psychology and African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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  1. makes no sense says:

    Why does CURB, whom claims to be for the uprooting of racism, only seem to cater to the issues of one race – the black race? Time and time again.

    If you want to honour the name of your organization, you should not solely consider one race, and deal with the other races here:

    Caucasian
    African
    Caribbean
    Portugese
    Latino
    Chinese
    Thai
    Philippino
    Bangladeshi
    etc….. you get my point.

    CURB seems to be very one-sided, as if it only had one goal in mind to begin with. Philippinos face the WORST racism on this island, with threats to rape, beat, rob, and kill them for no reason. This is disgusting, abominable, and worse than the rhetoric of the Klu-Klux-Klan – whom contrary to propaganda, do NOT preach violence upon other races, only the superiority of their own.

    So basically we have factions worse than the KKK here, and most of us know who they are. CURB should deal with this. CURB should deal with the racist and illegal forms that Government gives out where the only races listed are “black, white, other”. This is an insult to other races.

    Furthermore, white is a racist term, because no white person is white. We are shades of pink – scientifically assessed. It is ignorant to call someone a colour they physically are not. “White boy” is a prejudice term used out of disrespect, no different than “D#%kie” of the old days.
    Both words negatively define a person by their colour. The correct term is “Caucasian”, which denotes the ancestry of all “whites” as coming from the Caucaus mountains in Asia.

    The reality today is that Bermuda has racism. And 99% of it is from blacks onto other races. I grew up being taunted, beaten for my skin colour being white. Being called “white boy” this and that. “Hey duuuude”. Etc. I never once disrespected a black or other person in such a way.

    What is such a joke, is that some people on this island are obviously so stupid, with their heads in the sand, that they feel justified to believe that 100% of racism is white against black! I to this day have never heard a single white person insult racially a black person to their face. But I could fill a novel on the opposite. It is sad. The hypocrisy is sad.

    One day I was with my wife in town, walking behind a nice black man and his cute little boy of 5 years age or so. Some random black guy approached him out of nowhere and proceeded to berate the white race to this man and his little boy RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME AND MY WIFE.

    “We need to stick together, bro. The white man blah blah blah…”

    Utter trash racism from this man’s mouth. And he was a rastafari – or wannabe. About 55 years old. Thank God the man who had his child was NOT a racist twit like that other man was – because thank God I heard the man responsibly tell his young son, “Son, there are lots of crazy people in the world. Don’t listen to them.”

    And I applaud that man for being RIGHT in his response. And I denounce that rotten man who has nothing but racial hatred in his heart, to try and taint a young child’s mind.

    The REAL racism here in Bermuda is obvious. When your Premier can say in pride and no regret, “WHITES NEED TO SUFFER!” then you know you are in something akin to Nazi Germany, where the leader of the nation preached such prejudice.

    CURB needs to re-evaluate itself, and at least express itself more clearly, because they only come across as centred around one interest only, and actually ignoring the real and pressing issue.

    What white on black racism to you people see? That whites make more money? That is a pile of nonsense anyways! Nowhere on planet earth do you have so many rich blacks, driving BMWs, Peugeots, carrying Prada and Gucci bags, etc. Rims, sound systems…. $80,000 cars… jet skis, boats, expensive new clothes brands, name brand shades, blackberrys, … but people like Hodgson claims over and over and over there is “financial disparity”…. Really?

    Taking that nonsensical money claim out of the equation, what else do you have? Fairy tales and old wives tales that bittered grandparents passed down through families? Propoganda? Because what I see on this island are people of all races as friends, living together without paying attention to skin colour.

    Because at the end of the day, there will always be that one dissident group, those rebels, who want to uphold the perceived honor by vengeance on behalf of their ancestors who once perhaps suffered at the hands of real racism. Yet this practice has no grounds in reality, only in imaginations and minds. Reality is that Bermuda is very integrated in this modern age, with people of all races being wealthy, propsperous, and friendly to one another.

    It is those few – that group – who want division, who preach division, and who draw attention to division. You talk about it, you make it real.

    Stop talking about it, and maybe for once you will see how it goes away. Maybe ‘you’ are part of the problem. Stirring up racial debate only adds fuel to the fires in people’s hearts.

    So why start the pot boiling, then act like someone else boiled it?
    Turn off the burner of your racial passion, put down your ladle of discontent, and take off your apron of hypocrisy. Look at yourself inside, and you will see that we are all the same.

    Does one painting judge another based on the colours on its tapestry? Do black paintings sit in one corner, and white ones in another? No, they are all integrated, irregardles of their colours! They are all paintings – works of art.

  2. kasd says:

    This was a little bit over the top, but I agree. Why keep picking at a wound that *ONLY* time can heal.

  3. Pork Chop says:

    Way over the top. Suggest a long walk…