Premier’s Statement On Young Black Men

Today [May 21] MPs are debating the Mincy Report in Young Black Bermudian Males in the House of Assembly. The Premier began the debate  saying how important he felt it was, and saying “it is a moral imperative that we inject the fierce urgency of now to reverse the historical marginalization of black males in this country. At every turn it is our duty to embrace the truth of the facts, not to bristle at the discomfort they cause and to chart a path towards genuine inclusion for black men in this country.”

His full statement follows below:

Mr. Speaker, this debate, which will no doubt occupy much of the House’s time, is by far the most important debate of this young century. I term it that because written in this study is a stern message of our tortured past, our challenging present and our achievable future.

In this my 17th year as a member of this Honourable House, I reflect on many proud moments of service and debates that have influenced the island of Bermuda for good. It is with that service in mind, Mr. Speaker, that I consider it among my proudest moments to rise today and lead this debate.

Mr. Speaker, an examination of this study by the eminent academic Professor Ronald Mincy reveals a network of themes that span the ministerial portfolios that have traditionally existed in our system of Westminster style Cabinet governance. This debate can and should be a debate about culture, a debate about economics, a debate about education and a debate about social rehabilitation. The snapshot presented by this report is so riveting as to focus our efforts on addressing the ills that it records.

Mr. Speaker, for those who still, in spite of the cogent nature of the report, ask why we needed to do it; permit me to borrow from the motto of the Times and Advocate, Bermuda’s first black newspaper:
“For the Cause that Lacks Assistance; For the Wrong that needs Resistance; For the Future in the Distance; And the Good that we can do.”
That is why, Mr. Speaker, for the good that we can do.

Mr. Speaker, before I occupied the office of Premier I addressed the Hamilton Rotary Club and in that speech I warned of the growth of a group I referred to as the “unemployables”. This growing demographic in our community comprised mainly of young people whose skills were such that they were not desirable to employers and whose interests and outlook were such as to make lesser forms of employment unattractive to them. The net result is a group who feel disconnected from the society and whose frustration increases with each opportunity they feel passes them by.

Against this background Mr. Speaker, let me remind Honourable Members of the perennial results of CURE surveys which confirm the evidence we see in glossy corporate annual reports that speak to the consistent underrepresentation of black people generally and black males in particular in the highest echelons of the business world.

Now, Mr. Speaker, superimpose on these two scenarios an education system that until very recently failed to provide genuine instruction in citizenship and Bermudian history; an education system whose method of addressing the unique learning style of male children was detention, mock discipline or the determination that these boys were more suited to working with their hands.

I should pause and parenthetically add that racism has yet to be sprinkled into this recipe for disaster. But add it we must, Mr. Speaker, because it is a fact of our past and a significant factor of our present. Racism has been that intangible thing, that elephant in the room, that thing which Rev. Kingsley Tweed’s “polite society” dared not mention as reality.

Mr. Speaker, two clear policy initiatives evolved from these facts. The first was the Big Conversation to lance the boil of racism in this country and secondly, the commissioning of this report by Professor Mincy. It is a moral imperative that we inject the fierce urgency of now to reverse the historical marginalization of black males in this country. At every turn it is our duty to embrace the truth of the facts, not to bristle at the discomfort they cause and to chart a path towards genuine inclusion for black men in this country.

Mr. Speaker, Professor Mincy finds that our young black men are not idle. To the contrary they are working but are not drivers in this economy. They are not equipped educationally and in some cases socially to be influencers in their own country. This comes as a result of what is essentially a vicious cycle. The examples presently seen in most homes are of a mother who goes to work in an office, who has some academic grounding and who is at a desk all day. That example does not resonate with boys. Present or absent, engaged or not, fathers exert a massive influence over their sons, particularly in the area of career choices. Predominantly fathers “work with their hands” and as the report says “Boys observe little professional or managerial work from their fathers or relatives which may contribute to their view that such work is unsuitable for them”.

As a result Mr. Speaker, early career choices are made that see boys opt for trades or areas where they believe they can “work with their hands” and perhaps be their own boss and of course be more like their fathers. “Thus the preference for working with hands passes from one generation to another even though the economy is generating high paying jobs, administrative, managerial and professional jobs requiring post secondary education.”

Within this generational cycle, Mr. Speaker, are some challenging economic realities. To the young, single man living at home with his parents, the prospect of $25 or $30 an hour is a gold mine. Add a spouse, children, housing costs and general cost of living and the lack of income earning potential and the inability to increment invalidates the early choice and stresses the family unit and strains the self worth of the man in question who now must assume additional employment to deliver the standard of living required in his household. Working with his hands has not yielded effective insurance coverage; it has limited his ability to save; it does not provide optimum pension benefits and moreover so diminishes his ability to provide post retirement comfort that the Government must be prepared to meet these challenges for such citizens.

It is breathtaking in its cause and effect, Mr. Speaker, but it is real. It is life for so many people in Bermuda but it need not be so, provided we accept these findings and make working with ones hands a CHOICE and not inevitability.

The break in the cycle I have described can occur at several levels, Mr. Speaker. Professor Mincy’s focus thankfully is on the future in that he extensively interviewed 18 young black men whose candid responses, supported by his analysis are most instructive. What is clear is that our education system has a critical role to play in reversing these trends.

Professor Mincy found that “teachers are offering (career) guidance too late, oftentimes in the final year of high school…….and limited exposure to employment options and college requirements may leave them in a position to say “we’re graduating, but what next?”

Mr. Speaker, I am certain that the Honourable Member who speaks for education will address this but allow me to observe that the report found that “schools desperately need increased guidance and career counseling, so that academic or behavioural problems some black Bermudian males encounter can be identified early and the career interests and steps to post-secondary education can be identified for those who are on course to graduate from college.”

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members will no doubt recall the jumpstart on meeting these challenges foreshadowed in November’s Speech from the Throne. It bears repeating, Mr. Speaker that the Government undertook to:
strengthen the detailed, personalized assessment of at risk students to ensure that behavioural, home psychological, discipline and other issues do not go unaddressed;

expand and hone the skills of existing school counselors to include the provision of skilled career guidance to better prepare students for careers in Bermuda ‘s economy; and

implement specialized instructions for boys throughout the public school system recognizing the special needs of this particular group and their learning requirements.

We have already set in motion strategies that fall out of this Report and which will start to reverse the cycle to which I have referred. Mr. Speaker, such is the evaluative quality of the Report’s research that the engagement of Professor David Hopkins and his team to review the education system and the path of tough choices to be taken in that reform effort are validated by Professor Mincy’s findings.

Permit me, Mr. Speaker, to invite Honourable Members’ attention to page 36 of the Report where the specter of our work’s importance is raised. It says, Mr. Speaker:

“Until now we have assumed that employers determine the earnings of young black Bermudian men using the same rules to determine the earnings of their same-age peers. However, this need not be the case. For example, employers may reward educational achievement of white Bermudian men more than they reward the same kind of educational achievement of black Bermudian men. This could represent a different kind of disenfranchisement than we discuss above, OR A JUDGEMENT ON THE PART OF EMPLOYERS, that white and black male workers with the same education certificate have different levels of productivity. The latter interpretation is not unreasonable, because most young black Bermudians attend public schools, while most young white Bermudians attend private schools. Employers may be making the judgment that an educational certificate from a private school makes workers more productive than the same certificate from a public school.”

Mr. Speaker, we cannot, and this Government will not permit, that possibility to take root. We are committed to making the pubic education system one of excellence. We want employers to feel confident in the young men and women we produce. Our intended strides in public education, as well as the mentoring programmes of national service, will permit sound career choices on the part of our young people and make them “undeniable assets to a broad range of employers”.

Mr. Speaker, I mentioned earlier that this debate would canvass the remits of many ministries and the tenets of many theories economic and social. Mr. Speaker, no economics degree is required to understand that a return on an investment is the principle guide for an investor. So it is with young black Bermudian men. Mr. Speaker, I referred to CURE Survey results and the impenetrable hold that white males have on jobs in the upper reaches of business in this country.

Mr. Speaker, I would invite the attention of Honourable Members to pages 39 – 40 of the Report. These pages independently verify what we know from our CURE results but I must highlight some issues that speak to the various factors I believe form the reality of life in Bermuda.

Firstly, Mr. Speaker, Professor Mincy finds that black Bermudian men earn higher returns on investments in technical certificates than either white Bermudian men or black Bermudian women. He says “these higher returns to technical degrees help explain why black Bermudian men are more likely to invest in this form of post-secondary education than in any other form.”

Let me pause here and say that while the return may be high, Honourable Members must take note that these men form the equivalent of the American middle class whose sole influence is their vote and not their economic power of influence to shape the nation’s affairs. This is important because in an economy whose main pillar is based upon tertiary/graduate level functioning this trend unaffected means that a segment of this community will never be influencers in the economic engine that drives this country’s policies, social life and way of life. That, Mr. Speaker, is simply a fact.

Mr. Speaker, at page 40 of the Report this is made manifest and the circle, conspiracy, design, coincidence…….one can choose which……is laid bare. The chart labeled fig 16 and headed “Returns to post-secondary education by race and gender” demonstrates the stark variance of returns by race particularly at the graduate level. Professor Mincy records: “Black Bermudian men may obtain less college and university education than black Bermudian women, not because they are less interested in learning or because they are less willing or able to postpone gratification, but because they are behaving rationally. A cost benefit analysis of any investment would lead to the same conclusion about post-secondary education that young black Bermudian men reach: its just not worth it”.
Mr. Speaker that is a stunning statement supported by sound reasoning and evidence. It should challenge us to stop copping out by saying “they can only work with their hands”. It should urge us to abandon an attitude that makes us reluctant to demand high standards of our students and to encourage competition. What it should do most of all is embarrass us into fixing the issues that make this cost-benefit analysis even necessary. Our people are not without ability, they are not without opportunity, and they are not without access to resources. What is lacking is the will of some to accept the reality that the absence of black men in positions of influence in the economy’s cockpit and moreover the lack of suitable compensation for those who do make it in, is actively discouraging those who can from doing.

Mr. Speaker, it is an unassailable fact that at every level of education, including college, and in every industry, including construction and the international business sector, black Bermudian men earn less than comparable white Bermudian men. Not only does this discourage young black men from pursuing further education, it creates a brain drain, as those who have the higher education we so desperately need are likely to leave the Island in search of fair treatment and returns on their investment in education.

Mr. Speaker it is to be noted that the journey down these paths begins early and speaks to the urgent need for sounds career advice in our schools. In the interviews conducted with those young men in S4 in our senior schools, the sample for the study consists not of students destined for GED study or some alternative to satisfactory completion BUT of black males that are on track to graduate from high school. Page 136 of the Report bears out the enormity of the task ahead:
38.9% expressed interest in the trades;

27.8% were interested in the arts;

27.8% were interested in pursuing professional sports;

16.7% were interested in the sciences; and

one student was interested in becoming a lawyer.

Mr. Speaker, not one student expressed an interest in the area of finance/international business. They have decided and through a myriad of factors we have enabled to think that it’s not for them. We must reverse this trend or we will continue to surrender our destiny, cede our control over how we live to others who do see these positions as open and available to them but who do not share the empathy that comes from knowing Bermuda as home.

Mr. Speaker, recently in this Honourable House we spent several hours on a motion that invited Honourable Members to take note of the Bermuda First Report. As I listened to the debate Mr. Speaker it was apparent that we in this country have accepted unreservedly that “captains of industry” and therefore by definition those who control our economic wellbeing must be “them” and not “us”. The whole theme and tenor of that debate spoke volumes about why it is that our young people and our young black men in particular do not respond to the call to take up these careers. Our overt acceptance of the requirement not to scare “them” away; the need to make “them” feel welcome; the warnings that “they” might leave breed in our people a psychology that says, “these jobs are for us and those careers are for them”. Not so, Mr. Speaker. I cannot be a party to this conspiracy of exclusion. Not a week goes by that I am not confronted with the conflict of a young Bermudian who cannot enter the international business sector in spite of their impressive resume versus the exasperated CEO who says, “we’re doing everything we can”. Well somewhere this disconnect has to be bridged and it starts with our attitude as leaders in this country.

Mr. Speaker, we must treat success in these economic powerhouse jobs as expected of our people. We must not compensate for whatever malaise it is that plagues us now by creating a mid-level, mid-earning, middle of the road economy as OUR niche. We should occupy both the top and the middle. The issue is choice. We have unwittingly so emphasized “working with hands” that we’ve made our sons believe that that means studying is not required. Of course that is wrong on so many levels. When tilers and air conditioning mechanics, carpenters and electricians are being imported we know we’re getting it wrong Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker I encourage Honourable Members to read the comments of the young men interviewed for the study as they provide limitless insight into the issues we must address: the positive but not career-specific influence of mothers; the gaps in career counseling in our education system and the need to adopt a motto for the foreseeable future “surgeons work with their hands too”.

Mr. Speaker, in opening this debate I indicated that it would traverse our past, the present and the future. I have dealt with the past and the present and so I must now turn to the future and some of the things this Government will do to embrace these findings and reverse the trends identified by them.

The programmes recommended by Professor Mincy and his team as possible corrective measures are all worthy of further study and I can advise this Honourable House that technical officers have been tasked with urgently reviewing these programmes with a view to “onionizing” them. The targeted youth as identified in the Report are the subject of a focus by the Department of Labour and Training and on concurrent paths we are actively addressing the needs of those who have not graduated from the public school system and who are not employed. We recognize that the ages 16 – 18 require the greatest attention as at this stage we can intervene to arrest any spiral into behaviours and social issues that further weaken this segment of our society.

Mr. Speaker, as one would expect of an academic and his research, Professor Mincy’s recommendations are thoughtful, forward-looking and programmatic in their mandate. As a leader my solutions must be both short and long term. It is my responsibility to effectively communicate the present and the future. With the future and the long term goals in hand, there are some things that we as leaders can and must do now.

Mr. Speaker, I am a great believer in encouraging our best and brightest into public service. Honourable Members will be aware of this Government’s plans for a programme of national service. As we said we would we are taking steps to reawaken the qualities of teamwork, collaboration and character in the people of Bermuda. I look forward to reviewing the results of the public consultation on the draft national service plan and anticipate constructive dialogue with young people on this important aspect of giving back to the community.

Mr. Speaker, the issues of flagging fortunes in public education are not unique to Bermuda. Other countries have met these challenges in many different ways and I am intent on gathering the most successful attempts at reversing the decline in public sector education and thoroughly analyzing them for their use or not in Bermuda.

Mr. Speaker, in this vein I have asked the Central Policy Unit within the Cabinet Office to examine the “Teach First” initiative in the UK. This programme incentivizes the brightest university graduates, irrespective of their course of study, to devote two years after their graduation to teaching. After a brief conversion course these young men and women with optimum energy, creativity and as eager witnesses of the importance of quality teaching, are in the classroom and instructing. In most cases they are placed in the most challenging environments. Early indications are that the programme is successful and statistics show that 57% of those involved in the programme remain in the education system.

Mr. Speaker, it may be that we discover some impediments to having such a programme in Bermuda. My hope is that they are structural or numerical and not personal. We will examine this programme and where it can be done to increase student outcomes and improve the quality of teaching in the public education system, we will do it.

Mr. Speaker, I am a great believer in exposure. I am convinced that meaningful time spent in other countries is never time wasted. It is so important for our young people in particular to realize that there is a huge world outside of this beautiful island. In my own life I have benefitted from immersion in the proud and vibrant culture that is Jamaica and from living and succeeding in the competitive United States. I count those experiences as formative and invaluable to my growth as a man and as a leader in my country.

While the Government cannot send every young person abroad, we can do our part. Mr. Speaker, jointly with the Ministry of Labour, Home Affairs and Housing, 6 students from the Summer Employment Programme will spend a five week internship in the Government’s London Office or the office in Washington DC. Again, the best and the brightest will be afforded the opportunity of living and working in one of the world’s main centres of commerce, business and politics.

Mr. Speaker, I am excited at the chance to even offer this opportunity and I am confident that these students will benefit in so many ways from this taste of life outside Bermuda.

Mr. Speaker, let me return to one of the central themes of Professor Mincy’s report. He identifies the lateness and the lack of effective career guidance in our pubic schools. Mr. Speaker, I am certain that like many in the public education system counselors consider themselves to be hardworking; I am sure this is correct. Mr. Speaker, I have thought about how to increase the impact of counselors and their advice and in the short term the answer is quite simple.

If we believe that knowledge or information is power then that is what we must provide. Mr. Speaker, I believe that career choices can be brought into stark relief if the picture of who is working in Bermuda is provided early. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I have directed the Ministries of Education and Labour, Home Affairs and Housing to better share trends and information. The start point for this is to arm every counselor in the public education system with the list of categories and numbers of approved work permits in this country. Mr. Speaker, I want our young people to know what jobs are available for them to have. I do not wish for them to speculate any longer. We must end the trend of allowing our young people to finish undergraduate study with a degree in Finance or Business Administration when we have hundreds of chartered accountants on work permits in this country. Our career advice must be targeted and focused choices will be the result.

Mr. Speaker, I indicated in opening this debate that it would cut across many areas. This fact speaks to the complex nature of the work that we must do. If we have ignored it, we cannot do so any longer. If we have been slow to recognize it, then we must sharpen our focus. If we have been deliberate in addressing it, we must add haste to our steps. Mr. Speaker, this is generational in its implications and historic in its proportions. I dare say that we will be judged by how we tackle this issue more than any other.

It is for that reason that the call to action this Report stimulates cannot be delayed. We cannot weigh these needs against any other factor but that it is time to fix it.

Mr. Speaker, it is at this stage that one cites the words of some great prophet; the pronouncement of some leader we know only from afar or perhaps even something Biblical to shore up the cause in which we are engaged.

Instead Mr. Speaker, I turn to the words of man we knew, a man who graced this Chamber with his thoughtful presence and this country with his unwavering service. I turn to Freddy. He said:

“ In short, I’m Bermudian, interested in Bermudians and interested in the welfare of Bermudians, and I will leave no stone unturned to ensure that Bermuda is for the benefit of all Bermudians and that opportunities exist according to abilities and not privilege, and on that point I am uncompromising…”

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The report is entitled “A Study of Employment, Earnings, and Educational Gaps between Young Black Bermudian Males and their Same-Age Peers” and was commissioned in 2007 by the Government, in partnership with Atlantic Philanthropies. The study was conducted by the Columbia University School of Social Work and led by Dr. Ronald Mincy. After graduating from Harvard, Dr. Mincy went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned his doctorate in economics in 1987. He went on to teach at a number of institutions, and write a number of reports. You can view his bio here.

You can download or view the full report here [233 page PDF].

#DrEwartBrown #RacismAndRaceRelations

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