‘Black Identity to Address Crime & Violence’
[Updated] Bermuda College adjunct lecturer, Quinton Sherlock believes the current issue of crime and violence is symptomatic of deeper issues that exist in the local community that originate from a lack of a healthy ethnic and cultural identity.
“Gang activity and gun violence in Bermuda often involve a black male,” he stated recently. “As a black male myself, I cannot give into the frivolous notion that allowing “them” to kill each other off, or locking them all up will solve the problem…”
He will be presenting his theory and a solution to the issue at a spring colloquium sponsored by the Division of Liberal Arts.
The colloquium, “Nigrescence Revisited: Using Black Identity to Address Crime and Violence” will be held this coming Thursday [Jan 27] at the North Hall lecture theatre at 6 p.m.
Below is a short piece Mr Sherlock wrote related to the presentation:
As a community we are at a crossroad. Recent violent acts threaten our peaceful island and potentially our overall way of life. While this does not represent the automatic ruin of our island home, it does represent a clear need for adjustment.
Some adjustments are already being made and implemented in a variety of forms. New legislation has been passed; new curriculums are being implemented in public schools, and government ministries directly address core components of the community’s social fabric.
When analyzing the gang activity and gun violence we are now experiencing, one thing in particular is apparent, “Gang activity and gun violence in Bermuda often involves a black male!” Whether he is the perpetrator or victim, the black male has been involved.
As a black male myself, I cannot give in to the frivolous notion that allowing them to kill each other off or locking them all up will solve the problem. Like many others in our community, I believe that this behavior is symptomatic of deeper issues that exist. In fact, it would be naïve of me not to believe that society has played a role in the emergence of this behavior.
For years, researchers have linked the involvement of black males in gang activity with low self-esteem and low academic performance. While these relationships do exist, researchers are aware of a potentially more critical variable.
Studies have found that healthy ethnic/cultural identity have a positive correlation with self-esteem and academic performance. This in-turn has the potential to reduce gang involvement amongst black males. By no means are these new findings, but can you image the backlash from segments of our Bermudian community if an African-centered studies program was implemented in a public school?
As a community, we are brainstorming new ways of addressing the crime and violence. I believe there is an approach that is supported by research that Bermuda can seriously consider.
How will replacing a gang identity with a racial identity solve anything. It’s just a bigger type of gang.
I’m from the UK, where White racists try to do the same thing with White gang members. Can we please try to get beyond contemptible identity politics, which only reinforces a gang mentality. How about nurturing young people to live a life of love and dignity, whatever your percentage of skin pigmentation.
Well here it is another forum for the people of Bermuda to talk about how they are not disciplined and that they are perpetuating the gang atompshpere on the island.
Well it seems to me that there have been more studies about the Young black male and the antisocial behaviour and there has bee little or very slow movement on this matter. Here is it is 2011 and yet another venue is book, a white paper drafted and everyone justifying there postions with in the system to this end , and the young people of this beautiful island being blamed for it all.
It is now time to stop talking and start getting in the trenches and show the younger generation by example the way they should be acting and living to keep US Bermuda sustainable and guide our future leader correctly and wisely.
So he’d rather it be a race war? This is not the problem and clearly he’s clueless.
There’s an old saying, “In order to love someone else, you must first love yourself.”
Learning one’s history and culture is not about teaching hate, violence and aggression unless the history and culture one is studying is full of hate, violence and aggression.
Hate, violence and aggression are the very things we want to curb in our people today.
“Self-hate finally culminates in pure and direct self-destructive impulses and actions. These may be acute or chronic, openly violent or insidious and slow grinding, conscious or unconscious, carried out in action or performed in the imagination only. They may concern minor or major issues. They aim ultimately at physical, psychic and spiritual destruction.”
- Karen Horney ‘Neurosis and Human Growth’.
At the very root of our social problems is racism.
I can remember when I was just a young child that I actually believed that white people were better than black people. Why? Because it seemed that white people had nice houses, nice cars, held positions of Authority and I could go on and on. As I got older and got to experience going to court for traffic offenses, I can recall questioning if white people got caught speeding or if white people went to court , period!
Now I came from a very well educated family. Many of my aunts and uncles where either teachers or held good jobs in the community. I believe it was because of these circumstances that I never felt that I was inferior to any person, black or white.
I was, of course, very fortunate to have grown up without the inferiority complexes so common in many of our black people.
It really bothered me that many of my peers lacked the self-confidence to move themselves forward. Having said that, I was not so naive as to believe that life was not without its difficulties. There were still many whites who were outwardly racist and this fact cannot be ignored when assessing the mentality of black persons today.
So here we are today, in 2011 and at a really basic level, things have changed only a little. The real distribution of wealth in Bermuda is virtually unchanged, and in spite of having a black Government in the PLP, things at the lower end of the economic ladder are relatively the same.
The gang culture which we see today is merely a modern day reaction to similar circumstances of years gone by.
In this time of economic uncertainty and job lay-offs etc, it is clear to me that there are far more blacks affected than are whites.
I don’t know what the answers are, but until we as a world finally decide that all races are equal, there is no solution on the horizon.
Excellent stuff !
The answer is teach a child in the way he/she should go and they will not part from it… Our children learn from their environment. Why are people so concerned with what the white man is doing? Who says all white men are happy in their shoes? I’m not wasting my time watching any man… I was taught to be diligent in all things that is put before me. Just remember, easy come, easy go…
Amen. I still believe that the older generation have a hand to play. It’s just that they can not let go of their grudges and they do not see that they are just passing it on. Think about all the times you’ve herd whites talk about a cretin type of blacks and how blacks talk about white people in general. These believes have been taught and reinforced by who? Not the younger generation!!! Just look around the island to see that. We are all people we have feeling, we eat, laugh, play , hang and work together. To the older generation both black and white let us live together and remember issues are generally individual based so no one should be blaming a whole race for issues that people have had with individuals.
LOL
I was, of course, very fortunate to have grown up without the inferiority complexes so common in many of our black people.
and yet:
I actually believed that white people were better than black people. Why? Because it seemed that white people had nice houses, nice cars, held positions of Authority and I could go on and on. As I got older and got to experience going to court for traffic offenses, I can recall questioning if white people got caught speeding or if white people went to court , period!
I’d say you had a healthy case of inferiority complex…and denial.
As an older white guy I can confirm that white people got caught speeding and that we went to court. I was one.