St Paul’s Seminar on Black Males
Last night [Jan 26] concerned locals turned out to hear and take part in a panel discussion, which saw the Education Ministry’s Dr Llewellyn Simmons moderating while Family Centre’s Martha Dismont, Rev Bean of CARTEL, Digicel CEO Wayne Caines, and the Cabinet Office’s consultant Rolfe Commissiong were the panelists. The event was put on by a men’s group headed by Rev Lanel Guyton, who is the pastor at St Paul’s AME church.
Family Centre’s Ms Dismont started off saying that from her experience working with Bermudian families, young black males needed good male role models. She recommended that single mothers should surround themselves with good male role models.
Speaking about black males in the business place, she said that black women had been better educated than black males, and consequently were better placed to enter and fit into Bermuda’s new economy. For black men, she said that it was important to “strengthen the quality of a man’s character.”
Digicel CEO and Rise Above Bermuda founder Wayne Caines said that the family should be the epicenter of Bermuda’s black community. Highlighting other things he said educating our own community of children is important and that mentoring must be a part of ordinary life in Bermuda’s black community. By mentoring, he meant that older mature black males should take younger black males under their wings and help pass on higher personal standards and better moral values.
Rolfe Commissiong talked about the differences between the socio-economic levels of white and black Bermudians, and the structural decline of tourism and its replacement by international business.
CARTEL’s Rev Bean started out by saying that he had suffered having his Grandfather killed, twin cousins killed, and a relative shot at the RAA Club. He asked for a higher level of respect between persons and that all people should be respected. He said that churches were too spiritual and were not in touch with social reality. He went on to say that “God had been put in a box by people who went to church every Sunday” and that the church needed to be better balanced. Rev Bean said that gangs would never be stamped out and that they had existed since “bible times”.
In his closing statement, Rolfe Commissiong said that the drug trade underpins gangs. Mr Commissiong referred to education saying that the Mincy report had pointed to the 50 percent graduation rate for black males in the public school system. Mr Commissiong also said that in his view, more black male Bermudians should be pushed into the academic stream rather than being pointed to the vocational and trades arena.
Moderator Dr Simmons, suggested that Bermuda needed a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to get at the heart of the culture and education pain in the education community in Bermuda.
Several people made short statements from the floor. One person said that he had a gripe about my people. He said that “we have created the monsters” and have “damaged our own children.”
A very articulate young man in a Cedarbridge school uniform pointed out that almost all of his compatriots were good people and asked that the public stop “selling us out as young men.” He went on: “Give us a chance to live up to a higher standard.”
Still from the audience, there were suggestions that there should be an ‘all boys school’. Other members of the audience asked: “Where did we as black people lose our own culture?”; and “why are we still pointing fingers and blaming? When are we going to start doing something?”
another microscopic analysis when the problem and solution is chrystal clear. please don’t tell me I’m this way because of what happend ’4 score and 10 years ago’
Sooo, what are the solutions?
Solutions ?
Hmmm , let me think here … hmmm …. solutions,solutions ..?
Hell ,that sounds like a lotta work and being accountable for our actions.
How about just continuing to turn a simple issue into rocket science and psycho babble. Keep moving the ‘goalposts’ defining the problem . Blame it on issues that for some reason didn’t mess up everyone else and keep telling law abiding , hard working , tax paying ,socially responsible people from trouble free families that it’s a problem of their making !
Yeah I can how your Republican / Palinesque views will solve our problems.
Good luck with that..
What is the problem and what is the solution?
the problem is (drum role) POOR PARENTING SKILLS…and its not a race thing….some people just shouldn’t have children
The solutions is (drum roll)a mandatory PLANNED PARENTHOOD course for girls and boys from age 8 through 18……yes they do start ‘experimenting’ at that age
YAWN!!!!!!!
I wouldn’t say this was a waste of time but all everyone is doing is talking, but that’s step 1. It’s time for us as a whole to get to step 2 which is being proactive. Talking about it won’t change it. Everyone has valid points but I just have to wonder what really came out of this. Unfortunately many have yet to realize that the “drug trade” and “gang violence” are NOT intertwined. They aren’t killing each other over drugs, I don’t think they even know why they are doing it at all. Ignorance is bliss.
BULL%$#$ !! Im educated, black and cant find a job in my field. Yet i see all these damn foreigners here.
What am I to do, be educated on the back of a trash truck..
you may be educated, but to what level? We you educated at the same colleges and universities as the ‘damn foreigners’? Was your GPA comparable to the ‘damn foreigners’? If not be quiet and get used to hangin on the back of de truck bie
You appear to know very little about the inner workings of many of our companies. I have worked in HR in a number of industries and GPA’s and degrees count for little if you have the right connections. FACT!!!
Ask any honest HR person and they will tell you that circumventing the process is almost an art form inside the walls of a number of our companies…FACT!!!
Exactly! Educated people don’t whine, they compete!
Hi Jason,
I currently work with an International Company. Opportunity is always available to us Bermudians. Some don’t want it. Have you ever consider the reason you can’t get a job is because of your atitude. If you don’t have a positive attitude you cannot go far. What is wrong with working on back of the Trash Truck it’s an honest living. I am thankful for the International Business because it has made me mature and be able to provide for my family. Try to be positive and maybe the door will open up too you. But until then I wish you all the best!
BINGO!
Have you ever considered that there might be a chicken and egg syndrome here? In short, what came first, the attitude or the rejection????
Let’s not pretend that Insurance plays by the rules 100%. Many a friend has been extended an opportunity and has by association and country of origin risen at the xpense of a qualified Bermudian. Been there and seen it. It is a fact…
@ Jason, don’t knock working on the back on the trash truck boo, it’s a good job. It might not be what you want but don’t knock it. Believe me I see your frustration every day but it’s nothing wrong with working on the trash truck if you can take the smell
Without knowing all the facts about the brotha, there can’t be anything worse in the employment areana than being qualified and unable to secure a job.. And let’s stop with the Bermudians shouldn’t complain crap. The English have been complaining for years about jobs being lost to citizens from EU countries. The Germans nearly destroyed the world becaue their economy sucked and the Jews were simultaneously doing just fine..
Rolfe had to throw in race. Race has nothing to do with the issues of our young black men. I grew up black, poor, without a father, lived in more than 20 different homes and locations throughout Bermuda, went without meals, always had hand me downs and I never took a life of crime and finished school. No white person held me back or my family back. There are too many financially successful black families in Bermuda for him to use the race card. It’s all about parenting.
And Jason, If you have to swing from that trash truck until the right job comes along…then do so. It will show that nothing is beneath you and that you are willing to take on any responsibility to meet your needs. It sets a good example to the young black males of Bermuda.
@Sunshine, keep your head buried in the sand.
This conversation has been going on for at least 20 years. By that I mean the “problem” with young black males.
We haven’t done anything about it because we really don’t want to.
While its true there is an element of choice and people need to be held accountable for their anti-social behavour – which assumes they can be caught and successfully prosecuted – to focus on this is to ignore the very real structural socio-economic factors which contribute and I don’t mean race.
Take Jason’s comments:
Watching people living luxury lifestyles, employed in jobs that “are not for you” in the only place you can home, while you are hanging off the back of the trash truck is a very real issue for some.
Enough to “make a run” in a boat….
hear hear! I’m not one for quoting Politicians but here goes:
Sir John Swan (circa 1980 something) “YOUNG BLACK MALES ARE A PROBLEM”
30 years later another recently retired politician said “THE ATTITUDE OF ENTITLEMENT….PEOPLE THINKING THEY ARE OWED SOMETHING FOR LITTLE OR NO EFFORT…..IS KILLING US.
John Swan was and still is the biggest impediment to black males in this country. He was a politician that was pushed out front to say and do all the things that his fairer skinned comrades couldn’t do. He jumped at it and reaped the benfits and then some. John did what he was told, ie, keep the natives happy and voting the right way. Don’t see much difference between Swan and Brown. Seriously…
Reality – amazing response and as a black Bermudian living in the US, you make “us” very proud. Almost 20 years ago I saw what was becoming of the island and what did I do? I left…have I given it a second or third thought about returning, sure. Would I? Maybe…and I certainly would consider returning as long as I can be a positive influence or help in the development of creating solutions to fixing the problems Bermuda are now facing. Food For Thought: It Takes A Village.
Correction: Bermudians are now facing….
It sounds to me like all of Bermuda’s problems will be solved if you get rid of all of the job-stealing, luxury-living dirty foreigners. They seem to be to blame for almost every problem out there. Of course, there would be the slight inconvenience that you’d also lose all of that lucrative International Business (#1 industry in Bermuda!). But that’s okay, because I am sure you can fall back on tourism (damn foreigners are ok as long as they promise not to stay) or one of your other obvious industies. Which are…?
I think that the Cedarbridge student is on the right track – challenge them, support them, hold them to a higher standard! No one gives up faster than the person who has been given up upon. And stop blaming other people!
Careful! Onions come a dime, a dozen. You get rid of the foreigners the Island disappears, the British leaves, and you’ve got nothing!
Just think, there’s absolutely nothing Bermudian made on this Island, including those BMW and Audi police cars ya just imported!
4 real!
Spot on Frank. Better you than I make comments like that. This give a new meaning to ‘yes ma…going too the dump’, yeah..I’ll pick it up.
@ Jason – These “foreigners” you speak of are holding up the island’s economy and keeping us all employed so show a little respect. If we didn’t have them this would be a third world country so I suggest get some training in your field, or go abroad for an experience and market yourself as much as possible and I’m sure the job you’d like will come along.
We all need to work together, Bermudian and expat, in order for us all to succeed.
It is the tried , tested and much followed Corporate approach, ie, give some well placed politicians and citizens real income and they will fight tooth and nail to ensure that the status quo is maintained. has worked all around the world and bermuda is no exception.
The old byes knew that real income was not to be earned in the tourist trade and so they opted out and placed all their eggs and ours in the ReInsuramnce basket. This helped kill tourism and the PLP have no clue how to resurrect it.
The Goose could well be ready for carving, but rest assured that the UBP’s greed is as much to blame as the incompetence & greed of this current government.
Bermudians need to commit to personal solutions and stop waiting for churches, government and other organizations full of red tape to trailblaze. Case and point,
I don’t have kids, and I don’t bring in a fat check, but I have nephews and I take the role of an Uncle seriously. We kick ball, hang out, I drop them off when they need a ride, talk about girls and life. I emphasize the importance of finishing school and keeping away for those that always get in trouble. I set an example and their friends are welcome to my drug-free spot anytime. They know I have their back whenever they need me.
If we all did this for all our kids, Bermuda will be ok in no time.
I hope your serious All G.
This was the way it was in the 50-60-70′s. Of course crap happened but the only time you got assaulted was by your neighbor, who told Mom and Dad and then you got ‘slepped’ even more. Thats why we turned out halway decent.
Thanks to the Joynes, Wilsons, Butterfields, Jones, Hatherly’s, Lightbournes et al for all those minor slaps and guidence.
I owe you.
Hey I’m a white guy who has worked damn hard to get a piece of the rock and get a head in life, but I don’t have time to discuss race and poor parenting skills. That’s a social issue. What I do have time for right now, and what people need to start to understand is our economy is collasping at an alarming rate. European nations wanting tax dollars, the United States who want tax dollars and our government which has caused so many issues for our island that now, we are now starting to feel the full affect of these actions. European nations have painted Bermuda as a tax haven and placed us on a “do not do business with list”. Have any of you tried to do a bank transfer to a place in Europe? Most places won’t accept it because it has come from Bermuda! I was shocked when I tried to open an ETRADE account and was told that they are no longer accepting finances from Bermuda, but if I lived in Europe that isn’t a problem. Our government? Where do we start? Pushing us in huge amounts of debt. Increasing the costs of doing business in this island by hiking pay roll taxes, pushing work permit regulations on companies that are providing support jobs to the middle class that keep this island moving etc. If you tie a dog up to a tree day after day, what do you think it will do once it gets free? It WILL go find a better home! Companies are leaving this island… It’s going to get a whole lot worse real soon. Exit strategies are in place and are silently being activated. Wake up people, Bermuda’s economy is collapsing! Stop worrying about race, colour, the have’s and have nots because if we do not unite and fix our economy we won’t have a Bermuda left at the end of the day.
Can we see an article about these claims Bernews..
LOL
The bank transfer bit? We will ask the local banks about it…
Thanks. Are we on some list. I have seen such for Iran and some other places just not understanding Bermuda on such a list.
LOL
i live in england and can confirm that it is true we are a tax haven and have been put on that list and was surprised to see it on bbc news a few weeks ago
So can you confirm that other countries are not excepting funds from Bermuda?
We looked into it, and there seem to be no restrictions placed on wires originating in Bermuda.
However there are a few countries which they may not send wires to for compliance reasons…such as Iran. The restriction isn’t anything to do with our end, its the other end.
Thank you Bernews great work.
LOL