Our next panellist is Dr. Eva Hudson. She is the former president of the Bermuda Union of Teachers.
The recipient of the Russell Award for Contributing to World Peace from the World Confederation of
the Organisation of the Teaching Profession that and received her doctorate from Columbia University
and is currently concerned with addressing the internalised racism of blacks in Bermuda through an
organisation which she founded called the National Association for Reconciliation of the Nation.
Her book, Second Class Citizens 1st Class Men,
is a discussion of the efforts and protests made by the coloured MPs during the
50s and the challenge of the progressive and serious during the early sixties.
It particularly emphasises W. L. Tucker,
whose motion to extend the franchise proved the motivating factor for Roosevelt Brown to initiate the Committee for Universal Adult Suffrage,
which led to our eventual achievement of Universal franchise, is the gentleman Dr. Ebro Hudson.
This book was written in the 1960s, and when you read it, there will become some expressions which will make it clear that it's a long time ago.
Doctor Ken Duck as a successful physician, had all of those humanitarian qualities which are so important to.
His flair for people and high society made him move easily in purely social gatherings.
Functions which have no other purpose saved the enjoyment of one's fellow.
He retained his popularity until his death. Mr Tucker, albeit aloof, sincere and very serious about life,
developed a strong sense of duty in himself and looked for it in others as a successful businessman.
His qualities were not those of easy charm. Social gatherings for him were functions of one social obligations.
Duck seldom lost his patience. This was often impatient and often abrupt, and just as often repentant and quick to acknowledge his era.
Strong and stubborn. He never hesitated to say I'm sorry.
Those who knew him closely said, Oh, he forgets. Perhaps he did, but he never forgot kindness.
One of his most human qualities was his sense of gratitude.
Four years after he would remember and talk about an act of kindness or thoughtfulness,
and sometimes it seemed as if the more insignificant or casual the act, the greater the gratitude.
At least some of Dr. Khan's success lay in his extreme self-confidence, which was almost a flamboyant egotism.
He was always very sure about his ability and about the contribution which he could make and had made.
Mr Tucker returned a surprising humility and any contribution which he did make it quickly forgot.
Doctor can compared his achievement, success and influence to that of his fellow Negroes.
And he knew that he was a giant. Mr Tucker compared his to that of his white colleagues and knew that the result of
all his efforts were circumscribed and limited by the prejudices of his island home.
In the 1980s, there was a third edition. And in that edition, I wrote.
Second class citizens, first class men in describing the struggle of black politicians in the nineteen fifties,
also describes the struggles of the entire black community, then the black politicians believed that they had a responsibility to represent.
Today, with our superficial integration, most black black politicians are not generally perceived,
nor do they regard themselves as representing the black community.
Integration has brought the erosion of many significant, although once identified, values within the black community.
Black women in particular have paid a very heavy price for this erosion.
In the 1950s, in our segregated black community, black women were recognised as being important in our racially segregated societies.
The oppressive myths of racism is most destructive and soul destroying for men.
In Bermuda, particularly, women were not only the backbone and strength of the black family,
but they were the ones who became the teachers within the community and were respected as such.
While sons were sent to work at an early age,
black families often tried to protect their daughters from the most humiliating and degrading aspects of racism by trying to educate them.
It was clearly a socially destructive agenda for the black community.
In fact, that continues to manifest itself in our prison population.
Does black women did and still do play a significant role in the black community?
In the 1950s, the contribution of black women was recognised and respected within the black community, despite an elite and sexism.
Integration has made a significant difference for many black men who have been prepared to support the job.
Part of the price of integration has been the emergence or intensification within the black community of male chauvinism and sexism,
which seems so pervasive within the white community. And the consequent demeaning of black women, particularly of older black women.
In Bermuda, this has led to new rhetoric and new newly expressed concerns about the role of middle class women black and white.
This has served to obscure and detract from the far greater problems of the majority of Bermuda's black,
seasonally seasonally employed female wage earners.
In the race to maintain a minimum standard of living and to accumulate consumer goods that
they hoped would give them a sense of worth in the face of continuing social exclusion,
blacks, particularly black women, have had less and less time for their families.
Black politicians once tried to represent the black community.
Today, with black politicians representing only their own interests, not just the black community, but the entire country has suffered.
The church, which once played an important role in the social life of the black community,
has become irrelevant to a younger generation tempted by government approved Sunday marathons and other sports activities.
This generation that believes that drugs can take the place of the church.
And appreciation for education, home ownership, respect for older people and a recognition of the contribution of black women moral values
that once gave blacks a sense of community and self-worth despite their exclusion.
In the 1980s, the black role models and decision makers demeaned those values as they became integrated and came
to see material wealth and political power as the only socially rewarding goals to strive for.
Social justice and genuine democracy were no longer goals after which to strive or for which to sacrifice.
The future for the majority of black Bermudian is today in terms of quality of life and peace of mind is far bleaker than it was in the 1950s.
The upper strata of our society that controls both political and economic wealth.
Well, largely in the hands of white Bermudian is managed almost totally by strangers.
Family life and positive social values, which once gave meaning to life have been replaced by the race for inclusive material wealth,
which is always just beyond the grasp. And a reckoning on the part of the black community to the recognition that the need for struggle
and sacrifice is greater today than it was in the 1950s might conceivably make some difference.
But the real battle for Bermudian identity and the possibility of Bermudian control over our lives and destinies is probably lost forever,
irrespective of what ultimately happens in terms of the political independence from Great Britain,
since the government already behaves as if Bermuda were in American territory.
Even though we are still a British colony and it is obviously determined to continue to flood Bermuda with expatriates from every corner of the world.