1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:12,850 As Jesse used to say, keep hope alive for. 2 00:00:12,850 --> 00:00:19,910 Race resistance and fiction. 3 00:00:19,910 --> 00:00:28,820 The social construction of race is one of the threads which has been used to legitimise systems of white supremacy 4 00:00:28,820 --> 00:00:36,440 and invoked to provide justification for the protracted dehumanisation of African and African descended people. 5 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:47,390 This is well documented in both historical fact and the enduring lived experience of African and African descended people throughout the Diaspora. 6 00:00:47,390 --> 00:00:54,230 Bermuda, like its British colonial counterparts in this respect, is no different. 7 00:00:54,230 --> 00:01:02,450 It is built upon a system that was constructed to establish and preserve white power and privilege, 8 00:01:02,450 --> 00:01:08,090 and has served and continues to serve its masters well. 9 00:01:08,090 --> 00:01:17,750 In fact, race is an inextricable thread that runs through the fabric of the social, cultural and political system in Bermuda. 10 00:01:17,750 --> 00:01:28,100 It is so embedded that it has long been established as normative just the way things are, and for the most part, black and white. 11 00:01:28,100 --> 00:01:33,920 Bermudian both play their respective parts in its maintenance. 12 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:41,060 The status quo, however, is and has not been without dissenters resisters. 13 00:01:41,060 --> 00:01:49,580 That is to say that The Untold Story of Bermuda is the story of segments of the black community that stand 14 00:01:49,580 --> 00:01:57,320 in an unbroken chain of resistance to this system of white supremacy as early as sixteen fifty six. 15 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:08,720 With men such as Black Tom, Cuba, Alito and Black Harry to women such as Effie and Sarah Sally Bassett, the poison in the late seventeen twenties, 16 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:17,960 the October revolution in 1761 that is said to have involved over half of Bermuda's black population at the time. 17 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:27,710 Now I draw upon these early references only to illustrate that these issues we discuss today are not new. 18 00:02:27,710 --> 00:02:34,880 And in addition to the to point to the fact that systems of power have a resilience of their 19 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:41,540 own and they to engage in resistance in response to those who would dare to challenge, 20 00:02:41,540 --> 00:02:46,260 confront or threaten their security. Now, 21 00:02:46,260 --> 00:02:51,180 I would like to introduce three definitions and then offer a series of examples 22 00:02:51,180 --> 00:02:58,330 to illustrate in practise the challenges posed by responses to resistance. 23 00:02:58,330 --> 00:03:08,590 First, I take the term race to be a fictional socio cultural construct in a larger system of white supremacy. 24 00:03:08,590 --> 00:03:12,700 I will come back to what I mean by the term fictional momentarily. 25 00:03:12,700 --> 00:03:22,750 I'm not suggesting that race is not real and that it does not, has not, nor continues to function with destructive and dehumanising effects. 26 00:03:22,750 --> 00:03:27,610 What I'm saying is that it must be understood as a construct, 27 00:03:27,610 --> 00:03:37,510 something that was created by people for the purpose of legitimising the superiority of whiteness as a system of power. 28 00:03:37,510 --> 00:03:49,180 Second, I take the term resistance to refer to the conscious decision to reject, to refuse to accept or comply with. 29 00:03:49,180 --> 00:03:53,770 To stand against what is deemed to be unjust. 30 00:03:53,770 --> 00:04:01,900 And here I use the phrase stand against what is deemed to be unjust rather than stand against a system of white supremacy. 31 00:04:01,900 --> 00:04:08,320 Because much of the resistance that we have seen in Bermuda was not against the system of power, 32 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:17,470 but rather against particular acts deemed to be unjust within the system of power or persons deemed to be representative of it. 33 00:04:17,470 --> 00:04:22,900 I allow the oligarchy or the 40 fees or a particular government of the day. 34 00:04:22,900 --> 00:04:31,120 One of the limitations of resistance and struggle up to this point in Bermuda has been the continued failure to extend 35 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:39,370 analysis to a critical examination of the prevailing system of power in order to elevate the consciousness of the people. 36 00:04:39,370 --> 00:04:53,520 To understand that standing against the symptoms of a system does not result in actions that are targeted at dismantling or transforming the system. 37 00:04:53,520 --> 00:05:00,060 Hence, the seeming cyclical nature of resistance and struggle in Bermuda. 38 00:05:00,060 --> 00:05:04,440 So not let me return to the term, the third term fiction. 39 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:15,810 I use the term fiction in its original sense, from Frank Gehry to form to shape, to contrive in this context. 40 00:05:15,810 --> 00:05:23,640 Then it refers to the forming or contriving of beliefs and or statements histories, if you will, 41 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:33,990 that are false but are held to be true because it is expedient in that it serves the purpose of buttressing or propping up a system of power. 42 00:05:33,990 --> 00:05:40,980 The fiction of narratives surrounding race and resistance in this sense can be used 43 00:05:40,980 --> 00:05:47,730 so that even in standing against or resisting particular practises or acts committed, 44 00:05:47,730 --> 00:05:52,830 those in service against those in service to the system of white supremacy, 45 00:05:52,830 --> 00:06:03,870 people can often in actuality be co-opted into courses of action that perpetuate and preserve the power, privilege and injustice of the system. 46 00:06:03,870 --> 00:06:10,560 This has often led to the creation of vehicles or processes that only serve to change 47 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:17,490 the location of oppressed people in Bermuda within the system of white supremacy. 48 00:06:17,490 --> 00:06:27,120 This locational change is achieved in part by exploiting the crass or extreme individualism and 49 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:36,540 self-interest of persons who can be easily appeased by pyrrhic victories of individual advancement that, 50 00:06:36,540 --> 00:06:48,500 in reality, do absolutely nothing to dismantle or overcome the system of power itself. 51 00:06:48,500 --> 00:06:53,900 You're not at in time when they clap, 52 00:06:53,900 --> 00:07:04,670 so resistance refers to acts of standing against particular manifestations of systemic power in the process of resistance. 53 00:07:04,670 --> 00:07:14,600 A critical step is to break the silence by finding one's voice or giving voice to that against which or for which a stand is made. 54 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:21,320 This has and continues to be a challenge in Bermuda because there is a well-established cultural 55 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:28,790 predilection wherein it is deemed to be impolite or unseemly to openly speak about issues, 56 00:07:28,790 --> 00:07:36,320 especially issues of race and white power that are viewed as confrontational or challenging to the status quo. 57 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:48,080 This, combined with fear not completely unfounded, of being targeted for recrimination if one dares to challenge the established system of power. 58 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:59,210 This is compounded by the fact that Bermuda has a history of silencing dissent those whom it deems to be troublemakers threats to the status quo. 59 00:07:59,210 --> 00:08:06,860 There are numerous historical examples of people being driven from the island, and amongst the most familiar are the Reverends Richard Hilton. 60 00:08:06,860 --> 00:08:11,120 Top it off a gold ring Charles Vinton Mount Kingsley Tweed, 61 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:17,990 who is exiled in the face of death threats and members of the BlackBerry Kadry to mention but a few. 62 00:08:17,990 --> 00:08:27,260 Each of these examples represents persons or groups that have been prepared to endure the risks that come with breaking 63 00:08:27,260 --> 00:08:37,520 the silence in an effort to advance the cause of justice and promote a common good that may have only been seen by them, 64 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:47,420 yet spoke to the aspirational hopes of many of the silence in the larger Bermudian community in the face of resistance. 65 00:08:47,420 --> 00:08:55,400 Governments in Bermuda have reverted to the use of persecution tactics, rendering individuals and unemployable, 66 00:08:55,400 --> 00:09:01,820 calling in of mortgages with the bank tactics that have been psychologically embedded and 67 00:09:01,820 --> 00:09:08,930 function as a deterrent to would be resisters from engaging in revolutionary action. 68 00:09:08,930 --> 00:09:18,710 In this recent period, the former obeyed government represents the most flagrant and egregious example of this practise 69 00:09:18,710 --> 00:09:25,610 of silencing resistance in an effort to silence resistance to its privatisation of the airport. 70 00:09:25,610 --> 00:09:31,580 It employed the use of slaps strategic lawsuits against public participation 71 00:09:31,580 --> 00:09:36,410 as a means of intimidating brother Jason Heyward of the People's Campaign. 72 00:09:36,410 --> 00:09:37,130 In addition, 73 00:09:37,130 --> 00:09:45,980 we saw repression in terms of the pressure that was placed upon the Bermuda broadcasting company and radio stations that led to the closing 74 00:09:45,980 --> 00:09:57,050 down and limiting of talk shows to silence the voice of members of our community that were trying to participate in resistance and be heard. 75 00:09:57,050 --> 00:10:08,390 Government efforts to silence resistance also employed both the threat and execution of arrest warrants targeting protest leaders, 76 00:10:08,390 --> 00:10:12,170 the use of chemical weapons in the form of pepper spray, 77 00:10:12,170 --> 00:10:25,040 along with militarised, fully armour clad police, as in the recent now infamous December 2nd, 2016 pepper spray attack against unarmed protesters. 78 00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:32,600 The larger culture of silence that pervades Bermuda in the face of such acts is evident in the 79 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:39,680 almost universal silence in the face of government actions that violated basic human rights. 80 00:10:39,680 --> 00:10:47,540 This silence included the Human Rights Commission and other groups around these flagrant abuses of government 81 00:10:47,540 --> 00:10:57,860 power to nullify freedom of assembly free speech in an effort to neutralise existence one more sentence. 82 00:10:57,860 --> 00:11:08,000 These examples highlight the fact that resistance always comes at a price, 83 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:17,480 and those who engage in such action must be committed to the greater cause of freedom and justice and must be prepared 84 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:26,750 to endure the wrath and consequences that result from challenging systems of white supremacy in power in Bermuda. 85 00:11:26,750 --> 00:11:37,910 In conclusion, I trust that these cursory remarks can contribute to advancing our understanding of the need for engaging 86 00:11:37,910 --> 00:11:47,320 these issues of race and resistance at a systemic and structural level so as to break once and for all. 87 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:55,810 The vicious cyclical nature of resistance and struggle and put us on a trajectory of freedom and justice. 88 00:11:55,810 --> 00:12:04,570 I look forward to uniting together on this journey and I'll end with a quote from Prophet Monk. 89 00:12:04,570 --> 00:12:12,760 There is a poor blind Simpson in this land, shorn of his strength and bound in bombs of steel. 90 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:24,160 There is being perpetrated in Bermuda today, one of the most brazen faced pieces of rascality for whatever backward. 91 00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:33,841 Never keep the faith.