And now you might call this a word from one of our sponsors about Bermuda College.
Bermuda College is the only tertiary institution on the island.
We offer 20 degree programmes and have articulation agreements with more than 30 institutions and the U.K., U.S. and Canada.
Students can transfer all of their credits and complete their bachelor's degree in two years.
So it is an education of quality. It is cost effective, time effective.
And how many of you have sent your children away to school for university?
Show of hands, please. Yes. So you will know that you spent many hours and much money on application forms to numerous institutions,
and you waited not knowing which institution would say yes.
And that was a moment full of angst. But here it Bermuda College.
With our partnerships, we take away that uncertainty because if your child goes to one of our partner institutions, they're guaranteed acceptance.
I must also say that many of our institutions prefer to have students who come from Bermuda College with that
associate's degree because they've already negotiated the transitional issues of the beginning of college life,
and they've had the experience of taking college courses. I've worked at or attended some of the best universities in the world,
and I can tell you that Bermuda College is definitely on the map when it comes to community college education.
So send your children to Bermuda College or come to Bermuda College to further your education, dreams and your career goals.
Start your future here onto our conference one in the spring of 2018.
The Bermuda College Journal, which is called Voices in Education, held an event with Dr. Clarence Maxwell on Bermuda's history.
We became acutely aware of the level of interest that we, as Bermuda, have in this subject, understanding our history.
The auditorium was packed and I know some of you were at that event, so you can attest to that.
And at the end of Dr. Maxwell's talk, the kind of questions that he received indicated a true hunger for knowledge,
to understand our past, to understand our experiences and to be able to relate this understanding to our current ways of being.
I certainly thought that and clearly others did as well. It was an easy decision when given the opportunity to collaborate with the Human Rights
Commission and Oxford University when they came to meet with me last spring with an idea.
We came back together this fall to further discuss. And here we are today.
Race and resistance understanding Bermuda today,
we talked a lot about how to frame this conference and decided to ask everyone the same question
define resistance in the context of the time period and the area of expertise that you have.
It's a deceptively simple question, because in many cases,
the presenters have to creatively discuss centuries of work and numerous concepts in a relatively short period of time.
Ten minutes are historians, in fact,
and I'm sure Mr. John Dr. Jarvis feels this way probably feel like this is the conference version of speed dating.
The conference easily could have been held on any one of the time periods. We acknowledge that he's not.
Nevertheless, our presenters have the licence and the academic freedom to approach their answer.
However, they see fit, and we are all here to learn.
So what is resistance, how do we define resistance, according to Freud?
Resistance refers to oppositional behaviour when an individual's unconscious defence of the ego self are threatened by an external source.
So usually it is a form of blocking that is not accepting, not assimilating.
And this blocking is healthy, especially when we're talking about the context of racial issues.
For me, resistance in the context of racial issues is about responding in a healthy manner to feelings of cognitive dissonance.
That means not assimilating,
not accepting things that you feel are hurtful or just wrong in one's environment and making intentional decisions not to conform.
Even when your behaviour is contrary to social norms or what is socially accepted,
these resistance behaviours lead to changes in one's environment or circumstances for the better, not just for the individual, but for others.
Our history,
Bermuda's history is punctuated with moments or periods of resistance that transformed Bermuda in a series or pattern of resistance and plateaus.
That simply means that we have moments of resistance times when something is changed,
followed by nothing and then a period of change and then again, a plateau.
Michel Foucault said the following The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others.
It is through the analysis that he does.
Is it in his own field to re-examine evidence and assumptions to shake up habitual ways of working and thinking,
to dissipate conventional familiarity,
to re-evaluate rules and institutions, and to participate in the formation of a political will where he has a role as a citizen to play?
And I would add to that to encourage resistance. With that said, I look forward.
Like all of you to hearing today's presenters again, welcome to everyone and enjoy the day.
Next, I welcome Dr. Wally al-Barnawi and Dr. Steven Talk of Oxford University.
Good morning, everyone.
I must confess that I am struck by the fact that the audience actually respond, This is great, I have never actually has that anywhere in the world.
So this is sort of why I am the Roots Professor Risk Relations at Oxford University and the director of the African Studies Centre.
I'll let my colleague introduce himself before I go. Yes, hello.
Good morning as well, everybody.
My name is Stephen Tuck and I'm a professor of modern history at Oxford University and also involved in the Race and Resistance Research Group,
which is based at Torch, the one with the colourful squiggly logo.
So we bring you greetings from the intellectual centre of the Empire, which.
Which we are gathered here to resist. Mr.
So we are very happy to to be here, and we are quite glad when this initiative started,
and I think it was supposed to be held earlier in the year and then it was shifted. So it's really a great pleasure.
Yesterday, we'll visit two schools. We had a very nice time discussing with young people, just like my colleague will give more substantial,
you know, talk about the our involvement in this conference.
But I just have a an announcement. We are hosting a conference on racialisation and a public place in Africa and the
African Diaspora in Oxford in June 2000 and 19 was sent and some of the so it will be.
So we are actually also starting to have a lot of resistance within the centre of the intellectual centre of the empire in itself.
So we will be glad, you know, if some of you would be interested in coming to the conference.
We've been passing around the information. I think some of the the announcement is also available, I think around the book the bookstore.
And so we really appreciate it if you participate in the conference next year in Oxford.
Again, thank you very much and I'm happy to be here. And I'd just like to add that I'm also delighted to be here.
And as an institution, we're so happy to be involved and supporting this day.
I'd like to thank the organisers and hosts and actually to recognise the incredible hard work that's gone into putting this sort of day together.
The persistence, the creativity at times, diplomacy in bringing us all here.
Also to say we're very fortunate at Oxford to have hosted a series of events on Bermudan history.
I should say real Bermudan history,
and we've had a display of books on Black American history by activists and historians, many of whom are here today.
And we had a talk by Reverend Kingsley Tweed,
who came from London to Oxford and shared his own life story of resistance and the history of this island.
The issues he raised then and the issues were going to be discussing today,
as what he has said are the issues we are grappling with in Oxford to as we deal
with our own history and legacy of imperialism in our own institution and city.
So we really look forward to today to learning more about the and history and also to
learning how to reckon with our shared histories as we grapple with our present and future.
So thank you from both of us on behalf of our institution for allowing us to be involved and here today.
Thank you. As Dr. Tweed mentioned, today's event is not only a symposium, but of course, also a celebration of the one and only Dr. Eva Hudson.
Activist, academic writer, speaker, civil rights trailblazer Anna Bermudian living legend,
I invite Mr Cordell Riley of citizens uprooting racism in Bermuda kerb, who will give tribute to Dr Hudson.
And. Good morning, everyone.
It is my distinct pleasure and honour to be asked to give a tribute to whom I can only describe as a living legend.
I'd like to thank the organisers for giving me this opportunity.
There is much I can say. About Dr Iva Hutson, I can speak about her numerous academic achievements.
I can speak about her role in Algoma, alienating amalgamating the white and black teachers unions.
I can speak about her fight to obtain gainful employment in Bermuda.
I can talk about the writing of our seminal book, Second Class Citizens First Class Men.
And, of course, her nearly eight decades of being involved and being the voice for racial justice and black economic empowerment in Bermuda.
But all of that is written in your programme. So you can read all of that.
So I think what I'll do is spend the six minutes that I've been given to talk about my own personal experiences with Dr Eva Hutson.
And it goes back nearly four decades ago, and I've told her this story, although she says she doesn't remember.
If she has it been one thing, she has been consistent. And 40 years ago, she was giving a talk at the then work secondary school.
And in that talk, she spoke about the importance of owning your own home.
And there I was, a young lad listening and taking in every word as to why it is important to earn one's home.
Well, Dr. Hutson, I can tell you 40 years later that seed that you planted in me has come to fruition.
Let's bring it up now to 2012. When kerb was taken, a delegation to the oddly name White Privilege Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
We're learning, I learnt when Phil and I were giving a talk on structural racism in Bermuda and on that trip was none other than Dr. Watson.
And she said to me. You know, I'm really motivated to find a tool.
That will help us deal with internalised racism.
And so I said, OK, well, let's see what we can find.
And we attended a workshop, she won't remember this with, neither do I, but I went last night, they actually found a programme.
I went online. It was in the programme and we attended this workshop and was titled The People of Colour,
Identity Development, White Supremacy and Internalised Racial Oppression.
And it was a caution there that this come that seminar was only for people of colour,
and that's something I'll mention bring come back to in just a minute. And so he went to this session.
And after that session, Dr. Hudson said to me, I think I found the tool that we can use for internalised racism.
And she said to me, I want to hold a workshop.
On that, an internalised racism racism so that we can help our people deal with our past hurts and oppression.
So I said to her, Dr. Hudson, if you're going to hold a workshop, I'm going to help you with it.
And so we came back and I can't remember the tool that she we found, but we did some research and kerb organise a workshop at the Leopards club.
And Dr. Hutson had only intended for it to be one session.
And we went there and we had about 40 people in attendance and we sat in a circle and we utilise a technique, and that was it.
But the audience said, What do you mean, that's it. You can't start something.
And not finish it. And when we advertised for this, it was in the paper that it was for blacks only.
Well, you can imagine the pushback that we got.
And so I said to that and they said we ought to open this up because people are complaining and this and that the other.
And in truth, Dr Hutson fashion, I got a stern rebuking, she said to me.
You see, when white people push back, black people have a tendency to cave in.
And so that was one of my first lessons working with Dr. Hutson.
And so we decided based on the audience response, that we would continue these workshops,
and I remember she's at that stage in her 80s driving herself, people wanting to have this workshop continue.
And so we met at the lab club and she said to me, as long as people come, I will be there.
And so for the next six weeks, we started off with 40 and then by the time we got to the six weeks,
six week, it was Dr. Hudson and I in the room at seven o'clock looking at each other.
And then it's 7:30. One other person shows up and we said, well, that was the end of that.
But that demonstrates her commitment.
In this struggle for racial justice and black economic empowerment that even though she is in her, I know we're not supposed to tell a woman's age,
but you know, ninety fifth year she is still soldiering on and doing whatever she can to help her people.
And for that, we are internally grateful.
I want to leave a quote from somebody who's not necessarily known in the racial justice arena.
Oprah Winfrey. And Oprah said this, I am where I am because of the bridges that I have crossed.
Sojourner Truth was a bridge. Harriet Tubman.
Was a bridge, Ida B. Wells. Was a bridge, Madam C.J. Walker was a bridge.
Fannie Lou Hamer was a bridge. And to this, I add, doctor, even hardship on Titan is a bridge.
That I have cross and many of you in this room have also crossed this bridge.
Thank you very much. But our next tribute to Dr. Hudson.
Please join me in welcoming Mr. Raj Addenbrooke performing artists who will perform a monologue with excerpts from Storm in a teacup.
And Second Class Citizens. First Class Men.
Bermuda's policy of segregation was intended to ensure that black Bermuda and believe themselves to be as innately and inevitably.
Inferior and powerless as the Bermudian oligarchy made certain that they were economically, politically and socially.
The deliberate. And determined policy of segregation.
Can only be fully appreciated by those who experienced it.
Comedians, for example, were not allowed to use the tennis stadium built with public money.
Because they were apparently polluted for whites. Black remedies were not allowed to use the Bermuda Public Library.
Black unions were excluded from all white collar jobs in the government and in the private sector,
with the exception of teachers in black schools and any black person who through hard work or miracles could become a doctor or a lawyer.
There was total separation and segregation in churches and places of entertainment.
Black people, black comedians could not enter hotels or restaurants,
and the stores that they could enter ensured that they would always end at the back of any queue, no matter when they might have arrived to segregate.
Two separate. To ensure that black and white comedians had totally divergent experiences and self-interest was the goal.
Those experiences, those experiences will later be seen as superior and inferior.
Black and white comedians often had no concept of how the other lived unless there
were blacks who worked as maids or handyman in white kitchens or on white grounds.
Education. Was totally segregated.
The Board of Education believed that trying to educate some people was like knocking their head against a stone wall.
Black from unions, we're meant to believe that they were unethical.
It was only a few years after the emancipation of the black men that James Christy Easton, Chief Justice and.
President of the Council of Bermuda made an impassioned plea to provide at least a minimum of education
for the free Negro as a moral obligation and as a self-interested necessity to the white wealthy.
Former slave owners James Christy Easton argued his case well.
However. He didn't convince the government as he had attempted to.
That they must be educated in a manner that's equal to whites.
The decision had been made. That while the children of slaves must become citizens.
They must become second class citizens. Second class education, therefore became and remained essential in Bermuda.
The first essential of a segregated education policy is the first essential of a second class educational system is a segregated pattern.
Hence, education in Bermuda became and remained segregated.
Cinemas, of course, were also segregated.
One, the Opera House was not segregated because it was owned by one of the black friendly societies.
The other, the Playhouse, was segregated, with whites sitting upstairs and downstairs in the centre and blacks sitting downstairs on the outsides.
The Island Theatre was built later. There.
White said upstairs and the coloureds set downstairs with coloured children complaining that those who sat upstairs would often spit on them.
The stupidity. Of the policy of racial segregation was occasionally underscored when, as in South Africa,
one sibling would be sold a ticket for the coloured section during the war, when everybody had to have an identity card.
One member of the family could have their card stamped as white, while another would have their stamped as coloured.
It's important to recognise. That racial segregation is a social phenomenon, socially determined.
It's not a biological one. Black and white permutations have never been physically separate since the days of slavery,
but when white men lay with black women and black women bore their half caste children.
This was not integration.
When black women would nurse and care for white children of white wives and cook meals in their kitchens, this was not integration.
Some blacks insist on the occasional interracial marriage or the legitimate tortures of mixed blood as integration,
but not all of these children were legitimate. And even when they were, they were not in and of themselves indications of an integrated society.
Black men and white men, black men and white men built ships together, sailed together, fish together and farm together.
But this was obviously not integration. Integration should have meant black sharing proportionately in the wealth and power of Bermuda.
Genuine integration would have meant a slight numerical majority of blacks in every aspect of the society, not just in prisons.
But in managerial roles, political roles, as well as in financial.
And labouring roles, this isn't exactly the case.
Apologies, I forgot to put my notes on the podium. Thank you.
The formation of political parties and the institutionalised divisiveness amongst the people
who did not need it gave whites a wonderful opportunity to invite blacks to join them.
To integrate. While still retaining control over events and there were those blacks who did join them and thought that they were truly integrated.
The Bermudian society in terms of race has changed dramatically.
Nevertheless. The racial and social stratification in very fundamental ways has not changed.
Throughout Bermuda's history. There have been men and women who stood against the unjust social and racial reality that they found themselves in.
Bringing criticism, resentment and resistance against them.
In 2018. The solutions are probably now more difficult.
And the solutions will probably bring even more criticism and more resentment and more resistance.
But it is the only path that will lead to greater social and racial justice in our country.
And will give us the less violent society that we deserve.
Thank you. I now welcome as Lisa Reid, executive officer of the Human Rights Commission.
On behalf of the Human Rights Commission, I wish to reinforce my appreciation for the significant convening a special thank you to our partners
for your commitment to ensuring this wonderful opportunity to collaborate today before we begin.
I invite us all to hold a moment of silent reflection. I invite you to close your eyes if you are comfortable to descend.
Let us send gratitude and love to our ancestors since ancestors.
To those whose story has been silenced, stolen.
And denied. To all those who came before.
Let us give thanks for today's gathering. For the chance to be present curious.
And urgently engaged. And especially for the opportunity to learn from.
And with each other, thank you.