January 13, 2013Dear Sir,‘Where our children will go we cannot enter’ — Lebanese poet Kahlil GibranIn response to Mark Emmerson criticism of the open letter to Dr Eva Hodgson by Clevelyn Crichlow calling upon Dr Hodgson to desist from beating her head against a stone wall with regard to race relations in Bermuda; the comments of Mr Crichlow in regard to this matter are precisely correct and have been proven by the very words of Mr Emmerson; for a Eurocentric mind cannot comprehend the world and historical viewpoint of any other than itself. While the white people of today cannot be blamed for the historical actions of their ancestors; it cannot be denied that they have benefited from the historical wrongs of those times. Right here in Bermuda as recent statics attest to; why is it that the white community continue to earn more than their black counterparts if it is not built on the racial advantage that began with the racist policies and laws enforced against non-white peoples which includes my African ancestors?If Mr Emmerson, or any other white person for that matter; should go and see the currently showing movie ‘Django Unchained’, pay particular attention to the house slave character brilliantly played by Samuel L Jackson. This house slave was so close to his master that you would get the impression that he had no awareness of the existence of his own self as a human being so wrapped up with the affairs of his white master. Does such a black person exists today and if so how can you identify them? Well some black people don’t see anything wrong with being the only one in a group of white people. They never ask the question how come I am the only black person here? To get a clearer understanding of this state of affairs you need look no further but to observe the black characters in the popular soap ‘The Young and the Restless’. You see black characters but you don’t see the black community from which they sprang from. They are in effect an appendix to the white society being depicted.In real life in such circumstances the black person may not even be aware that this is the state of affairs. This is a far cry from Mr Emmerson’s question as to if the history of slavery has damage today’s black people? Of course Mr Emmerson is right in this respect; you can break out of the influences of this Eurocentric dominated society. But that may take living through a particular era. I live through the Black power revolt and the civil rights struggles which had its influences on Bermuda. I saw the end of European colonialism in Africa with the end of Portuguese rule in southern Africa; the end of Ian Smith’s Rhodesia and the final end of Apartheid in South Africa. I can even add the election of the US’s first black President, Barack Obama. But by that time I had already attained what I call a free black mind. I would never be able to look at the white men and white society with the same eyes.This is where I disagree with Dr Hodgson; I don’t have an inferior complex. I could not possibly have one having lived through the era I have described above. I would be of the mind that my fellow black Bermudians should think in terms of self determination and stop looking to the white community to solve our problems. I think ultimately that is what Mr Crichlow meant when he called on Dr Hodgson to stop beating her head against a stone with regard to race relations. I think also that is what the new Progressive Labour Party leader Mark Bean means when he talks about a new way forward for black people when it comes to race relations. And as to generational change that is what the poet Kahlil Gibran talked about when he said ‘Where our children go we cannot follow’.ALVIN WILLIAMSWarwick