If Cordell Riley had been born white instead of black, would his life be different today?Mr Riley is the founder and managing director of Profiles of Bermuda, an assesment and human resources development company. He worked for 14 years for government as a statistician and research officer. He has been a college lecturer in Bermuda and abroad. He also holds numerous certificates and college degrees including a Bachelor's degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management, a Master's degree in Tourism Marketing, among others. He is currently pursuing a distance PhD in social science from the University of Tilburg in Holland.But he is firm in his belief that had he been born white, he would be further ahead in the game. Mr Riley has put much of his talent for statistics and research into researching the racial and social situation in Bermuda. He is an ardent supporter of the Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB), and has lectured and led workshops extensively on the subject of racial equality in Bermuda. Recently he became a Certified Cognitive Trainer Facilitator, which enables him to help people change the way that they think.Q: Do you think being a statistician gives you kind of a unique perspective on what goes on?A: I think so because for one, no one else is really doing it in Bermuda. In the United States you would have a conference board or some other organisation taking the information that government produces and then using it to forecast what is going to happen in the future. We did work earlier this year on the retail sales index, where that was going, consumer spending overseas where that was headed, and we did one on the rate of inflation. We would probably do one on tourism next. We find that is information that the community would like to have.Q: You are involved with CURB quite a lot?A: I seem to be the face of CURB, for whatever reason. If I say something it is associated with them. I got involved with them in 2007 and 2008 as a general member. I went on the research committee dealing with research because of my background. More recently I am involved with advocacy. We take up causes that has to do with racial justice and racial equity. With CURB we are going abroad for training in June to study restorative justice. We are training to deal with it in the community to continue the work that has already been started so we can come to a place where Bermuda is a better place. CURB's motto is ‘a place where skin colour favours no one'. That is an ideal which we may never reach but we certainly want to move along that continuum and get to a place where it really doesn't matter or not as much.Q: Were you involved at all with the Big Conversation movement a few years ago organised by the Centre for Unity and Racial Equality?A: I was, but I was behind the scenes as assistant project manager. My role was primarily to make sure things happened on the day.Q: Do you think the Big Conversation was largely a failure or a success?A: I think there are people who have branded it as a failure. Of course, I would be biased in saying it certainly was not. Being involved, it exposed me to the injustices of the legacy of slavery from a more academic point of view. There were a number of speakers brought in including Joy DeGruy. She came up with the theory of post traumatic slave syndrome. She looked at whether families who go through a trauma pass that on to further generations. She looked at it from a racism and slavery point of view. That really hit home for me in terms of why we are in the position we are in today, why we can't just shake this thing off. It has it been passed on down the line. Dr Eva Hodgson and I recently did a session at the Leopard's Club on internalised racism.Q: Tell me about the speech you gave.A: It was not actually a speech. It was a discussion group, aimed to the black community and we looked at this whole thing of internalised racism and how do we heal? The Big Conversation focused primarily on black and white relations, although we did do some work in individual racial groups. Now we have offshoots of that. Both Dr Hodgson and I went to the white privilege conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota in April. Dr Hodgson had this idea of doing this workshop, but she said it wasn't until she went and attended sessions that she was able to frame it.Q: In terms of internalised racism, how do you get people to feel better about themselves?A: There is a concept, which I am studying still, called reevaluative counselling. It really is like group therapy, to talk it out with your peers. A lot of things are based on getting things out in the open, and getting people to acknowledge that this does exist. If we can get to that point, then we can start moving from there. A lot has to do with owning up to it. We can easily talk about white racism but what about internalised racism. How are we perpetuating that?Q: Where do you feel race relations are going in Bermuda? Do you think things are getting better?A: When I listen to the talk shows I sometimes hear white people saying race relations are the worse they have been in the last 25 years. He said it was all we talk about these days. The radio host said ‘oh, because we didn't talk about it 25 years ago it was better?' Because 25 years ago we had some real tensions. This year is the commemoration of the strike in 1981. That was the general strike. When you go back to the 1977 you had the riots. I think it is because it is more out in the open. I think that has come with the ascension of the Progressive Labour Party (PLP). Instead of not talking about it, we now feel if there is an injustice that has occurred you want to make sure that it is addressed. If you don't talk it, the tensions only get worse.Q: So do you feel you would have been better off had you been born white?A: A lot of black people come to the question, had you been white would you be in a better position today. If you look at my bio and credentials if I was in Barbados or Jamaica or Bahamas I would be at the top of my game. They recognise their people and I don't think that is the same here. Here you can do all the right things but not move up. I think the unanimous answer to that would be, of course I would be better off.