On the 38th anniversary of the Bermuda riots, Cordell Riley has called for a committee “with teeth” to look into the social problems behind this dark chapter in local history.

The social commentator and statistician, who wrote the closing chapter of Island Flames, Jonathan Smith’s recent bestselling book on the historical events, insisted that more needed to be done to balance the “big gap between the haves and the have nots, which in Bermuda translates to whites and blacks”.

Meanwhile, Rolfe Commissiong, the Shadow Minister of Human Affairs, added: “The price we paid for not getting that period post-1977 right is visible for all to see.”

Between December 1 and 3 1977, rioting and arson attacks led by the Island’s black community left three people dead and many establishment-owned businesses badly damaged.

The chaos was prompted by the failure to prevent the hanging of two men, Erskine Durrant “Buck” Burrows and Larry Tacklyn, who had been convicted of politically driven assassinations five years earlier.

These were the last ever executions on British soil.

The Pitt Report was royally commissioned to delve into the events, root out the cause of the Island’s social and racial problems, and identify a path towards a fairer Bermuda.

Published in July 1978, the report identified a “passionate and bitter” belief among black Bermudians that the population’s wide economic divisions were forged along black and white boundaries.

“There is explosive material in Bermuda’s social structure,” the report warned, while offering various solutions such as tax alterations and promoting the spread of wealth.

Mr Riley quoted Martin Luther King, who said: “A riot is the language of the unheard”, adding that the Pitt Report was an attempt to address legitimate concerns, which ultimately wasn’t acted upon.

This echoes the findings of the recently-published report Racial Dynamics in Bermuda in the 21st Century: Progress and Challenges by Keith Lawrence and Raymond Codrington.

The report found that racial disparities remain rife on the Island, with 58 per cent of black Bermudians working blue-collar jobs and 65 per cent of white workers holding senior, managerial or professional positions.

“In Bermuda, the past is always with us because of the deep racial divides. If we were all on the same level, it wouldn’t be of any major concern,” said Mr Riley.

“But because it has created these deep divisions between the two Bermudas, it’s always going to be there. We have to find some way to redress that.”

Mr Riley claimed that the Pitt Report caused little more than cosmetic, “politically expedient” changes to the fabric of Bermuda’s society.

“It didn’t address the root of the problem,” he added. “Obviously it was written in a different time, but there may be a variation that can be used today.

“I would certainly recommend there be a committee to look into it, one which has teeth, and offers recommendations going forward.”

Mr Commissiong also argued that Bermuda had fallen short of the Pitt Report’s objectives for a better Bermuda.

“I’m not sure we’ve realised the great aspirations and hopes that were encapsulated in that document,” he said.

He suggested that Bermuda’s white community’s reluctance to discuss racial issues formed part of the problem.

“Many white people will not acknowledge the issue of institutional and structural racism that has plagued our society, which is part of the British legacy that was imposed on us,” he said.

“And while they brag and take ownership of their Parliamentary, legal and economic legacies here, the former is treated as some unwanted, despised orphan.”

Mr Commissiong claimed that the Island’s economic problems in recent years have only served to exacerbate the racial disparity regarding income and wealth, “particularly in the underdevelopment of Bermuda’s black community in the corporate sector”.

“We should have seen a Bermuda by now where that is not the case,” he said. “Something has happened here, and I think we need to address it.”