Race in the 21st Century Bahamas

by Larry Smith

For much of our recent history, the Bahamas has come packaged in two distinct versions – ebony and ivory.

Although there was never any legal apartheid after slavery, our two communities co-existed separately – to a greater or lesser degree, depending on who you talk to, which accounts you read or what settlements you come from.

But you need only thumb through the pages of a few editions of Nassau Magazine to get an appreciation of what life was really like in the old days - on the surface at least.

From 1934 to 1948 this magazine was produced by THE leading citizen of the day - Guardian publisher Mary Moseley. It was mostly a society record, documenting the comings and goings of this colonial bigwig and that rich resident.

Even British canines were admired for their blue blood. One issue featured a long article on the 1940 wartime evacuation of British greyhounds from the mother country to Nassau:

"They have adapted themselves to the considerable climatic change in a gratifying manner," readers were candidly informed. "Safe Rock is outstanding, his pedigree containing the blood of two great greyhounds. The puppies he has sired in Nassau show every sign of their fine ancestry and background."

Later, when it was acquired by Bahamian writer Benson McDermott and Canadian banker Lew Phillips, the magazine became the country’s main vehicle for tourist promotion. Subsidised by Sir Stafford Sands’ Development Board, it documented the ‘golden age’ of Bahamian tourism and offshore finance.

After renaming itself Bahamas Magazine in the late 1960s, the publication expired in 1972. The new social order created by the PLP’s epochal 1967 election victory made it tres politically incorrect, and the fate of this venerable magazine was a trenchant sign of the times.

As a Bahamian who came of age on the cusp of this dramatic hinge in our history, the subject holds much fascination.

It seems curious today, but the people staring out from the pages of that long-dead publication are almost without exception white. And their status is clearly measured by their proximity to influential foreigners – whether imperial officials or wealthy visitors.

When Mary Moseley died in 1960 at the age of 81, Benson McDermott was able to write glowingly about her outstanding leadership of the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire.

But within a few years, that once august group of ladies became as irrelevant to official culture as the Eboe Society had been in an earlier time. And it is a safe bet that most Bahamians today wouldn’t have a clue what the letters “IODE” stand for.

That was life in the Bahamas until the late 1960s. Unremittingly British, strictly conservative in a countrified sort of way, and officially white. It was what some historians later described as “a prolonged anomaly”, since the population had been mostly black from the late 1700s onward.

Not surprisingly, it took well over a generation for Bahamians of both races (and those in-between) to even begin to come to terms with the changes wrought in 1967. For blacks, centuries of slavery, exclusion and second class citizenship had given way overnight to supreme political power, whereas whites had seen their peculiar version of Bahamian society vanish forever.

Many whites resented this change for obvious reasons - some left the country for good as a result. And many blacks understandably saw it as an opportunity to get even by hook or by crook.

As one correspondent we surveyed told Tough Call: "Mary Moseley and her ilk were the architects and defenders of a nasty social and economic system which excluded blacks and naturally made some of them angry as hell. After all, they are human!

Unfortunately, the recent commemoration of January 10 as ‘majority rule day’ was little more than crass PLP posturing. As Sir Arthur Foulkes noted, Bahamians of all racial and political groups contributed to the democratic achievement of 1967.

But the electioneering certainly pointed up the ongoing dichotomy between the white and black versions of Bahamian identity.

The fact is, after decades of being berated, humiliated and sidelined for the sins of the past, most white Bahamians have quietly disengaged from society - a fact which black Bahamians are, ironically, quick to exploit:

"Why are there virtually no white (public officers)? Why are there virtually no white Bahamian teachers in the public school system? Why are there no white Bahamian straw vendors, hotel workers or taxi drivers? How do you explain this?"

"For us to believe that we can fuse together One Bahamas in 30 years is a pipe dream. Indeed, only blacks want this, whites do not. If white Bahamians make up less than 15 per cent of the population but control 85 per cent of the wealth, then obviously many black Bahamians still feel that white is right and the lighter the better. That is the social psychology of racism in The Bahamas."

These comments are from someone who identifies himself as Dr Felix Moss, a Bahamian professor at an American university. They are applauded by some black intellectuals as "what we all discuss privately but don't have the guts to say in public. Really, really insightful and on point."

It seems that despite the passage of time and the obvious transformation of our society to the point where whites are almost irrelevant to the national debate – many still believe little has changed. In fact, Guardian columnist Nicolette Bethel recently suggested that black Bahamians have been “brainwashed” into believing that their experience of race was the same as the American experience:

“There is a persistent belief that white Bahamians are controlling the lives of black Bahamians," she wrote. "This is a belief that, to my mind, has very little meaning...In The Bahamas, the racial debate of the 1950s and 1960s was a question of common sense and morality rather than a question of law."

The perception of whites is, of course, at variance with Dr Moss: "As far as I know there is no difference between whites and blacks in the ownership of private property here. The first millionaire in the Bahamas was a black man named W.W. Richardson, who owned Bay Street property. Paul Adderly's family owned Cable Beach, and a black family owned Lyford Cay.

"Racism - as it exists today - is not a major concern compared to other factors that prevent economic development and the creation of wealth. Certainly white Bahamians are not standing in the way of black Bahamians taking advantage of whatever the market offers."

An example often cited is fishing: "Every Bahamian has the same access, but the Spanish Wells people and some whites in Abaco make an extremely good living from the sea. They have no special advantage but were industrious and put the money they earned back into better boats and equipment - not into producing outside children. Now they have to accept black Bahamians from other settlements poaching their traps at gunpoint."

Some blacks seem to think that the infamous 19th century truck system still exists. According to Dexter Johnson, after 43 years "native Bahamians" are still not economically empowered: "The jobs created do little more than keep (us) poor or so deep in debt that (we are) functionally bankrupt."

The usual riposte is that since white businessmen are ripping off the masses, it should be easy for black businessmen to sell at better prices so that most customers will naturally buy from them. That would be economic empowerment of the first order. And of course, this view makes out that all the black tycoons and business leaders in the country simply don't exist.

What both white and black Bahamians of goodwill should be concerned about is the culture of irresponsibility and dependence that has developed in the country. Government jobs and handouts are among the top ambitions for many Bahamians, who say the country is awash with great wealth that needs to be shared out.

According to this view, most black Bahamians are deprived of opportunity and forced to live in grinding poverty while the whites and foreigners continue to eat, drink and be merry together. But that is a gross distortion of reality.

The truth is that there are few barriers to earning a good living and getting ahead in this country today. And it certainly doesn't have to be done through the grace of grasping politicians. The never-ending search for reasonably reliable, competent and honest technicians and tradesmen is an obvious case in point.

And there are plenty of public benefits for low income earners - with more on the way. As well as handouts for the lower middle class like scholarships, mortgages and small business loans that are rarely repaid, there are the National Insurance benefits that are justifiably skewed towards low income earners. Not to mention our massive public health, welfare and education systems.

Quite often it's the choices people make for themselves that determine their condition. The voluntary donations that poor people make to support the imperial lifestyles of wealthy preachers, the expensive clothing and cars they buy, the utter lack of productivity, the careless reproduction of unwanted children, looking the other way on most moral issues, the studied indolence of the boys on the blocks - these all point to a culture of raging self-indulgence.

In fact, the main conclusion drawn by the government's own Living Conditions Survey recently was that there is very little real poverty in The Bahamas - under 10 per cent of the population, which is less than in Barbados or the United States.

And just what was the biggest contributor to this poverty? Single women supporting four or five children. The reality is that over half of all births in the Bahamas are out of wedlock. More than two thirds of young Bahamians are from single parent homes, and in most of these cases the single parent is a teenage woman.

Well, Tough Call is no intellectual, but if black perceptions are correct, we are reasonably certain that those telling statistics have nothing to do with white people. And yet rather than generating clarion calls for social renewal from our political leaders and clergymen, all we hear are interminably boring lectures that whites are hogs and blacks have nothing.

That is a pipe dream. After all, an individual's social preferences are just that - preferences. And I can assure you that not many black people invite Tough Call to dinner (even though I am jonesing for some crab and rice right now, and as a minority I should be in demand).

But to suggest that the irrelevant handful of white Bahamians are somehow responsible for whatever problems black Bahamians are facing today is to live in a fantasy of your own making. It's another one of those conspiracy theories that are so popular in some quarters. And if black Bahamian leadership over the past half century has been involved in such a conspiracy, then God help us all.

As another correspondent we surveyed put it: "If intelligent people can’t get over the white bogeyman, this country is doomed to repeat the same crap over and over."

Still, it is the opinion of many thoughtful blacks that attitudes will never change without a frank discussion of the past and an ungrudging admission of the facts:

"If we do not deal with this problem, one day there will be an incident that will bring out the worst in us. Almost had one the other day out east - just suppose he had pulled the trigger and killed Dr. Eneas!"

So clearly there is much work to be done on both sides of the racial divide. But living in denial, or popularising risible pseudo intellectual claptrap, just won't cut it.

Comments

[Chris Armaly]

In regard to your statements regarding why there are no white public officers, teachers etc. (which I believe you were quoting a 3rd party) the answer is quite simple: 1) Any white straw vendor or hotel worker will be ostracized. Every second word will be..."hey white boy", "white boy do dis and do dat." I know this for a fact as my sister attempted to work for the largest investor in the Bahamas and endured this treatment until she had to quit 60 days later due to constant racial verbal abuse.
2) I believe we all know that the expat teacher was all but eliminated 3 administrations ago in the public school sector. We now have the "blind leading the blind" as some of today's teachers couldn't teach a potcake. If that ideology is to change does anyone honestly believe that any qualified educated teacher will entertain the gang ridden public school arena?
3) Not just white Bahamians, but educated Bahamians in general refuse to throw their careers down the toilet by joining some inefficient corrupt government ministry.
4) Should one actually lose a few brain cells and decide to pursue a career in government, they will remain at the bottom and will never be promoted as it won't be politically favourable. It is and has never been about how one can do good for or better the country as a whole, it always comes down to race.

Very sad yes, but the hard core reality.

[R. Lightbourn]

You took on a tough subject, and "told it like it is."

Congratulations,

[Sharon]

Your article is really first class- right on the spot. Actually, most weeks your articles are the only thing that I read.

I am lucky. We get invited to quite a few homes of black Bahamians - most with mixed marriages but some both black couples. They seem to agree with what you is saying.