Tired of senseless killings and ongoing rivalries between the various gangs that litter Bermuda, Kendrick decided it was time to do something to facilitate a more harmonious relationship between the many established groups of men from Somerset to Town and Town to St George’s.
Rather than engage in arranged, covert, private discussion Kendrick decided on a more public forum, linking up with TNN’s Trevor Lindsay, his good friend Pudgy and his partner John John, who operate Ohana Barbershop in an effort to reach a wide audience via our Facebook platform in openly promoting unity within the Island’s communities.
Kendrick is from Town, Pudgy;’s business is stationed in the heart of Somerset and, based on their places of origin and the so-called ‘rules of engagement’ within today’s gang culture, they are not supposed to occupy the same space unless it is to do harm one to the other.
Both have spent time in prison for actions deemed to have transgressed lines of legality. Both emerged determined to make positive change to their own lives. Both have a vision of a Bermuda where young Black males can freely traverse all points without fear of being targeted simply for their place of abode, birth or association.
And so was born the TNN series In The Barbershop “Men Talk”, which debuted last Saturday and saw various debilitating male issues discussedy, including the issue of gang violence, which kendrick specifically spoke to at the close of the discussion.
He noted ‘respect’ or the lack thereof as a causal element in the escalation of gang violence, as well as being central to its diminishment and conversion to more harmonious relationships between the groups of mostly young Black males.
Kendrick explained how the planned series of salon discussions came to fruition and how they can positively impact relationships between communities going forward.
“A key word Pudgy said is respect,” said Kendrick. “Let me tell you how we guys came together and how we’re all here together right now.
“Me and Pudgy were in here talking one day. I often come here from work, stop in, sometimes I just hail him up, sometimes I get a haircut.
“But we started talking about how we are going to change our Island? How we’re going to start changing how we look at each other and how we view each other. And I was like, ‘Look, we got to make something happen.”
“I’ve been thinking about what we’re doing right now for years and months and I said, ‘Words don’t come into play unless you start acting on it.’
“I called Trevor up and said, ‘Look, Trevor we guys want to make something happen. We want a men’s talk in the barbershop.’
“He was like, ‘I’m down for that brah. I’m ready for that it’s time. It’s something that we need.’
“I came back to Pudgy and said, ‘Talk to your man who’s also in here as a barber and what he thinks about having something just for people to come and have an open discussion, where people can start being able to help try to bring change to our Island.’
“And this is how we all came together right now. “What we’re doing right now is helping to bring about change. We’re acting on it. We’re not just talking, you know. We’re acting.
“I’m from Town. Everybody here is probably from some other parts of this Island, whether it’s Somerset, White Hill.
“But guess what? We’re all Bermudian. That’s the key part.
“We have to get it in our minds that we can’t have our children from Somerset not being able to go Cedarbridge or Berkeley, because they’re terrified or afraid of guys from Town.
“There’s a negative thought pattern that we have very much allowed to bring fear inside of us. “And what this man said earlier, we as older men I’m 46-years-old have to know our rightful place and start standing up to be able to teach our younger men, so that they can teach our younger children.
“Because the problem is that no one’s very much speaking up. Everybody’s just mute. “The amount of people that are living with trauma and grief because of all the gang violence, all the murders …
“When are we going to start saying, ‘You know what man? Let’s try to save lives. Let’s try to put back some confidence in our community.’
“We need to put confidence in our mothers, because the mothers are very much the ones that are out there suffering the most, because you know why? They have other children that they still worry about when they have just had one of their children killed.
“They worry about who’s going to protect him. Who’s going to save him from probably the same anger and rage?
Just like was talked about earlier when you (Patron #2) said how, ‘That was your brother that got killed and I want to go kill somebody for him.’
“But who’s able to help save that child if there’s no man in the house to be able to tell the man-child, ‘Hey, I understand how you feel, but that’s just not the way you go about it.’ You see what I’m saying?
“But we all have the power right here. We’ve all done time in prison, the majority of us that are here right now. And in prison guys are friends that are supposed to have been enemies on the outside.
“If only the people in the streets knew that these same guys you thought was a guy that was against people from Somerset or the guy from Somerset was against people from Town, they’re in jail shaking hands, talking and getting along.”
Patron #1 spoke to the Biblical teaching found in Proverbs 23:7, ‘As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he’, which is to say that human beings have the power to visualise and shape their reality and then manifest a new creation from the probabilities of their thoughts.
“Whatever you think in your mind, if you can see it you can bring it into existence,” he said. “Because if you couldn’t see it in the first place, you couldn’t bring it into life.
“Anything that’s shown to you in your mind can be brought to life, but a lot of people don’t believe that.”
Another attendee, a business owner, spoke of the impact of what today’s youth consume in their ear and eye portals, particularly with regard to music that promotes violence, promiscuity and other nefarious acts, as well as video games that normalise the use of guns, murder, robbery and drug use.
“We have the youths out there today now listening to all the trap music and watching these videos,” said the young entrepreneur, who revealed how he had once visualised himself owning a food truck serving vegan dishes, the very item he now operates on Front Street.
“What are we putting in the subconscious mind? What are we putting in their belief system?
“They’re out here playing ‘Call of Duty’, with all the shooting and we wonder why they’re ignorant.
“This is what we’re plugging in their subconscious mind and they’re projecting it into their reality.
“You have all that and, like I said, you’re adding all these gun games, like Call of Duty, Modern Warfare and GTA (Grand Theft Auto) where you’re sticking n****s up for their car. “What do you think that’s doing for their mentality.
”They want to become these characters and what they play and see becomes normalised in their minds and makes it easy to go out practice that in real life and play that lifestyle.”
Piggy backing on the statement Patron # 1 highlighted the various negative elements infecting the community and Black culture to be very much by design and something the community must wake up to and counter if we, particularly Blacks, are to survive as a people.
“The people that’s running this world, they know what they’re doing,” said Patron #1. “They know what they’re pushing out. “They know how to keep the girls promiscuous. They know how to keep the guys into gun violence and they’re just pushing (that message).
“When Bob Marley was out and the whole world was into ‘Don’t worry’ and the positive vibrations vibe, they said, ‘Bob, you’ve got to go’.
“Because music and all the culture that we look at and tune in to, that transforms the whole mindset of a generation.
“These young kids, if you look at them, they’re walking around listening to Slim Shiesty all day, so how can they not think and act as they do if that’s what’s feeding they’re minds.
“We have to realise that our mental food is more important than our physical diet.
“Because, if you take in all day from the culture, whereas you’re swiping and swiping all that toxic information, what do you think is going to come out of the person.
“I went off of social media in 2013, because I realised it back then and said, ‘Yo, this is taking me to a place where I don’t even want to be.’
“It’s garbage in, garbage out. You don’t expect to go to the gym and get big eating cheeseburgers and fries, so why would you expect to take in bulls*** information and then try to become a great person. It don’t make sense.
“So, the culture is what’s causing us to stand where we are. I’m telling you that it’s the culture.”
Radical change, from the current path of certain destruction many appear to have embarked upon, is required if lives are to be salvaged and Black males are to avoid becoming an even more ‘endangered species’.
“One thing we have to do is to shift the paradigm of our music,” said the food truck owner.
Added Patron #1: “The fix is simple, but there is a big power, like Hollywood and the big media industry, which isn’t going to do that or just lay down and allow that to happen.
“So, we can have all these discussions, but how far can we go to rectify the situation?
“It’s like a tree that’s dead at the roots and we’re just fixing branches and leaves. They have a hold of the roots and are feeding the culture. They’re feeding the media. They’re feeding everything with this toxic mix. “So, no matter how much little stuff we fix, until we can address the roots …
Dwight Hatherley, who made headlines in the local media for his refusal to adhere to emergency measures instituted by Government, transgressions for which he asserted himself to have been both persecuted and prosecuted pointed a finger at the colonialist that dictate Bermuda’s course of action.
“I can see everybody’s point and the problem is that the reason why people like me are disliked by people in positions of power and authority is because I know that they not only created, (but) they perpetuate the problem and that they are the actual problem,” said Hatherley. “So we’ve got to get rid of that.
“How do we get rid of that? We’ve got to get rid of the Westminstre system.
“When I start talking like that they don’t want to hear that, because the Westminster system is why we are the product that we are right now. Why we are who we are right now. So, we have to get rid of that system.”
Said Patron #1: “Let me tell you this. Even us having this conversation right now is dangerous, because you have to realise that any time Black people have ever had unity, they’ve shut it down.
“Look at the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, every time we try to come together as a force they shut us down. “This is a dangerous conversation.”
Also in attendance, albeit in a personal rather than political capacity was Progressive Labour Party MP Dennis Lister III, who fortified Patron #1’s point, saying: “We had the Black Beret and the same way they had already destroyed the Black Panthers in America was the same way they destroyed the Black Beret. “Because whenever Black people come together it’s a powerful thing.
“And whatever cause we want to go for we’re going to go for it.”
With all the talk of the various causes of repression, Pudgy asked the critical question: “We have this topic, but what is the solution?”
Hatherley offered a swift response that pointed squarely at the need for Bermuda to focus upon gaining its indwependence from Great Britain : “Once we get rid of the Westminster system then we can implement the solution for the people,” he said. “If you check what’s happening in America right now, the problem is that the people have been brainwashed to believe that the government is the power.
“When the power is back in the hands of the people then the people can now start making the decisions as to how we are governed and how we live and what we become as a product.
“So, that’s where it is right now. The whole world is in that position right now.
“Waiting on America to announce to the world, we’re past that now. We’ve gotten rid of that nonsense.
“Because most people don’t check this here and I’m not going to go into all this Trump stuff. But on his inauguration, this is what he said, ‘we’re giving the power back to the people’. And this went over everybody’s head, the whole world, because people are so caught up depending on the government to think for them.
”What you going to do? How you going to do it? When you going to do it? All the ‘Ws’
“But we don’t need them, they need us. They can even function or survive without us. We are the government. We are the power. But we give our power to them.”
Added Patron #1: “The question you just asked is the most important question in this whole conversation, ‘What is the solution?’ “Because without a solution this conversation is pointless.
“What is the solution? “We’ve just talked about the culture and how Hollywood controls it and how big media controls it.
“A lot of people stop at that question, because they say, ‘F***. that’s too much of a mountain to climb. How am I going to take that on? It’s too big to take on.’
“So that, to me, honestly, is where a lot of people get stuck,”
Just as the Portuguese gained traction and built themselves into a powerful entity in Bermuda and the Jews and Asian migrants in the United States rose into powerful minority positions, the food truck owner suggested that Blacks needed to make distinct efforts to support their own, rather than patronise the ‘oppressors’.
“I feel like one of the solutions is to support our own businesses and people,” he said. “We fund a lot of our own slavery, because a lot of the companies and corporations that are doing these things to us in order to keep us depressed and repressed, we’re feeding them our dollars every day.
“I’ll tell you now. I don’t shop at Gibbons Company. I don’t shop on Reid Street. I don’t go to Little Theatre.
“My grandpa told me back in the day how at Little Theatre Black people weren’t even allowed in there, so I don’t give them my money.
“We have to keep the dollars circulating in our community and in our businesses.”
Though countered such acts of militancy, noting how integration was designed to allowed for a blending and healing of the races and so a freedom to patronise all businesses.
“That’s what integration allowed, so lets not categorise everybody in the same manner,” he said. “Let’s be open-minded.
“I don’t want to categorise everyone the same, because some of them chose to do what was right.
“In reality what all of this gang stuff boils down to is a spiritual war, that’s the reality of life. Every second of every day is spiritual. “I believe that everyone here believes there is a God, but the devil is working every second bro. His purpose is to derail as many people as possible from getting on that straight path. “So, if people don’t take the step to get closer with the Creator then this will only repeat itself.”
“It ain’t easy and it’s never going to be easy, because growth ain’t easy. If it’s easy it ain’t worth it And if it’s worth it it won’t be easy.”
Highlighted the importance of each individual getting to know himself, know God and build from these relationships and knowledge.
“It goes back to what you were saying, as far as there being a spiritual purpose and knowing yourself,” he said. “I feel that once you understand yourself and you know the real worth of life, either you tap into the higher being or the higher power that exist, and I feel that we must accept that that is a part of life and learn from that.
“I feel that all the reaction is just an egotistic game just to show my person, but lets show the world different, that we care, because I really do care.”
Any content which is considered unsuitable, unlawful, or offensive, includes personal details, advertises or promotes products, services or websites, or repeats previous comments will be removed.
User comments posted on this website are solely the views and opinions of the comment writer and are not a representation of or reflection of the opinions of TNN or its staff.
TNN reserves the right to remove, edit or censor any comments.
TNN accepts no liability and will not be held accountable for the comments made by users.