In an unscheduled but impassioned Senate debate on race and discrimination, Senator Lt. Col. David Burch has defended his use of the phrase ?house nigger? as being a relevant observation and something that he was entitled to express under his own human rights.

And he said such forthright opinions would be viewed as normal confidence in a white person but are regarded as arrogance when they come from a black person.

Sen. Burch spoke out after hearing the Human Rights Commission lambasted as not having ?testicular fortitude? for deciding it did not have the remit to deal with a complaint against him for using the ?house nigger? term during a radio show in August.

And in the heated discussion senators were also told that a generation of Bermudians will have to die away before racial reconciliation becomes a reality on the Island.

The debate was sparked after the Human Rights Commission was accused of not having ?testicular fortitude? or backbone to deal with a radio show comment by Sen. Burch in which he referred to a caller as a United Bermuda Party ?house nigger?.

The comment had been ruled to be outside its remit by the Human Rights Commission, said UBP Sen. Bob Richards, adding: ?If I were a doctor I would prescribe the Human Rights Commission to get some testicular fortitude.

?It seems to me that we have a problem with this Commission in getting them actually standing up for human rights in this country. It is most unfortunate that there is no testicular fortitude, there is no backbone, in as far as them standing up when it is required, particularly as they don?t seem to have the gumption to stand up to Government ministers.?

In response Sen. Burch defended his Hott 107.5 radio show comment, which was made on August 7 when he was not part of the Government.

He said: ?It is a term that some people may find offence. I have stated in this place, and many other places, that this country would be far better off today if we had some field negros instead of just house negros. Then we would have people who would have courage to stand up for themselves and for their rights.?

Sen. Burch continued: ?Everything in this country is characterised by race. Everything that this Government does people view as a black Government carrying out black policies. Well, just because the Opposition says, doesn?t make it so. Most people that I know in this country, irrespective of their political affiliation, are for Bermudians, and when I talk about ?for Bermudians? I?m talking about all Bermudians. When I talk about foreigners it is not anti-foreign it is pro-Bermudian.?

?If there is a genuine desire to move forward in this country racially so that we have some honest talk, we have to have some honest talk from everybody. And we need to be not offended because somebody used a term that you don?t like. The defence cannot be that if you say something that someone doesn?t like ?Oh, you?re a racist?.?

Sen. Burch said the difference between South Africa moving on with reconciliation and Bermuda situation, was that South Africa had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that acknowledged what had been done wrong and then they were able to move on.

?We were around during segregation, we lived that. And until we get to the point where there is some truth there ain?t going to be no reconciliation. And this false pretence that you are offended by what people like me say, and I?m just arrogant, those same characteristics demonstrated in a white man, which you would accept as normal, you see them in a black man ? what I call confidence ? and you are talking about arrogance.

?Nothing could be further from the truth in terms of who I am. But I have a responsibility to be honest to myself and I?m entitled to my human rights and my opinion and the fact that I say things that may offend folk ? they say things that offend me.

?So if you?re not a house negro and the shoe don?t fit ? what? There never were any? There aren?t any today in this country? The truth be told there were and there are.?

Sen. Burch told his colleagues that too many people who have contributed to society were targeted for political point scoring.

He said: ?When you accuse me of lying or being something that I am not, I am a strange Bermudian in that regard too, I actually take it personally because I know that I have spent 30 years of my life making a contribution to this community. All that must demonstrate who someone is and the integrity and character that they have. So when your organ (newspaper) characterises me as something ? especially the one that comes out on Fridays ? I am not moved.?

Sen. Kim Swan accused the PLP Government of perpetuating the racial divide since it had taken power and said it was up to individual politicians on both sides to break down the polarisation and become agents for reconciliation.

Sen. Walter Roban defended the PLP?s record and said it had challenged discrimination and turned things around and would continue to do so.

Sen. Gina Spence-Farmer said: ?The whole idea of racism and injustice, there is a whole generation out there who do not even want to be a part of that, but they understand the past.

?My solution is that a whole generation of people are going to have to die in all honesty because there is a group that will never forgive and there is a group that will never embrace. And they are putting those same belief system in the younger kids and that?s where it is perpetuating.?

?It?s a crying shame that even at this point in time we continue to lie to ourselves, to fool ourselves that this is going to change with words. You can change nobody else if you are hanging on to past injustices.?