In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, President George Bush issued a challenge to the countries of the world: "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror," he said.

I've observed a similar mentality in Bermuda, but here it's about the fight for racial equality.

Bermuda's race relations are considerably better than those in many other Western countries. Here, blacks are the majority. Here, political power is held by a black party. Here, both black and white Bermudians can realistically aspire to be the leader of the country. Economically, however, there are still disparities. I was shocked to recently discover that, according to the 2000 Census, white Bermudians earn between three percent and 16 percent more than black Bermudians in every major occupational group.

So perhaps it's understandable that whenever this topic is discussed, there often seems to be little attempt to find common ground or distinguish nuances of opinion, and an eagerness to misrepresent what's being said.

Last week I found myself on the receiving end of this attitude when I raised a question about the teaching of African history in Bermuda's public schools.

I recently became aware of an article in the July 2003 issue of the Black Reparations Times by the author of the Ashay programme, Melodye Micere Van Putten. The Times is the newsletter of N'COBRA - the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. In it, Mrs. Van Putten talked about the need for African-centred education as "a necessary, critical part of the equation in our pursuit for reparations". She also mentioned a supplement she produced for Bermuda's social studies curriculum which "advocates and provides justification for reparations". Concerned that an issue as complex as reparations might be being advocated rather than discussed in Bermuda's schools, I asked Mrs. Van Putten if I could see a copy of her supplement and the curriculum of the Ashay programme. My request was refused. When I persisted, I was accused of being as opposed to Ashay as Douglas Howe, the owner of Bermuda Rentals, who recently refused to give a discount to Dellwood because of the school's involvement with the programme.

This surprised me. When the story first broke, I was highly critical of Mr. Howe's suggestion that African values should not be taught in Bermuda's schools because we're a British colony. The issue of reparations constitutes only about one percent of the Ashay curriculum and I had expressed no concern about the rest of the programme. All other curricula taught in government schools are available in the public library. I was left with the impression that unless you were with the Ashay programme you were considered to be against it.

Further probing revealed that Dellwood's reluctance to release the Ashay curriculum was due to a fear that it might be misunderstood by anyone who read it without also seeing how it's taught. It's true that a curriculum will tell you what's being taught, but not how; given the situation with Mr. Howe, Dellwood's reluctance to release it was perhaps understandable. But it also speaks volumes about the level of trust when it comes to discussing ways to right the imbalances and injustices of the past.

To me it's ideas that are important, not the party or individual who is putting them forward. They should be evaluated on merit alone. Criticism of those ideas should be evaluated in the same way.

For example, when the UBP announced that it was creating a shadow portfolio for Race Relations and Economic Empowerment I expected it to get a lot of support. There seemed to be general agreement that economic empowerment was a good thing and that a structured programme to address the issue would be better than the Government's current ad-hoc approach. Instead, many blacks dismissed it as just another UBP trick to get the black vote. Would their reaction have been different if the PLP had proposed it?

The fear that your ideas and opinions will be judged based on who you are rather than what you're saying encourages people to seek anonymity. Most people who leave comments on A Limey In Bermuda do so under pseudonyms and I know that some of them do so for precisely that reason. While this can sometimes lead to a freer debate, anonymity also makes it harder to hold people accountable for their comments. This can, and often does, result in more personal attacks and a lowering of the quality of debate.

President Bush's false dichotomy has not helped the US fight the war on terror. It has alienated many would-be allies who may support that country's goals but cannot agree with the detentions at Guantanamo or the invasion of Iraq.

Similarly, it does nothing to help racial reconciliation if those who agree on the destination but simply favour different routes will not listen to each other's concerns and evaluate each other's ideas fairly.

Phillip Wells' web log is www.limeyinbermuda.com. He writes every Thursday in The Royal Gazette.