June 6, 2011Dear Sir,There were five Letters to the Editor in The Royal Gazette this morning (June 6). Four of them addressed our deep racial divide, in one way or another. Neither Mr Commissiong or I wrote either of them! So why is so much hostility directed at people like Mr Commissiong and myself when we address the issue. There is clearly a very real racial divide today, in the present, not merely in the past, and it was not created by Dr Ewart Brown, no matter how he chose to address it.No matter how many independent minded people want to join the OBA shadow boards, the only real “change” that matters to them is how many blacks who once voted for the PLP will vote for them. Race is the issue. All of the social issues that concern the society, crime, gun play, poverty, problems in education, all are manifested in the black community, none in any other racial or ethnic group. That alone is sufficient to maintain a deep racial divide. Add to that MP Marc Bean's recent list in the Bermuda Sun: a failure to cooperate in order to compete, Black's “victim mentality”, “a lack of love and self respect”, “a lack of individual and collective self-discipline …: none of that can be said to apply to any other racial or ethnic group. One thing seems to be true. While Government no longer imposes segregation, it was so effective in the past that it continues in the present: economically, socially, psychologically, culturally. Even when the above does not keep them separate, they separate. There were thousands at the Shelly Bay Field on Saturday. How many were white?Mr Butler had a successful festival on Angle Street, I was not there, but apart from the occasional politician, how many were white? The fact is that no matter how many call for “togetherness” or tell us to “unify”, it is going to take a great deal more than a lack of “bitterness and anger” (Royal Gazette June 6) for that to happen. Scores of blacks voting for the OBA is not going to do It either. Those who attack Mr Commissiong and myself and want to pretend that the issue is not significant, really fall into the category of those who have such contempt and hostility towards blacks that they continue to believe that we, as blacks, are so inherently inferior that we should be content with what racism both past and present, no matter how latent, continues to do to us. Telling us not “to play victim” does not address the situation very constructively either.It was Government's deliberated policy of the philosophy and practice of racism over decades and centuries that has created this racial divide with all of its destructive impact on the black community, economically, psychologically and socially. The irony is that during Government's official total segregation policy, the black community developed cultural elements that made us a more cohesive community: a value for scarce educational opportunity, a spiritual faith in the fundamentals of Christianity, respect for those who were older, helping each other as did the lodges, a collective desire for justice, even economic support for black businesses because we had no alternative. However, because, in spite of all of this, we internalised racism and believed that since everything white was superior we turned our backs on our own cultural values when we had an opportunity for limited and superficial “integration”. Our community's moral and social decline is a direct result of our attempt to emulate the white community.It took deliberate Government policy over decades and centuries to segregate us, and to impose our current economic disparity and our internalised racism. It will take Government policy, beginning with an Affirmative Action policy to even begin to lay the foundations of any “togetherness”. It is absurd to believe that the deep racial divide can be eliminated by a call for “togetherness” or changing the name of a political party, or shutting up, or getting rid of Mr Commissiong, simply because there are one or two financially successful blacks and one or two “integrated” blacks who would like for the issue of the racial divide go away.EVA N HODGSONHamilton Parish