DON'T always agree with Khalid al-Wasi's political and social opinions. But his comments in a Letter To The Editor that appeared in last week'sreferring to the latest crisis within the United Bermuda Party mirrored my own views to such an extent that I could easily have written them myself.

Indeed, anyone who is unafraid to look at Bermuda's political/racial polity as it really is will end up drawing many of the same conclusions as Mr. Wasi.

The abrupt withdrawal of Jamahl Simmons from the UBP political fold, citing alleged racism within the party following attempts by former UBP MP Erwin Adderley and his supporters to wrest the Pembroke seat away from him, will probably be dismissed by many people as another example of a black person playing the so-called race card.

Many people might even be tempted to dismiss Mr. al-Wasi's views as being born of self-interest since he has made no secret of the fact that, in his opinion, the UBP's days as a viable political alternative to the current Progressive Labour Party Government are done and it is now time for a new political entity, one without the racial baggage associated with the former governing party, to emerge phoneix-like from its ashes.

Certainly anyone who has listened to the UBP's reaction to Jamahl Simmons' denunciation of the party will immediately recognise the deep-seated denial emanating from that party.

And the desperate attempts to discredit Mr. Simmons fly completely in the face of the UBP's decision to roll out the red carpet for him when he left the National Liberal Party to join them and their decision to fast-track him as a Parliamentary candidate.

In fact, the UBP was publicly ecstatic when Mr. Simmons joined their ranks because ? according to their electoral calculations ? this was exactly the type of bright, personable and young black politician the party needed to attract enough black support at the next election to win back the Government.

So UBP attempts to disparage Mr. Simmons now by claiming he's simply playing the race card will not succeed in the eyes of many Bermudians, especially among Bermuda's black majority ? the majority that controls the balance of political power in this country.

The attempts will fail because of Bermuda's racially divided past and the way in which race was hijacked by Bermuda's white minority in order to maintain political power.

Just look at the almost monolithic support the white community gave to the UBP from 1968 to 1998, support that allowed the UBP ? with some support from the politically fragmented black community ? to retain the reins of political power uninterrupted throughout this period.

Khalid al-Wasi is correct to cite the observations made by the late Sir John Plowman, a mover and shaker within the UBP during its early days who eventually came to recognise that Bermuda is not one community but two ? separate black and white communities with two distinct perspectives and two different interpretations of this island's needs and different views on what socio-economic directions Bermuda needs to move in.

It is also quite true that throughout its long tenure as the Government of this country the UBP did not feel the need to address this cultural divide within Bermuda, a divide that was both political and at the same time racial.

No leader of the UBP has ever spoken exclusively to the needs and perspectives of the black community in this country, with black Bermudians more often than not having their agendas come much further down the party's To Do Lists than was either appropriate or rational from a political self-preservation point of view.

This may seem a bizarre conclusion to draw given the racial demographics of this country and the fact the UBP led Bermuda for three decades (often with black leaders) but it is, I think, an entirely apt one ? one which helps to explain the difficulties the UBP now finds itself in when it comes to drawing support from black Bermudians.

History shows how, even when the UBP was led by Sir Edward Richards, Sir John Swan and Dame Pamela Gordon, any attempts to bring what could be called black concerns to the forefront of the party's agenda were met by ridicule or concerted attempts to discredit and undermine the leadership by the party's core support base. Need I remind anyone of the meanspirited "Concerned Bermudians" movement which publicly went to war with Sir John Swan despite the fact his charisma and political know-how had saved the UBP from electoral oblivion in the 1980s? No wonder black Bermudians in particular won't be quick to dismiss the complaints that have been aired by Jamahl Simmons expressing his dillusionment with how the UBP operates internally.

In the run-up to the 1968 election, the first two-party race contested in Bermuda under the Universal Franchise, UBP founding father and future Finance Minister Dr. Clarence James gave a memorable speech entitled "Am I Being Used?" which addressed the question of black participation in the party.

Dr. James answered his rhetorical question with a resounding "No!" and, certainly during its early days as the Government of Bermuda, many black Bermudians decided that the UBP might well be the catalyst which could bring about a genuine bi-racial society in this country.

However, as Khalid al-Wasi stated last week, you only have to look at the short history of the UBP's Black Caucus and comments made by Members of Parliament as diverse in their political philosophies as Sir John Swan, Jim Woolridge, Dame Pamela Gordon and Gloria McPhee to recognise that attempts to bring specifically black concerns to the fore will always be frustrated if these happen to go against the agenda sanctioned and supported by the party's white support base. Jamahl Simmons is yet one more victim of these longstanding political and racial realities which colour how the UBP tends to be viewed within the black community.

There's another aspect to this divided Bermudian reality which I would like to address. Just as no UBP leader ever felt the need to spotlight the specific concerns of the black community, arguably the reverse now holds true in the new Bermudian political reality. With a PLP Government that is overwhelmingly supported by the black community, we have yet to see the current Cabinet address issues primarily associated with the white community.

This decision to relegate white concerns to second-string status on the part of a PLP Government far more secure of retaining power given its primarily black support base than the UBP ever was with its racially mixed electoral backing will have tremendous racial, political and cultural ramifications over the long-term ? ramifications that have yet to all be identified.

So how do we proceed from this juncture Bermuda? As I have said before, I am not alone in wondering what I really have in common with my fellow white Bermudians. And, as I've also said, black Bermudians have grown weary of carrying the burden of racial rapprochement almost entirely on their shoulders.