I DON'T know columnist Christian Dunleavy except through the occasional pieces that he writes for the sister newspaper. We are both Bermudians, but as far as having similar worldviews or a common perspective on the Bermuda reality, we might as well be living in two different countries.

Recently, Mr. Dunleavy wrote a column headlined "Isn't it time we returned to plain old Bermudian?" His thesis ? that the use of such hyphenates as "Anglo-Bermudian" or "African-Bermudian" serve to divide rather than unite the community ? was presented in the form of a question.

But I have another question ? was there any time when we were all, in fact, plain old Bermudians?

Certainly my fellow trade unionist colleague and newspaper columnist Calvin Smith would have severe doubts that there was ever a time when we all fell under the same cultural umbrella as "plain old Bermudians".

Judging by the reception Mr. Smith got when he spoke at the recent so-called war on racism rally at City Hall, when he attempted to give another view on Bermuda's racial divide, would have confirmed what many black Bermudians already knew when it comes to the ethnic fragmentation on this island: there is only one acceptable view of the situation ? the view of Bermuda's white community.

Of course, this view is very rarely openly expressed these days but from time to time it does indeed manifest itself ? most recently following the unfortunate beating of Portuguese-Bermudian Rui Medeiros outside the Docksiders pub during the World Cup.

Mr. Dunleavy decries the fact that we still insist upon categorising ourselves as "Portuguese-Bermudian"; "black-Bermudian" or "white-Bermudian", but let me ask whose fault is that?

The reality of Bermuda's history has condemned us as a country to enter upon this path of social disconnection and lack of real focus or unity.

The problem is that we should have spoken plainly about this a long time ago and the truth is the community that has always called for racial unity on a consistent basis has been the black community. It is not that the white community has not called for unity but it is the circumstances that make the difference.

I am in my middle-to-late 50s which means that I have observed a fair amount of Bermuda's modern history ? a period when major political change and racial and trade union conflict essentially reshaped my country.

In fact, in my own way I participated in making Bermuda's modern history.

For I was involved in the Black Power revolt in Bermuda as a young man in the late 1960s/early 1970s. And I have stood on a fair number of picket lines during Bermuda's labour conflicts and fought for and supported the quest of the Progressive Labour Party to become the Government of this country. In addition, I have written about the Bermuda reality from the black perspective on a consistent basis since the late 1970s.

Generally, the white community's public calls for racial harmony have taken place in the aftermath of the various social or political upheavals I have just mentioned.

In that regard perhaps my assessment of Mr. Dunleavy at the outset may have been somewhat unkind. For we all tend to drift back into that uniquely Bermudian state of sleep-walking whenever an immediate crisis is over, black and white.

It is one common cultural characteristic we do indeed share. But while this has been especially true of the white community, it has never been wholly true of the black community which has had to deal with the legacy of Bermuda's racial past ? a legacy which has impacted on everything from economic empowerment, to education to being, in fact, the majority population group in this country.

But until we arrived at a major political watershed in 1998 ? when the PLP became the Government for the first time ? we blacks were, as a community, a politically minority in terms of getting our interests addressed by the former United Bermuda Party Government.

Interestingly, Mr. Dunleavy talks of being mistaken for an expatriate while attending Cup Match. But this prompts me to ask: "Does this have anything to do with the demographic fact that even with the presence of Portuguese-Bermudians who were born in this country, the majority of Bermuda's white population claiming Bermuda status were born outside of this country or are only one-generation removed from another country?"

In fact, the born white Bermudian is perhaps Bermuda's smallest minority.

And then there is another aspect to all this. White Bermuda did not integrate Cup Match. White American tourists did that on their holidays spent in Bermuda during Cup Match time. It has only been in recent years that we have seen more white Bermudians and residents attending Cup Match ? a pleasing development, to be sure, but still a relatively new one.

I will never accept that Bermudians are overly anti-foreign. No, not with the high level of foreigners working in this country. In Europe (even in Britain), the level of foreigners in the workforce approaches perhaps five per cent and look at the xenophobic protests from political leadership on down.

Here a much higher percentage of the workforce is non-Bermudian but Bermudians remain ? in general ? accommodating and hospitable despite the increasing pressures this ongoing influx is having on our infrastructure.

I have seen a lot of Bermuda's history. I have seen white Bermuda oppose democratic and political change in this country and find it ironic that they now accuse the PLP Government of opposing the use of democratic mechanisms (such as preferring a General Election to a referendum to decide the Independence question).

The PLP came out of the black Bermudian civil rights struggle in this country which brought forth political and racial reforms that has advanced the democratic process in Bermuda for all Bermudians.

I was an eyewitness to this resistance when some years back, as a result of the black Bermudian struggle, the then UBP Government was compelled to strike down Bermuda's segregated public education system ? prompting white flight into the private school system, the consequences of which we are still dealing with today.

In more recent times I was an eyewitness to predominantly white UBP supporters march on Government House in opposition to the PLP Government's attempts to reform Bermuda's dual-seat electoral system, introducing the more democratic single-seat constituencies and thereby making each vote cast of equal value.

In conclusion, though, I must tell Mr. Dunleavy that he has more to contend with than just the problem of black Bermudians considering themselves to be the only real Bermudians.

For as I have stated before, increasing numbers of black Bermudians have grown weary of bearing the burden of improving Bermuda's racial relations.

More and more of us are asking ourselves a question I have posed here before ? a question that has not yet been properly answered. It is: "What, in fact, do I have in common with my fellow white Bermudian?"