I APPEAR to have inadvertently stirred up a hornets' nest last week by declaring that "Barack Obama is not all that black.". I should have known better. Nothing is simple when it comes to talking about the issue of race. And I have to say, with the benefit of hindsight, that that was a pretty dumb thing for me to say, without more.

Yet I also have to say that I meant it, kinda sorta.

It's just that now, however, recent critiques from quarters that matter to me, not least my daughter Liana whose agenda and views on matters like this I tend to trust a lot more than I do those of a number of others, would indicate that I have -to paraphrase Ricky Ricardo of I Love Lucy fame- some "splainin to do."

By way of background, Liana and her two sisters are the products of my marriage to Isabella who is in turn the product of an Asian mother from North Borneo one of the (allegedly formerly) headhunting "Sea Dayaks", apparently the oldest known civilization in the world and her Caucasian father from Glasgow, Scotland.

As their father, I am a direct and proud descendant of "Mama Doe" Dill, the celebrated Pequot native who came to Bermuda and married into the North Shore Dill family and produced more Bermudians of value and accomplishment, including just about the entirety of the North Village Football Club, than you could possibly imagine.

My maternal great grandfather was a former African slave who became a successful ship's Captain in St. Kitt's in the Caribbean. And I also have clearly established and identified white relatives in England.

Somewhere along the way, indeed, I get to count actor Michael Douglas, the late Sir Bayard Dill -founder of law firm Conyers Dill and Pearman with whom I started my legal career in Bermuda- and St. John's Anglican Church Rector the Rev. Nicholas Dill as my cousins.

My daughters - and I cannot claim full credit for this - are deeply proud of their uniquely mixed heritage; and it my perception that they have a most enlightened understanding of the realities of racism and of the need to move towards a post-racial world in which we all can appreciate and celebrate our diversity and our uniqueness at one and the same time.

Liana Hall's principal criticism of my broad statement that Barack Obama "isn't all that black" is undeniably fair comment, and calls out for some elaboration on my part.

I got the same review - no, it was a telling off - from my old Berkeley school friend Arlene Brock, Bermuda's Ombudsman, who studied with Barack Obama at Harvard and who has the privilege of counting him as a personal friend.

So, first, let me say that that comment of mine, without more, was stupid, unhelpful, superficial, misleading, and utterly wrong.

In my defence, talking about matters of race in a multiracial society inevitably invites valid criticism of one kind or another. I simply choose, because of the fundamental importance of the issue, not to shy away, or to be deterred from at least trying.

What was my error, and how did I fall into into it. If it wasn't an error, how can the proposition be justified? Should it be justified?

Well, for a start, you don't say things like that without trying to achieve some measure of agreement on perspective.

I did take care to add that what I said was "in no way meant to negate my deep sense of pride in the man and in the nobility of his cause".

So let me first set out what I think is Obama's 'cause' and why I believe it to be so "noble"'. That's a lot more important than how "black" the man is anyway.

Obama himself argues that the issue of race, so far as his historical candidacy is concerned will come out as "a wash". He elaborated recently on this by acknowledging the virtually unanimous support of the black vote (polls suggest something like 96 pecent) and he accepts, with an apparent tinge of concern, that many of those blacks are supporting him primarily because he is black, and not necessarily because of what he stands for in terms of ideology and proposed policies. He also acknowledges that many whites support him because he is black as well and because they yearn for a "post-racial" society in America.

The fact that he has never directly sought the black vote on that basis is beyond admirable; it is the quintessence of Obama's race-transcendent and fundamentally principled campaign.

This is so so noble.

And I have no doubt whatsoever about his sincerity.

Successful in the end or not in his quest for the Presidency, Barack Obama has already transformed American society for all time and the closeness of the race by itself has done marvels for reestablishing global respect and admiration for and faith in and renewed hope for the American dream of evolving ultimately into a societal melting pot.

In this sense, he may have already given birth to a post-racial America -literally just in time for the much needed rejuvenation of America's place in the world as a genuine moral authority and a shining example of what can be gained by celebrating, as opposed to fighting against, diversity.

It looks as though American interventionism may not be merely about oil or economics, but centred on the global reality that we are, all of us, interconnected in both spirit and truth.

But remember the admonition a few months ago of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who declared that the United States of America was born with a "birth defect". As Obama has said, this will require not a hatchet, but a scalpel.

The founding fathers of the USA did not for a long time recognise the black man as a full human being. That notion has not yet died off entirely; and it is shared by a number of white Americans, some allegedly well educated and others simply stupid -for there is really no other word.

The "one drop rule" which had the full blessing for a time of the United States Supreme Court had declared for years that "one drop of black blood" made a man or a woman "a black".

I do not hold that view. Yet that notion, which is not mine, remains alive in the consciousness of many Americans -black and white. Clearly, it was not what I had in mind when I said last week that Barack Obama is "not all that black".

My concentration on Obama's upbringing by a white mother and white grandparents in Hawaii and Indonesia was also misleading and wrong. The man clearly remains a work-in-progress.

And I know from my own childhood experience - about which I have talked much in the past year or so - that an underprivileged and intellectually curious young black man can benefit much from the assistance and nurturing of well-meaning and conscientious Caucasian influences in his life. I was very much blessed in this way. So too, obviously, was Barack Obama -undoubtedly even more so.

We have seen and heard Barack Obama's wife Michelle Obama; one of the finest examples I have ever seen in public life of a strong black woman, gifted in both intellect and articulation, fully supportive while at the same time critical of her husband when she perceives the need to be, and herself possibly destined to become the first female President of the United States of America in her own right. There can be no doubt that Michelle Obama has been a mighty force in her husband's cognitive and ideological development and that, more importantly, he has allowed her to be. May I go out on a limb and declare that, having regard to what the vestiges of slavery, institutionalised racism and oppression have done to the relationship between the black man and "his woman", this is not the stereotypical approach of the black man?

Yet, at the very least, Mrs Michelle Obama has clearly provided some of the foundation for Senator Obama's utterly calm, tunnel-visioned, objective-oriented demeanour and focus through one of the most brutal election campaigns in the history of the Union.

Not many black men could have survived this barrage without going utterly Medieval.

And I have to say that if ever we seek clear validation of the institution of marriage and the true worth of a supportive and nurturing woman, the Obama family image (and, I think, reality) is a clear and shining example. May God richly bless and preserve them, come what may.

When I said that Barack Obama is "not all that black", I was not thinking of the colour of his skin, clearly.

I was also not thinking of his stated policies and proposed programs.

Al Sharption, Jesse Jackson, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Congressman John Lewis - all admirers and supporters of Obama - clearly recognise that the mere election of Obama to the Presidency will not overnight or by itself eradicate the vestiges of institutionalised racism or address the deeply entrenched inequity of American, and global, society along racial and ethnic lines. Obama will be the President, perhaps of the United States of America; blacks and black males in particular - increasingly relegated to the underclass of society - will still need outspoken advocates of basic civil and human rights in the justice system and in the socioeconomic realm.

Having reflected on what I said last week, I would like to think that I was speaking about the capacity of this man to address directly and apparently without fear the hatred and venom of "White Supremacy", to untangle and to work towards relieving the confused and often misdirected guilt of white liberalism, and to dismantle the perceived stereotype of the outspoken black community leader as little more than "militant" and "angry" and bent on retributive justice only and/or primarily for people of colour.

Obama has kindled The Big Conversation in America, and there is now no turning back. In this alone, his cause is a noble one.

Nor was I speaking about what is in Obama's mind;

I was speaking about what is in OUR minds.

On the surface, what I said may have come across as harsh, as critical even. It was certainly not meant that way. Obama's thinking and his message is clearly post-Martin Luther King.

In many ways it is evocative of where Malcolm X might have been able to go had he lived longer following his great epiphany concerning the essential brotherhood of man following his pilgrimage to Mecca.

I love to write, particularly when the words flow - which is sadly not always. More than that, I love to provoke thought with my writings and I deeply appreciate all criticism, particularly the constructive variety.

So, thank you Liana Hall; and thank you Arlene Brock.

Christopher Hitchens, in a recent blog posting on slate.com said that "the most insulting thing that a politician can do is to compel you to ask yourself 'What does he take me for'?"

That, clearly, is the problem which Senator John McCain now faces. His choice of Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate and the use to which he has put this bimbo are so utterly cynical as to evoke nothing short of disgust among all right-thinking people.

No matter what they say, these two are now playing to the worst in humanity; and they still may succeed, heaven help us all.

Pundits say that despite the impressive lead currently enjoyed in the polls by Barack Obama, the "swing vote" - the crucial decider will be established by the "cultural conservatives" and the "social conservatives."

It has become so clear that these are euphemisms for angry and/or afraid and/or plain racist and stupid and redneck white Americans.

The fundamental truth remains that whether White Supremacy prevails this time will very much depend on whether, at least in terms of how Obama projects himself and in terms of the American electorate's perception of this gifted young man, he remains "not all that black". That, as I see it, is the reality.