I ATTENDED the last race meeting sponsored by the Government, the finale to the "Big Conversation" initiative which was held at the Elbow Beach Hotel. I did not attend any of theinitial meetings held over the past few months which brought together black and white Bermudians and residents to begin a dialogue on the question of race and its ongoing impact on modern Bermuda.

Although most of these meetings took place during my working hours -with a few held outside of working hours - I had not made any special effort to be present.

The truth is that like an increasing number of black Bermudians I have longgrown tried of attempting to bridge the racial divide in this country, considering such efforts to be a one-way street on the part of blacks in the face of white indifference.

Even though I can count myself as having a close relationship with the white community in terms of blood tiestions and generally do get on well with those whites that I do have contacts with, nevertheless as Ihave pointed out in other Commentary columns on this subject it is not the personallinks and connections one may have with the other race that is at issue here. I wouldn't disagree that on a personal level black and white Bermudians may get on with one another better than members of any other bi-racial or multi-racial community in the world. But that's not what we're addressing here. Any overalll judgments on the state of race relations and the ongoing legacy of racism must be based on the overall situation. You really do have to take a step or two back, gain some much-needed perspective and then look at the big picture before you can start assessing the true state of relations between the races in Bermuda.

As is almost always the case in these forums intended to promote racial dialogue, it has been pointed out that there has been a general lack of white participation in the latest initiative. And this opionion has even been voiced by the whites who do attend.At the recent wrap-to the "Big Conversation" series of meetings, it was noted that the number of whites attending began to shrink astime went on.

Most black people will take that to mean that whites ware not really interested in bridging the racial divide, adding credence to a statement made by Martiniquean psychiatrist and author on race andcolonialsm Franz Fanon. He said: "To be racisst in a racist country is to benormal."

But increasingly - and perhaps ironically -whites themselves, those few who have dared to examine the question of racism and its impact on the rest of us, the non-white majority that make up the bulk of humanity, are beginning to voice opinions as to why their fellow whites run away from the question of race. Or even fear to broach the subject at all - at least in the presence of non-whites.

Their conclusion is quite simply fear. Fear of feeling guilty. Fear of being labelled a racist. Fear, perhaps, of the unknown. Along with this fear-based reaction to the question of race you find a lot of plain, old fashioned ignorance. Ignorance of the ongoing impact that racism and its companion, colonial domination, have had on the rest of us, the world's non-white majority.

Perhaps it is only white people who can educate other whites on the nature of racism and what it has meant for human relations for at least five hundred years since the beginning of the so-called European Age of Discovery - a period which the rest of us are boundto describe as the beginning of sorrows.

But those whites who are willing to discuss the downside of European expansion around the globe and the impact this had on the native peoples of newly acquired territoriesrisk paying a heavy price if they embark on such a task.

For there continues to exist a heavy layer of racism that lies just below surface of the white psyche when it comes to their general perception of the world. This, on occasion, bubbles up to the surface.

We are all aware that from time to time there are some shocking, truly uninformed outbursts on racial matters expressed by members of white society. But what is even more alarming is that they don't all come from the lower, uneducated and uninformed segments of the white community. They can be heard, on occasion, emanting fromt all levels of white society.

Recently a Nobel Prize winner, a suposedly culturally enlightened individual, made remarks about the supposed backwardness of non-white peoples that were so shrill and lacking in either historical or anthropological substance they sounded like something a Deep South, 1950s high school student with no higher aspiration than joining his kinfolk in the Ku Klux Klan might have come out with,

The statement made by James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the double-helix make-up of DNA, suggested that blacks are inferior to whites due to evolution. Frankly, this latest display of racism fits perfectly into the ever-deepening and widening culture of intolerance and white backlash that has been taking place in the Western world in recent decades.

No one would argue that the ancient and discredited doctrine of overt white supremacy is in the ascendency again.

However, James Watson's remarks are certainly representative of what lurks beneath the surface of even some of the most brilliant and educated minds - minds that nevertheless refuse to countenance the dividends that have accrued to whites simply because of their skin colour and the built-in advantages this provides for them in the West.

As offensive as Watson's statement is to many people, white as well as black, it is important that we don't become so emotional that we get caught in the trap that is being set for us, and either fall into it, or become immobilised by it.

The first trap we should avoid is that we must not equate his views on Social Darwinism with genuine science. Plainly put, Social Darwinism is a polite mask for racism. Social Darwinism (which owes nothinge except for its name to Charles Darwin's scientific theories on evolution and natural selection) formed a part of the total package of the tools of oppression from the mid-19th century onwards.

There had already been an economic imperative for slavery in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries as well as spurious religious justifications. Social Darwinism provided that third and perhaps most critical component - the quasi-scientific explanation.

Slavery and the oppression of non-white peoples was primarily a European-created economic institution, in which racism was used to subjugate foreign peoples and foreign lands. In other words, white business and political leaders determined that one of the most effective ways to control (and, by extension, to enslave) whole races of native peoples was to lead them believe they were inferior to Europeans.

The religious pretext was believed to be especially advantageous. Using the Biblical story of Noah's son, Ham, who saw his father naked and was cursed by him, blacks were demonised by the Christian churches as the descendants of Noah's cursed son, the "Children of Ham". Having been told you are an outcast in the eyes of God Himself, it became easier to make slaves "turn the other cheek" - the most popular sermon preached on plantations in the US and the Caribbean. It's ironic, of course, that blacks eventually overcame this stigma that was used to manipulate and humiliate them and embraced the true Christian message of the Bible, a message that eventually helped to liberate them from both literal and spiritual bondage.

What came to be known as "Social Darwinism" provided a spurious, pseudo-scientific rationale for the oppressed condition of non-white peoples. According to the various theories that enjoyed widespread currency in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, there were genuine evolutionary differences between the races. So, essentially blacks were neither as evolved nor as intelligent than whites.

So social, economic and cultural conditions could all be ignored by white society: blacks were generally to be found near the bottom of the social totem pole in white-dominated societies because science had "proved" they were largely incapable of moving upwards.

Sadly, Dr. Watson's decision to invoke the outdated and utterly discredited precepts of "Social Darwinism" demonstrates when it comes to the question of race and the ongoing impact of racism, ignorance isn't confined to the uncultivated, uncultured and uneducated lower stratas of white society.

From a non-white perspective it seems that apart from the privileges one's race automatically provides in white-dominated societies, the rest of us have to await the time to arrive where whites - in general - are prepared to climb down from their perceived position of racial superiority and concede they musto exist on the same level as the rest of humanity.

That is the only way the racial/cultural playing field will ever really be levelled.

Even though I have been guilty of cynically deciding ahead of time that there is nothing new I can learn from public meetings being held on the question of the racial divide in Bermuda, I was given pause to reconsider my position at the final "Big Dialogue" forum.

For I witnessed a testimonial presented by one white participant, a white woman, who seemed to be quite moved as a consequence of her experiences taking part in this excercise to foster dialogue between the races.

She provided biographical details. She was a non-Bermudian married to a black Bermudian. Having children, she did not want them to grow up in a racially divided Bermuda so she was committed to helping bridge the racial and cultural divide. But to me the most interesting part of her testimonial was her appeal to the black community not to give up on the white community as a whole in terms of bringing a final resolution to the oustanding pieces of racial business that still exist in this coun try.

Immediately my thoughts focussed on what was so beautifully expressed by white South African author Alan Patton in his landmark book about race relations in apartheid South Africa, Cry The Beloved Country: "My greatest fear is that when white people begin to love; blackpeople will have turn to hating."

But my nextr thought was that this white woman's heartfelt appeal need not be answered in that manner. For I do notrequire the white community to be on their knees as regards Bermuda's racial past and its unhappy legacy. I only ask they strive to give up their largely unconscious but nevertheless real perceptions about their racialsuperiority and the privilege that comes along with this. I only require that they start asking themselves some pertinent questions about situations they have probably taken for granted all of their lives and, in doing so, start to exorcise some of the ghosts of our racial past that still haunt their thinking.

As to whether Bermuda will ultimately overcome its racial divide, let me offer the following opinion. It's one that is somewhat at variance with the optimistic outlook that says Bermuda will one day succeed in this endeavour. Frankly, I doubt that the cultural chasm dividing us will be brudged in our life times for, as I have believed for some years now, it is my opinion that the divide here will not be resolved until this happens worldwide.