I<$>S the concept of a so-called multiracial society a failure in terms of its social relations? I pose this question — perhaps rhetorical, perhaps not — because there’s a perception abroad in Bermuda that the island has never been more racially polarised or ill at ease in terms of its social interactions. Let’s just look at some recent incidents that help to underscore this line of thought.

United Bermuda Party Senator Kim Swan called on white leadership to step up and help bridge the racial divide and at the same time back a South African-style Truth & Reconciliation initiative in order to help Bermudians come to terms with the island’s racial divide. His call was later echoed by a member of the Commission for Unity & Racial Equality who stated that she too would be in favour of holding a series of such meetings.

Then when American lecturer and author of the book White Like Me, Tim Wise, came to Bermuda to speak on the question of race and racism, the subject was deemed to be so sensitive for white people it was thought best that at least one of the meetings should be held for a white-only audience. FINALLY, there was the much-publicised incident concerning Premier Alex Scott’s errant e-mail which so offended Mr. Tony Brandon because he deemed the comments contained therein to be racist (so did a great many other white people who, judging by some of their comments, are convinced that they are now being subjected to a form of reverse racism on the part of a black Bermuda Government).It is not just in Bermuda that the question of race does not appear to have gone anywhere. In America, with its long-time struggle over the question of race and race relations, former Secretary of Education William Bennett (pictured above)<$><\p>recently inflamed the African-American community with comments that were judged to be grossly offensive.

In a radio broadcast, Bennett said: “I do know that it’s true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could — if that were your sole purpose — you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”

Bennett is not an ignorant refugee from the Ku Klux Klan like David Duke. He’s a former top official of the American Government. He was also at one time America’s drug czar. He is the author of a best-selling and very well received volume on the breakdown of contemporary society’s values titled The Book of Virtues. But he has yet to apologise for his statement, claiming that his remarks were taken out of context.

Than there was the question of Hurricane Katrina and the slow response to the victims of that storm — predominantly African-American — a crisis which threatened to split America down the middle racially and from which the President’s opinion poll figures have yet to rebound.

The last time there was such a stark racial divide in that country was over the question of the guilt or innocence of former American football star OJ Simpson, who had been accused of murdering his white wife and a friend.

Ironically, in the 1960s and ‘70s Simpson had been a symbol of a black American who had transcended America’s racial perceptions and was looked upon in a colour-blind manner as a sports icon.

But once the murder trial got under way, regardless of his guilt or innocence, he was all too quickly stereotyped in both the media and the minds of many white Americans as just another black man, the violent black bogeyman who threatens white society.

And it’s not just in America where the question of race and racial conflict are writ ever larger in so-called multicultural nations.

Before the widespread rioting in France by second and third generation black and brown children of France’s immigrant populations, in North Africa — where Arab Morocco appears to be playing the role of border policeman for Europe — would-be immigrants from black Africa find their way barred by razor wire and have been shot and left to die in the desert. In the promised land of the European Union, non-white-born Frenchmen, find that their colour and their African or Islamic names to be barriers to them finding employment. They believe themselves — with some justification — not to be seen as “real” Frenchmen in the country where they were born. Liberté<$> might still remain a French republican ideal but clearly égalité and fraternité no longer are.

The question I posed at the outset — is the concept of a multiracial society a failure even a hundred years and more after African-American historian, sociologist, novelist, editor and political activist W.E.B. DuBois made the famous and much cited statement, “The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the colour line”? — it appears that the question of race remains a problem in the 21st century.

Is there a way out? Is there a final solution to the question of continuous racial and cultural friction in the Western world? To my mind the problem, at its core, remains a question of power, reinforce by centuries-old cultural bias born at the time the Europeans first encountered non-white peoples in the far-flung lands they colonised.

The history of colonialism and the struggle of the native peoples to free their lands from colonial rule also continues to played its role in the ongoing racial divide, particularly given that colonial rule was imposed, for the most part, by Europeans while those struggling against imperialism were largely non-white (although it’s worth remembering that in Europe itself Finland was absorbed first by Sweden, then by Russia, and Poland was partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria in the 18th century and only won its Independence again after World War One) TODAY we are faced with new forms of racial/cultural struggles over everything from the question of fair trade to the lowing of immigration barriers and even the question over who has the right to control nuclear power. Even within countries where there have long been multiracial populations, the infighting and social turmoil often boils down to a question of a struggle over power, over the economy and the resources of that country. Bermuda, because of its racial past and the legacy of that past, is a micro-version of that world wide struggle.

Will we ever arrive at a point where there is the prospect of common agreement being forged on some aspects of the Bermuda reality? We may never arrive at a common agreement of how this country is to be governed but there is the prospect of creating a common identity.

But that will require Bermudians of both races to overcome their seemingly built-in aversion to Independence and taking the steps that are necessary to create that national identity. Then, and only then, can we as Bermudians perhaps slowly begin to move away from the question of race.