An American expert warned unbending whites who resent legislative change in support of a levelled the playing field for blacks, that it will happen regardless. Craig Watkins, the first black District Attorney in the State of Texas, issued the blunt warning during Saturday night's panel discussion apart of the Bermuda Race Relations Initiative (BRRI).

Knocking on the event's theme, "Race and Justice", it is inevitable that the issue of race is escalated due to Bermuda's small size, Mr. Watkins said. The forum was held in the north lecture hall of the Bermuda College from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in front of an audience of more than 100 people.

"For you white people out there that don't want change," Mr. Watkins said, "well, it's going to come from someone else not like you. "It's not about taking power from anyone, it's about levelling the playing field."

His comments came after explaining that it took someone like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, to demand social and legislative change in a segregated America. He added: "You have 65,000 people on this Island so the issue of race is going to be escalated.

The fact that you have come together with your new Prime Minister to have a frank conversation on this issue, will reverberate around the world.

"From a white perspective; your ancestors made the unfortunate decision to enslave people of colour and as a result you now have this disparity between black and white Bermudians."

Mr. Watkins gave examples of what the "disparity" means for the two races in a modern-day Bermuda still grappling with its racist legacy.

"You have people of colour that don't own property, they don't hold certain positions and there's a permanent underclass that blacks realise and it makes them mad," he said.

Attorney General Sen. Phil Perinchief, speaking to the crowded theatre, condemned former Governor Sir John Verecker, who completed a five-year tenure that ended last week, for comments made in a Royal Gazette article.

In it, Sir John voiced concerns over Government's proposed Workforce Equality Act 2007, which could see companies in Bermuda fined for suppressing the advancement of blacks in the workplace. Sen. Perinchief stated that given the prejudices within past laws in Bermuda and Britain, which once condoned the sale of slaves, the Governor was not qualified to comment in such a capacity.

He stated: "Apartheid-like laws, short of any modicum of justice, launched, engineered and perpetuated for social and economic divide, is what this Government has the 'temerity' to address. This is the draft Act that the outgoing Governor Verecker, a non-Bermudian and a non-lawyer, took what he thought was a constitutional parting shot, together with his other parting shot against independence. Why now you might ask? There's been no significant or fundamental change in the social and economic divide between blacks and whites, rich and poor, from at least 1616."

Furthermore, Bermuda has observed the vertical elevation of a skewed and biased paradigm, which is the brainchild of current economic legacies, Sen. Perinchief said. "Clearly, trickle-down economics, the brainchild of the '40 thieves' and the UBP successors that we continue to follow today, exists. This is the inheritance which this Government wrestles to change, it was not designed to evenly distribute the wealth that we all boast about."

Bermudian defence lawyer Charles Richardson and Carlton Simmons from Youth on The Move were also panellists.

In an awkward moment during a question-and-answer session, a white audience member, who identified himself as a friend of Mr. Richardson asked him, "Why do a lot of brothers (black men) criticise you, when you were in jail, trying to get an education?"

The man continued: "I'm not saying that to insult you, but I get mad every time I hear it. I'm sorry if I upset you, I love you like a brother and I'll always have your back."

A baffled-looking Mr. Richardson responded: "I wasn't aware that I was being heavily criticised while I was studying, but now that you've made me aware, I don't care."

K.B. Swan, a black Bermudian self-employed manufacturer, took the mic to criticise the recent sentencing of a 21-year-old white man who many believed received a preferential sentence, because he was white.

The man was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay $4,385 in compensation after wielding a Samurai sword in a Fairylands disturbance, in July. Mr. Swan expressed anger at the fact a black man that recently pleaded guilty to having a five-inch bladed knife in public was sentenced to three years imprisonment, instead. "I see where there is black on black crime, we have a criminal, but when there's white on white crime it appears that person is not a criminal," he said. "Why is it that in a 2007 Bermuda that we have a Magistrate pass a sentence that is totally against the spirit of the law?"

Mr. Richardson, responding, took the opportunity to publicly dispel the widespread belief that the white man's sentence was based on race.

"What makes everybody believe that the sentence passed in that case was based on some sort of racism? That sentence was passed by a black judge," he clarified, while referring to Judge Charles-Etta Simmons.

"(Justice Simmons) is one of the most liberal female black judges on the bench — so let's look for another reason why that sentence was handed. There's a misconception that he (the white man) was charged with having a bladed article in a public place, which he was not in because Fairylands is not a public place — get over it!"

Mr. Richardson added that it was not the law that went astray, but issues within society that happened beforehand that need to be addressed.

Throughout the forum, The Royal Gazettein particular, came under repeated attacks from audience members, including panellist Mr. Simmons, who accused it of printing "inaccurate" information on a regular basis.

One black audience member questioned: "We never see that many white offenders' pictures in (The Royal Gazette)– but when it comes to a black man, they put a nice big picture in the paper, like a mug shot."

The BRRI is the brainchild of Premier Ewart Brown and is supported by the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE), with Rolfe Commissiong, consultant to the Premier, as the main organiser.

This year's final event in the BRRI will be held in November.