They say a problem recognised is a problem half solved.

In Bermuda, racism may be only half recognised and therefore just one quarter solved.

Despite major gains for blacks in education, employment, and income, descriptions of Bermuda's ills in Government reports have remained relatively constant.

In 1978, the Clark Report said Bermuda's apparent tranquillity hid "racial resentments and latent seething unrest which are as much a part of the reality of Bermuda as are its idyllic climate and its dependence on tourism.'' In 1995, Dr. Carol Swain of Princeton said: "Many black Bermudians today are angry.

"Workplace discrimination and other perceived injustices in the society are a major source of that anger.'' Despite that recent report and countless others over the years, one of lawyer Mr. Michael Mello's first public statements as chairman of Government's new Commission for Unity and Racial Equality was to say that racism in Bermuda was not a "major problem.'' The remark seemed strange given Mr. Mello's task, and he later clarified it.

But his view was not at odds with those of Bermudians generally. Dr. Gary Orren's 1991 Quality of Life Study found that only 20 percent of Bermudians considered racism a major problem. And while 72 percent of blacks felt that whites were treated differently, only 40 percent of whites thought so.

Studies aside, what most residents of Bermuda know is that blacks talk privately about injustices at the hands of whites, while whites privately maintain that racism would be history if blacks would only shut up about it.

That is Bermuda's racial divide. From that perspective, Government's recent decision to combine Education and Human Affairs into a single Ministry may be a good one.

Many whites would not only agree with Mr. Mello, they would concur with former St. George's South MP Mr. Sidney Stallard, who told a public meeting in 1978 that the racial issue was "absolute nonsense.'' Mr. Stallard felt that 99 percent of Bermudians were, like him, non-racial.

"Yet here we are in this day and age being hit over the head every day, in the newspaper, with black and white, black and white,'' he said. "I am getting quite fed up with it. I think it is completely unnecessary.'' Those comments were made amid reports of blatant discrimination against blacks in the real estate and job markets. Seventeen years later, strides made by blacks combined with Government's latest rediscovery of racism and attendant publicity have caused similar attitudes to harden.

Do some blacks blame racism for their own failings? Are there instances of reverse discrimination in Bermuda? Is it sometimes forgotten that Bermuda's first settlers were whites? Yes.

But for a white to say that racism is a non-issue is like a man dismissing talk about the pain of childbirth.

"White denial is most certainly a problem,'' and one that CURE is intended to address, said Education and Human Affairs Minister Jerome Dill. "I can assure you that the overwhelming majority of black people who I speak to will tell you that there is a problem.'' One of Bermuda's tasks is to get all residents -- black and white -- to accept that racism is a major problem that could forever divide the Island -- whether they as individuals feel affected by it or not.

The mainly black public school system is in trouble, while mostly white private schools are bursting at the seams. Whites earn more than blacks, who are still under-represented in professional and managerial jobs. The courts and the prisons are congested with black men. And largely due to one-way integration, many of Bermuda's bars, churches, schools, sporting events, dinner parties, and social clubs remain effectively segregated.

Government has confronted the issue with royal commissions and reports after riots in 1968 and 1977, apparently concluding during the booming 1980s that the problem was licked. The 1983 Throne Speech spoke of a study "to identify (racial) problems remaining in the community and make recommendations for their solution.'' The 1985 Throne Speech made no reference to racism. Nor did the Opposition Reply.

Racism was more subtle, but had not gone away. Black racial resentments were only simmering, while white denial continued. The recession and changing nature of Bermuda's economy, which hit Bermuda's blacks harder than whites, exposed the problem again, and led to Government's latest race initiative and promise to "shatter the glass ceiling.'' But now it gets more difficult. Banning segregation, strengthening the Human Rights Commission, and even making racism a crime are easy decisions, relative to those Bermuda will face now and in the future. Whites who could embrace a black Premier and largely black civil service get testier when changes affect them more directly. One white male recently said the fuss that was made over the import of two top British Police officers while a Bahamian Attorney General arrived without protest was "a defining moment'' for him in Bermuda's race debate.

As the races move closer to equality, white resistance to change can be expected to increase, particularly among those who either do not acknowledge that a problem exists, or feel it was solved years ago. And as Government flirts with affirmative action programmes, there are concerns that `temporary' measures will create a permanent race-focussed bureaucracy and increased animosity.

Another problem, which is very evident in the United States but also has relevance to Bermuda, is that affirmative action and equality initiatives tend to benefit already privileged members of a targeted group but have little meaning for a small portion of Bermuda's population which could be termed a black underclass.

Not seen on a scale anywhere near that of the American inner city, these are blacks who may have dropped out of a failing school system, come from broken families characterised by drugs, alcohol, and other forms of abuse, have spent time before the courts and in the prisons, and are parenting children who will start life mired in the same predicament.

In the US, Dr. Cornel West of Princeton has said that addressing "nihilism'' in the black underclass requires a broadening of a debate torn between liberal solutions of improved social programmes and affirmative action and conservative approaches advocating self-help in a free market, with renewed emphasis on the Protestant work ethic.

Dr. West says nihilism and associated emotional detachment and self-destructive behaviour has historical roots in slavery and white supremacy but only surfaced recently due to increased consumerism, combined with weakened churches and other black cultural institutions and a crisis in black leadership.

He has called for a grassroots "politics of conversion'' based on a "love ethic,'' as "a last attempt at generating a sense of agency among a downtrodden people.'' Citing the controversial US Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas as an example, Dr. West also advocates a move away from "racial reasoning'' by black leaders and expansion of the racial dialogue to "taboo subjects'' like white fears based on mythical black sexual stereotypes.

Mr. Dill said the Human Rights Act has been amended to permit voluntary affirmative action programmes, but there are no current plans to make them compulsory. The problem of Bermuda's small black underclass is being addressed by a variety of ministries, he said.

"It is a very difficult issue,'' he said. "It is not just a matter of affirmative action.''