Anti-racism campaigner Mike Winfield questioned whether the two longest-serving gangs in Bermuda are the United Bermuda Party and the Progressive Labour Party.

Speaking at a Bermuda Race Relations Initiative meeting, the former UBP campaign chairman called for politicians to set a better example as violence across the Island continues to escalate.

"We are now quick to criticise the manifestation of so called street gangs," Mr. Winfield told the audience at Elbow Beach Hotel last Friday.

"And, as adults, we shake our heads and ask how could this have happened? Ladies and gentlemen, stop shaking your heads, because we, our generation are the reason.

"For generations we have been fighting each other, hurling abuse at each other, always seeking to put the other down, to score points. Any excuse has us out writing new speeches, seeking new ways to castigate the other.

"I ask you tonight, what are the two longest-serving most public gangs in our community? Could they be, just possibly, the UBP and the PLP?

"And as we work hard to castigate the other, as we spend so much of our time trying to come out on top, so we can win the next election, could we be responsible, at least in part, for what is wrong in our community today?"

Giving his thoughts on the relationships between blacks and whites, Mr. Winfield said: "Whites are afraid, or at least reluctant to evoke the wrath or even frustration of blacks by being open and honest on how they feel.

"Whites tend to fall over themselves trying to say what they perceive is the right thing to say, the thing that won't get them into too many problems and, instead come across as being insincere. Or some go to the other end of the scale and become radical in their disparaging remarks of fellow whites to the point where even to blacks, they sound extreme and insincere.

"The Big Conversation has taught us that the starting point is honesty and sincerity and, even more importantly, a genuine commitment to listening and getting beyond our entrenched belief system.

"Blacks have learned not to get too deeply into the conversation with whites. There are other subjects that are not as painful, nor as difficult and what difference is it going to make anyway?"

On politics, he said: "I often ask why people are still supporting the UBP, or the PLP and so often the answer I get is: 'My family has always supported that party, I am white so I support the UBP, or I am black so I support the PLP!'

"And it is these answers that manifest our most significant roadblocks to real progress. Because as long as the leadership of any party can rely on a significant segment of the population to always vote for their party regardless of policy, of practice and of behaviour, the whole fundamental system of democracy is threatened.

"When we get to the point when we can truly step back and say I am going to vote for the group that has the policies that I believe are right and for the people I most believe will deliver on those policies and who have my best interests at heart and those of my country, then we are maturing as a country.

"More importantly can we move beyond what we are, be it black, white, PLP, UBP, etc, and move towards what is it we want for our community, what is that we must achieve, what it is that is holding us back from really excelling, what stops us being an example to the rest of the world?

"And then, together developing policies to address those issues, to work together to overcome the injustices that have existed, and still exist, to seek agreement and consensus — what then could we become?"

Mr. Winfield also commented on the recent row over Premier Ewart Brown's remark that white Bermudians would not have voted for Barack Obama if they had voted in the US the same way as they do in Bermuda.

"I am sure that I, like so many, shook our heads in disbelief when the election of President-Elect Obama, a case of huge celebration across the world became, in Bermuda, yet another reason why we should hurl abuse at each other," he said.

"And this is not intended to be focused solely on our Premier, he asks legitimate questions, questions that we avoid rather than seek to answer.

"And while I would have hoped the question could have been asked differently, there should also have been mature response; response that recognised the essential truths in the statement and which sought to provide a bridge across the division. Instead we have one gang attacking the other and the rest of us sit back and have to learn from that example.

"We can go on attacking each other for eternity. We can go on questioning the rationale and motivation for statements, we can go on seeking to find political gain, leap at perceived mistakes, shooting the messengers, and we can go on suffering the consequences.

"I submit, however, that the Bermudian of today is desperately seeking an alternative. They are looking for leadership that says do as I say and do as I do and then demonstrates why with their actions, they are deeply thirsty for solutions, for real talk that proposes real answers and which seeks to unite not divide. They hunger for a vision, a dream of what we may become."