Some never thought they would live to see the day but after centuries of dominating Bermuda's government it seems as if the minority white population is becoming politically irrelevant.

That is the view of both whites mourning loss of influence and political commentators across the board.

The evidence is not hard to see. The governing party has just one white MP while the Corporation of Hamilton, long a bastion of white power, is set for abolition.

The Opposition United Bermuda Party still has substantial white support but the number of white MPs is diminishing and polls consistently show it is still as far from power as when it got dumped from government three elections ago.

While only ardent racists would long for the days of whites wielding disproportionate power, the question now is: has the pendulum swung too far the other way? Do the views of white voters have any relevance in today's Bermuda?

Seemingly not, based on the ease in which criticism is branded 'white' and then dismissed by many in the ruling Progressive Labour Party.

When hundreds of marchers descended on Parliament to call for Premier Ewart Brown to resign over the Uighur controversy they were branded a lynch mob.

And when white voters speak out individually they are often vilified on racial lines as Warwick businesswoman Claire Smith found out to her cost recently.

When she e-mailed MPs complaining about Premier Ewart Brown, Minister Without Portfolio Walter Roban wrote back saying he did not correspond with "racists and bigots".

He described her as a "member of an uncontrolled mob", incorrectly believing she had participated in an anti-Dr. Brown demonstration in June.

The event was labelled a white demo despite being led by a black, lifelong PLP supporter as well as supported by blacks in the crowd.

Progressive Labour Party Chairman Wentworth Christopher wrote a letter to this newspaper saying Ms Smith appeared to have "a genetic predisposition or a socialisation experience that gives her an anti-PLP bias".

All of which has confirmed for Ms Smith what she feels is the political marginalisation of white people under Dr. Brown's leadership.

Sadly for her, it's not the first time she has borne the brunt of race rage when daring to speak her mind.

In 2005 she called into Senator David Burch's call-in show on Hott 107.5 FM and spoke briefly, imploring people to take the higher road and follow the lead of Nelson Mandela, before the host asked her: "Are you a white person?"

After she had confirmed that she was, Sen. Burch said: "I thought so", and cut her off.

"That is a second example of being treated like I don't mean anything because I am white," she told The Royal Gazette. "Imagine if the interviewer had been white and they said 'Are you black? Goodbye!'

"That would be completely unacceptable. So why is it acceptable to treat white people like this?"

For Ms Smith the way this Government now treats white people, is exactly the way the white Government treated black people decades ago.

"Everyone agreed that it's the wrong way to treat people. Two wrongs don't make a right. We need to move forward in a unified way because we are all the same people, we need someone to make us feel that way, like an Obama.

"Someone coming from a higher place, with a big heart and full of love. That's what I feel is so disappointing about our Government right now, they are using race as a way of maintaining power."

For Ms Smith these tactics are bringing down Bermuda as a whole. "Every time I go to a social function and the subject of the Premier comes up and this is not a PLP issue the energy comes down, it becomes very negative. We are in this horrible, negative place, mostly because of one man."

The PLP often spoke of trying to bring whites into the party but then alienated them with its rhetoric, said Ms Smith.

The increasingly poisonous atmosphere in Bermuda politics has led to Human Rights Commission chair Venous Memari expressing concern about the "increasingly vitriolic comments" dividing the community.

With free speech comes the responsibility to respect the opinions of others, said Ms Memari.

However Commission for Unity and Racial Equality chairperson Michelle Scott told this newspaper that claims of political marginalisation by any faction of society were serious, but fell outside CURE's remit.

She said CURE felt the high level of racial tension was fuelled by a lack of understanding between the two major races on the Island so CURE is working to increase its bank of trainers for race relations work.

Commissioners will also be formulating a media campaign with the overall objective of encouraging racial unity in Bermuda.

But while the recent rhetoric is unpleasant are whites right to complain they are being marginalised?

Rolfe Commissiong, race relations consultant to the Premier, and a long-time PLP supporter agrees that to some extent whites are being marginalised politically because they have backed the wrong horse over the last three elections.

"And that sense of marginalisation is made more acute in the white community precisely because they have voted as a virtual monolith for one party; that being the UBP for over four decades, since the advent of modern politics in the mid 1960s.

"One cannot cry disenfranchisement or marginalisation if you fail to entertain the possibility that your interest, in this case the collective interest as white Bermudians, cannot be served by any other political vehicle save that of the UBP."

To some the labelling of white complainers as being racist is becoming a routine tactic among elements in the PLP.

Mr. Commissiong responded: "It is clear that blacks have a far more sceptical view of white intentions politically and are more inclined to judge them by their actions rather than their words."

To him the recent public protests about the Premier were another version of the failing UBP strategy of putting a black face on white interests, a gambit he said the majority of black Bermudians now view with thinly-veiled contempt.

The loss of power now being experienced by whites in Bermuda was inevitable, said Mr. Commissiong.

They are only experiencing what largely Anglo-white settler populations experienced in the Caribbean during the post universal adult suffrage era which culminated in black political rule throughout that region in the 1950s and 1960s.

"Sir Henry Tucker forestalled that fate for close to 40 years by, among other things, utilising the electoral strength inherent with having a white voting population which represented approximately 30 percent during that era and by essentially putting on the black face as mentioned earlier.

"White Bermudians are now beginning to experience the type of transition that their counterparts to the south of us experienced then.

"As a result the same level of anxieties and irrational fears most of which are racially informed in ways that many of them are not even conscious of are beginning to take shape or become more acute."

But while polls show Mr. Commissiong is right to believe that whites overwhelmingly back the UBP, ironically white influence has probably been more successful in protecting PLP MPs in marginal seats who have cultivated crossover appeal.

After again losing by 25 votes to Dame Jennifer Smith in St. George's North in the last election, defeated United Bermuda candidate Kenny Bascome revealed he thought white votes tipped the balance.

He said: "Numerous white people in St. George's told me they would be supporting Dame Jennifer Smith."

And some political observers believe Dale Butler survives in marginal Warwick North East because he has successfully courted the white vote there.

It's not something the MP himself will acknowledge. He said: "I knocked on every door. I didn't add up how many white people and how many black people there were. I survive on Bermudian votes."

But elsewhere the continued political division on race lines seems to be becoming more acute and nasty.

Former PLP Cabinet Minister Renee Webb, who recently urged whites to speak up despite the inevitable racial abuse which will follow, said Bermuda's race politics merely reflects the racial tension elsewhere on the Island.

"Everything is based on race. We haven't moved beyond the politics of race because we refuse to.

"As long as the politics of race is used the PLP is at an advantage because they are in the majority population so why wouldn't it be used?

"That's why when backed in a corner the Premier uses race."

Thus every potentially damaging scenario gets a racial spin said Ms Webb.

"It's 'They don't want me to have bodyguards because a black man can't have bodyguards'. Yet we had two female Premiers who never had bodyguards."

The PLP was founded on an all-embracing philosophy but it has not materialised, said Ms Webb.

"The founder who gave the PLP its building and brought the PLP together was a white man, it was based on that but it never evolved into that because we are such a racially divided Country.

"Until people stand up it's not going to change, so to those people marching on Parliament recently, the Claire Smith's of this world, good for them. More voices need to be heard."

And until Bermuda had a leader like Nelson Mandela or an Obama keen on embracing the different groups and standing up for equality all around, then individuals would have to act for themselves, said Ms Webb, rather than wait for politicians to do it for them.

Ms Webb was also critical of white UBP politicians such as Michael Dunkley and Grant Gibbons for being racial, even though they didn't know it, through choice of language.

She said during the Bermuda Housing Corporation situation the word "crook" was thrown about.

"If it was a white person doing it he [Dunkley] would not have automatically thought they were crooks.

"It's thoroughly embedded in the psyche in Bermuda to the extent that people don't realise they are being racial."

White PLP member Michael Markham laments the early promise of the Big Conversation has not been lived up to.

He said: "I attended the first of the Big Conversation meetings a couple of years ago where I saw the now Premier, [Ewart] Brown and Senator Michael Dunkley talk about their families and social interactions of blacks and whites.

"I can remember saying to myself 'this is deep, did I hear that correctly, Dr. Brown has white relatives, am I seeing some sort of personal reconciliation?'."

Now the debate had moved into the political realm.

"But we don't have a facilitator or so called independent guide who can referee the racial and ethnic conflicts in Bermuda," said Mr. Markham.

And he said for many black PLP supporters racial voting is the only reason they vote.

"They just don't believe justifiably in many cases white people or conventional institutions can represent their interests in any way.

"They only trust and believe a black party who they believe will have felt their personal pain and somehow fix their feelings of self-worth after many years of put downs, that they are no good or will never amount to anything.

"We must go beyond these attitudes of mistrust to a more balanced and inclusive political process by extending the Big Conversation to the politics of race in Bermuda."

For former Independent MP Stuart Hayward, now of the Voters' Rights Association which objected to Mr. Roban's comments, Bermuda's politics are going through a bleak period, alienating whites who speak up.

"Any criticism of Government policies tends to be taken as a criticism against blacks e.g. the criticism is due to a racist viewpoint rather than a legitimate criticism.

"White opinions do not seem to be given any weight or respect or receive any validation.

"There is also a huge amount of intimidation of at least certain whites within the Civil Service. Ewart Brown's PLP has discovered that they can effectively steer their more zealous and/or less educated followers by resorting to racially divisive language."

Mr. Hayward said because Dr. Brown is consumed by a desire to settle old scores, this type of behaviour is likely to continue as long as he and those like him set the PLP's agenda.

"I can't recall one instance of a criticism of Government being accepted in good faith, or in good humour. That's very sad.

"Anyone with a sense of civic responsibility would be concerned about an automatic race-based response to criticism.

"One can see through the ruse when the PLP tries to twist criticism by blacks as racist.

"This divisive tactic has worked to keep the current leaders in power and will likely be continued so long as it works."

But the question remains why Bermuda, at this point in its political evolution, more than ten years into the PLP rule, is getting more racially tense, not less.

Mr. Hayward said: "There is some realisation that the criticisms are justified and that the current administration is trying to divert people's attention from the real issues by bringing up the race card."

Meanwhile moderates within the PLP were not rebutting its radicals, said Mr. Hayward.

For him much of the malaise should be laid squarely at the feet of the current Premier.

"Premier Brown's complex agenda drives him to "Premier Brown's complex agenda drives him to resort to racial divisiveness to hang onto power, for himself within his party, and for his party in an increasingly disillusioned Bermuda."

When the race rhetoric is ratcheted up, the Premier and his supporters often claim the discomfort is necessary for healing.

But Mr. Hayward said there can be few, if any, healthy aspects of intensified political division along racial lines indeed the escalation could get positively dangerous.

"As long as race is used to artificially segregate voters, there will be no racial harmony.

"As long as race is used to stir up voter emotions, there is the likelihood of heightened racial tension and the possibility of race-baited violence.

"Given the readiness of some PLP voices to talk in ways that foment racial hatred, it is easy to believe that some in our community are eager to see racial violence break out."

And he fears some under-educated blacks will not ever be given the opportunity to examine issues purely on the basis of their merit, with blind loyalty to a 'black' government as well as racial stereotyping of whites, being inculcated virtually from birth.

Certainly there is some evidence of low level indoctrination, as seen by this newspaper.

At a recent school play, put on by a public, east end primary, a definite one-sided political spin was all too evident.

The event, celebrating Bermuda's history, featured a long section celebrating the PLP's 1998 election win, fondly remembered by the compère.

Of the four faces on the programme two were of PLP politicians and a section on the Progressive Group saw the children all dressed in PLP green, with even one wearing a PLP T-shirt, even though the Progressive Group was a broad coalition active long before the PLP was formed.

Ultimately the PLP could over-do it says Mr. Hayward.

He said the party's tendency to make every contentious issue a racial one is making some blacks, especially young blacks, unhappy with the PLP, perhaps to the point of sparking a biracial new force in politics.

"If the ultimate response of the people is that they decide they are so tired of all the divisiveness that they join together to bring about change, then this could be a healthy result."

In the meantime blacks must not only remember the pain and suffering of the past, but accept an obligation that they are not repeated, said Mr. Hayward.

"If we only manage to turn the tables, subjecting whites to the prejudices and injustices some of their ancestors visited on blacks, then we have learned nothing and are going nowhere."

However Rolfe Commissiong said he was optimistic that Bermudians, both white and black, will navigate this period successfully. "After all it is in our interest to do so."

He predicts the demise of the UBP to make way for two, black-dominated political parties vying for political power, with white Bermudians supporting either based upon what they perceive as being in their interest.

While the end of the UBP might seem like a dream scenario for hard-core PLP-ers, Mr. Commissiong forecasts a new political landscape spells dangers for his own party.

"Prior to 1998, it was only the threat of continued Anglo-white domination of the political process which kept the then-opposition party together; and post 1998, it is only the threat of renewed Anglo-political domination, as represented by the white-dominated UBP, which continues to provide the adhesive to party unity."

Once that threat is smashed issues of political philosophy and ideology, largely unresolved in the PLP will need to be addressed, said Mr. Commissiong, leading to an issues-based political environment.

"I always found it a little interesting that the PLP could be the only realistic repository of black political life especially when black Bermudians constitute over two thirds of the electorate.

"This has been a phenomenon however which I contend could only be adequately explained by the racialised nature of Bermudian politics in the 20th century and white Bermuda's interest in maintaining that."

The new set-up will be liberating for black and white Bermudians alike who will grow and mature politically, said Mr. Commissiong.

"At least that is my hope. But first we need to get past the rough patch which we are currently in. Yet as stated I believe we will be stronger and a more united Country at the end of this process."

What do you think? Email us at news@royalgazette.bm