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On reflection, the December 07 election was a struggle in which race was fiercely exploited by PLP leaders, and neither blacks nor whites throughout the community were able to adequately blunt, defend against or rebut this thrust.

Part of the reason is the shabby way the UBP's internal racial conflict was handled. UBP whites were intimidated out of discussing race constructively. UBP blacks were defanged by their inadequate response to the issues raised by Gwyneth Rawlins and Jamahl Simmons. The rest of us were just stunned.

Over on the PLP side, the party strategists were able to mix and match race and party affiliation and, with a dash of ethnicity thrown in, concoct a soup that nourished a racial backlash against centuries of slavery in all its forms.

It went something like this:

- Blacks in the PLP were portrayed as victims - responsibility for every problem affecting the black community was sloughed off to whites and/or the UBP from poor education to inadequate job preparation to lack of housing to criminal activity.

- Whites in the UBP were tagged as the oppressors - the sins of the fathers were visited on those who looked like the fathers, whether related or not.

- Whites of the PLP were presented as heroes - just by joining the party they were absolved of everything their political or racial ancestors might have done, and even their own recent sins. Unless, of course, they criticised the current leadership, in which case like their critically-thinking black brothers they were banished to a kind of political wilderness.

- Blacks in the UBP were smeared as racial traitors - even blacks who had no partisan affiliation were so branded.

According to the PLP leadership and its staunchest supporters, if you read between the PLP lines, all whites are vile and evil up until the moment they join the PLP at which time they instantly become angels and heroes.

It would appear that it doesn't matter how benevolent these whites might have been outside the party, or how corrupt their behaviour is once in. The only thing that counts is whether they have joined up with the PLP party.

Political bigotry - which is at work here - is as undesirable as any other form. And when it is compounded with racial bigotry, the result can be cancerous for a community. It was bad enough that this mindset in the past had whites believing and promoting the idea that all blacks were inferior and therefore fit for no better than mental and physical bondage.

I am dismayed that some current black leaders, some of them well educated, would advance the notion that people are good or bad based on their race or political affiliation.

Now that PLP leaders have tasted success from an overtly race-baited election campaign, can we expect that the anti-white theme will be continued?

Certainly Dr. Brown's comments in his 20 December 2007 interview with the BBC are not reassuring. Signals, or the absence of same, from the UBP camp to address internal racial issues lessens hope for overall racial conflict-resolution.

Let me say up front that I have no problem with pro-black initiatives. Every social and economic indicator reinforces the need to elevate opportunities and achievements for the black community in general.

When, however, such initiatives are couched in anti-white terms or tinged with anti-white flavour, I have a problem.

Any old revolutionaries can seek to advance their causes through the verbal and policy equivalents of Molotov cocktails. True statesmanship demands a less incendiary approach.

Now more than ever Bermuda needs true statesmanship to heal the wounds inflicted and widened by last month's election.[[In-content Ad]]

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