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I began writing in 1992. During those fourteen years, I've described Bermuda's media - all of it - as a filter. I believed that Bermuda's media - the whole - took or received a point of view, and then revalued or shifted the perspective before it showed or otherwise regurgitated the feelings that it captured - or thought that it had captured.

This fuss over the UBP's inevitable evolution reminded me of those thoughts. I now think I was wrong. I now think that Bermuda's media - altogether - operates outside a veil; the kind of veil worn by women in strict Muslim societies. That veil conceals the lips and nose, but shows the eyes.

Our media - all of it - is good at reporting deaths and accidents and letting 'talking head' businessmen tout their services. It's good at showing recruits marching around Warwick Camp. It's competent at rehashing court cases. It does a fine job profiling local celebrities who've turned up at the latest shindig. It prods, picks, and pokes at local politics.

What our media - taken together - is not so good at is letting the whole range of people's feelings come through. By people, I mean the whole mixed bag of genetic human bundles that sits on walls or sits in corner offices. That sell and don't sell in retail. That teaches or tries to teach in education. That serves, civilly and sometimes not, in government service whilst wearing both blue and white collars; or blue and white shirts.

In Bermuda, there are human feelings and emotions that run, and have always run, deep beneath the human surface. Like submarines, these strong feelings run long, run silent, run deep. Then, suddenly, they break the surface and present a harsh, unfriendly, and ominous shape. Several times, these feelings have even blown up like torpedoes into riots and arson and killings.

Through decades of deliberately sustained invisibility in all of Bermuda's media, black Bermudians developed their own national communication mechanism. That mechanism consisted of news and views passed between black families and relatives; information transmitted between black churches, black lodges, black clubs, and other black associations; and conversations between individuals of the same race who were always careful not to discuss certain matters with people of the other race - or in the hearing of people of another race.

The media fuss over the UBP reminded me that this national system of channeled and selective communication has not really changed. In this UBP fuss, Bermuda's media - all of it - is still showing that it is seeing through a veil.

Correctly - accurately - black Bermudians have not changed a national racial habit. Black Bermudians are still using their centuries old communication system born out of their racial history. Black Bermudians still talk behind a veil and have been doing so throughout this UBP fuss. When broaching some subjects, black Bermudians can still seem to erupt rather than converse. That happened with the apparently sudden breaking-out of deep emotion in the UBP fuss.

Bermuda's media doesn't penetrate or get behind that veil. In this now freer and more open society, the thoughts and feelings of black Bermudians remain submerged, suppressed, subliminal. But is it the media's fault? Partly. Only partly.

Black Bermudians grabbed political power. Black Bermudians are now the ascendant group. Black Bermudians need to change and begin openly articulating all their deeper feelings. But black Bermudians have spent the past three hundred years concealing, whispering about, or disguising their true inner feelings. So there is a barrier - a veil - that must be removed.

Removing the veil requires action. The action? Black Bermudians must talk, write, and speak about themselves and their feelings. It is only by being honest and far more open that black and white Bermudians can even begin to bridge the national racial gap.

Bermuda's media - all of it - must make sure that it opens itself up to black Bermudian voices and thus does whatever it can to help lift the veil.

At first, it will be painful. Then we'll all begin to learn the finer art of open but honest and gentler expression. Later, we'll all be able to laugh and joke about things that currently, by three hundred year-old custom, we don't even mention.

One day, we'll all be able to laugh at and with each other. On that day we'll know that the veil has gone - and every one of us will then be free from another part of our shared but dragging-down past.[[In-content Ad]]

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