If Bermuda continues on its present trajectory of playing the racial blame game instead of committing to actual racial reconciliation, we will be doomed to repeat the mistakes of our forbearers.

Of course people need to be aware and acknowledge that racism still exists in Bermuda and we all need to actively fight against it with meaningful policies, but until we start to think of ourselves as one community we will continue to be self-destructive:

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

True to form, the PLP aggressi-bloggers immediately attack:

Do you agree with the United Bermuda Party’s elder statesman that white Bermudians should refuse to apologise for the deep injustices committed over centuries in this country?

This illustrates the PLP “define your opponent” trickery.  No-one is advising people to refuse anything.  They just don’t get it.  Sure, white people can apologise for our ancestors if they want.  And that changes life how?  But you can expect those same progressive white people to ask today’s PLP leaders to cut the racebaiting as well.  Conversations have two sides.

Also, by referring only to a “UBP elder statesman” I assume they are hoping their followers will conclude the speaker is some regressive white – not the very popular John Swan – thus illustrating exactly the dysfunction that Sir John is describing.

But how can we “start to think of ourselves as one community” when so many in power wish merely to stir the pot of divisiveness and to re-live the battles of the 1950s?

Governments improve life by governing well.  Big conversations happen between people, not Government decree or by committee.  Healing will come from the grassroots and common motivations – and I think that healing is hampered by the “old guard” still in power.

See my earlier post on Identity Politics.

QUESTION:  Could I ask you about race?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: You may.

QUESTION: Yours is a rather historic presidency, and I’m just wondering whether in any of the policy debates that you’ve had within the White House, the issue of race has come up, or whether it has in the way you feel you’ve been perceived by other leaders or by the American people. Or have the last 64 days been a relatively color- blind time?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I — I think that the last 64 days has been dominated by me trying to figure out how we’re going to fix the economy, and that’s — affects black, brown and white. And you know, obviously, at the Inauguration I think that there was justifiable pride on the part of the country that we had taken a step to move us beyond some of the searing legacies of racial discrimination in this country, but that lasted about a day. And you know, right now the American people are judging me exactly the way I should be judged, and that is, are we taking the steps to improve liquidity in the financial markets, create jobs, get businesses to reopen, keep America safe? And that’s what I’ve been spending my time thinking about.

Note that the conference included only 10 minutes of speech, followed by 40 minutes fielding 13 questions from journalists.  Even the most popular American president in recent history must make his case.

What about Bermuda?   Ten years later, are we still supposed to suppress all criticisms of poor performance because of race?  Do all questions continue to merit the “plantation slapdown”?

Sorry, that’s not healthy.