July 17, 2014

Dear Sir,

The Leader of the Opposition, Marc Bean, has called for the dissolution of Parliament. He probably feels, as do I, that the dissatisfaction with the current Government is sufficiently widespread that the Progressive Labour Party would win if an election were called.

While it is highly unlikely for an election to be called, my view is that unless the PLP has the courage and integrity to directly and aggressively address our racial divide and economic disparity with strong affirmative action policies they will do the country no more good than they did previously.

Some have charged them with financial ineptness and worse. However, far more destructive to the entire country than the current recession and black joblessness is the continual economic disparity and deep racial divide.

Former MP Reginald Burrows has said that we might have expected the racism in this country to have been reduced under a PLP Government but it has not.

It has not because the PLP did little to modify all of the economic advantages and preferences granted the white Community over the centuries and under the United Bermuda Party.

In many ways it is worse because the black community believed that by voting for the PLP the situation would at least be modified. It was not.

It was not because the PLP has made the decision to ignore the deep racial implications of all that happens in this country.

Recently the Leader of the Opposition reported that when the Governor asked him not to make something an issue of race (which it clearly was) he responded that he would not because that was not the approach of the PLP.

So clearly the attitude toward the racial divide and the economic disparity between the two races continues to be ignored or downplayed as it was at the PLP inception and during the last fourteen years, despite the continuous and desperate efforts of the Shadow Minister of Human Affairs, Rolfe Commissiong, to acknowledge its significance.

Mr Burrows reminded us that blacks wished for integration but not the white community. Why should that be something of note?

It was the white community that imposed the segregation in the first place. Under the UBP the Government ceased insisting on the widespread segregation which it had previously imposed.

However, that did not change either the desire or the general attitude and intention of the white community to continue policies that supported white supremacy — always acknowledging those few whites with a different attitude. The PLP seem to believe that by appeasing the powerful white community on this fundamental issue and ignoring it as a priority, whites will “come around”.

It is evident, and recent discussion has underscored it, that they are just as intent on undermining and demeaning the black community as they were in the 1840s when they first initiated the policy of importing whites (from anywhere). To return to power a PLP that will continue an approach that ignores race, as the leader of the Opposition indicated that they are still doing, will only lead to further frustration, and further destruction of the black community.

EVA N HODGSON

Crawl