Dear Sir,

The outrage, sarcasm and cynicism expressed by members of the OBA, which basically represents the white community, whenever the PLP mentions Bermudian birthright is ingenious. It was the representatives of the white community who, in 1834, determined that no matter how many black people were born in Bermuda, they would never have the benefits of full citizenship.

They were unabashed in telling the newly freed slaves that they were going to bring in Europeans so that they did not have to pay for their labour, which had so recently been free. (cf: Heritage by Kenneth Robinson). This policy was first successful in 1842. It has been continued on and off since then.

With all due respect to senator Jeff Baron, we do not so much need more conversation, as we need a recognition and acknowledgment by this Government as to why we have a racial divide today in the first place, rather than continuing the same racist policies of the past under a different guise.

The importation of whites to undermine and displace blacks has been so successful that today there are more white “Bermudians” who were not born here than there are white Bermudians who were born here. So there is little wonder that the OBA gets enraged by any discussion of Bermudian birthrights. But let us be clear, if black Bermudians are insistent on their Bermudian birthright, there is a reason. Since they have long since, over many decades, been deliberately denied the benefits of their Bermudian birthright and have seen others, those who have birthrights elsewhere, equally deliberately used to displace them.

Yours etc,

EVA N HODGSON