Ms Khanga's multi-cultural heritage extends even further than being the daughter of a mixed-race Russian Jewish woman and a black Tanzanian politician, who was assassinated when she was three-years-old.

She has African, American and Polish relatives.

In Russia, she was discriminated against, especially in the Cold War era, because of her American ties.

She had not really experienced anti-Semitism -- no one knew she was Jewish because she was black.

And her colour became an issue the minute she arrived in America in search of her roots.

Being the only black person in her Manhattan apartment building, she often found that after stepping into the elevator, people would automatically press the basement button thinking she worked in the laundry.

From her brief stay here to take part in the Beyond Barriers Conference at Bermuda College, Ms Khanga has "no doubt'' racism is thriving here.

"You have to be blind not to see that black Bermudians are disadvantaged,'' she said in an interview following the forum this weekend.

"No one beats each other on the street over race, but economically, it's there.'' And, according to Ms Khanga, the situation is coming to a head.

"I really felt like I was facing history at the conference,'' she said.

"I felt there was a new flower coming out with pain. It's not how everyone wants to see it, but it's coming out.

"People are not afraid to talk about barriers they are facing. There were speeches by a homosexual, an ex-prisoner, a young black person. There was a fascinating workshop in which `ex-pats' pretended they were Bermudians (and vice-versa) and shared problems they were facing with each other.'' Ms Khanga commended the other international and local guest speakers, and the 100-plus people attending the forum for the respect they showed each other over.

"Blacks and whites were sitting together and not afraid to talk about race and other barriers,'' she noted. "They talked intelligently about the issues and listened to each other.'' Ms Khanga said one thing she had learned from her multi-cultural background was to be comfortable with whatever race you are and "stretch the hand first''.

Ms Khanga has worked as a free-lance journalist in America for the past four years, having travelled to Zanzibar, the American south, and Chicago to find and meet her many relatives.

Her grandfather was the son of a Mississippi slave and her grandmother the daughter of a rabbi.

She has just completed a book about her life and travels called Soul to Soul.

Before going to America, she worked as an investigative reporter for the Moscow News in Russia after graduating from the prestigious Moscow State University.

Because of her academic background and profession, she found she was accepted as a black person in Russia more so than had she been uneducated and poor.

The discrimination she and her mother felt was at the hands of anti-American Communist Party members who were aware of her mother's US ties.

Ms Khanga felt she was lucky to start her career as a journalist during the "free press'' time when (Gorbachev) came to power.

She wrote a column about how foreigners felt as guests in Russia and what problems they encountered.

One of her first "undercover'' jobs was to sit in a Russian restaurant everyday for a week to investigate complaints of rude waiters by American businessmen travelling alone.

The job ended in her arrest for suspected prostitution. But she did find out why waiters reacted rudely to single diners.

They preferred serving groups of foreigners because it was easier to overcharge them or add items they did not have onto their bills, she said.

For now, Ms Khanga calls the United States home, having become disillusioned with Russia.

"Russia wanted a new capitalist society with a market economy, but we did not build anything new in preparation for that. We did not change the rules,'' she said.

Noting that "most of the industry in Russia is controlled by organised crime'', she said there was no respect for the country's antiquated laws.

Another problem was that the "new democrats are all former communists'', she said.

MULTI-CULTURAL -- Being a black Russian Jew with African and American family ties, visiting journalist Ms Yelena Khanga knows about discrimination.