Members of the public from all walks of life made a commitment to healing the Island's racial divide yesterday at the second public meeting of the revitalised Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda

CURB, a grassroots anti-racism group was formed in the mid-1990s but lost steam after the 1998 election due to lack of support from the new Government. However, all that changed at the 2005 Throne Speech where Premier Alex Scott pledged to reactivate the group. The Government went a step further in the 2006 Budget Speech pledging $95,000 to the group.

Prior to losing steam the group hosted a forum attended by 600 Bermudians in 1998. The forum was a brainstorming session and resulted in CURB formulating "strategies and sentiments" for the future.

The recent meetings have been smaller and much more intimate than the forum, something CURB said they are happy about. The aim of these meetings is to reacquaint the community with the group and its aims while identifying members of the public who want to assist CURB in finding a way forward.

Some of the activities CURB hopes to offer the Island are; mediation, peer empowerment, lobbying, dialogue groups, forums and school education.

Members of the public spoke during the meeting about the Island's need to openly discuss issues. A common theme was that racism on the Island was inextricably linked to discrimination amongst the classes.

One woman, who said she has often felt what is labelled as "white guilt", said people need to look at being inclusive instead of sticking to their "clubs and groups". She said it often appeared to her that people were comfortable sticking with people of the same economic background on the Island. Others echoed her sentiment that often racism was tied to economic divisions in society.

Another woman said that Bermuda needed to addresses its racial issues in order to properly perform in the global economy. She said that the economic prosperity achieved by some was allowing the issue to fall to the wayside.

"Under the affluence and richness on the Island there is simmering anger," she warned. "We are about to lose a generation, if we haven't already."

Another man said the economic divide that many blacks feel needs to be addressed if racial issues are every going to get better.

"When blacks feel they are getting an equal bite of the cherry pie they might be more willing to come together with whites," he said.

Towards the end of the meeting one gentlemen said he thought events like Tim Wise's speech targeted at a white-only audience was necessary.

"Often whites have not been involved in these types of discussions," he said. "We need to sort through this separately before we can come together and discuss it."

Organisers LeYoni Junos and Myra Virgil, of CURB and CURE respectively, said they would be holding more public meetings in March to accommodate people who were unable to attend the February meetings.

They said the meetings would be held in the evenings and urged people to come and voice their opinions about what Bermuda needs to do to address racism. No firm date has been set for the next meeting yet.