"Monkey go home" was the message Rolfe Commissiong found on his desk at Mount St. Agnes school one morning when he was six or seven years old.

Young Rolfe picked up the scrap of paper, which also bore a crude caricature of a monkey, screwed it up and threw it in the bin.

Rolfe, the only black boy in the class, knew there was something wrong about the note but it was a few years before he was old enough to understand what it really meant.

And although for some reason he never told the teacher or his parents what had happened, he still thinks about that earliest memory of racism today.

From the moment he was born at the segregated King Edward VII Memorial Hospital — and routinely switched from one section to another because nurses weren't sure whether he was black or white — race has been a major factor in Rolfe Commissiong's life.

The son of two civil rights activists from the original Progressive Group, Mr. Commissiong's political campaigning, newspaper columns and brash way of talking have earned him a reputation as one of the most outspoken and controversial racial commentators Bermuda has ever seen.

As Premier Ewart Brown's race relations consultant, his Big Conversation meetings are designed to heal the race divide, but there are many who argue all they really do is give blacks the chance to point the finger and make whites feel guilty.

In fact Mr. Commissiong seems to upset white people so often that, given what's happened in his past, it's tempting to think he's doing it on purpose.

But he tells The Royal Gazette that the letter in last week's newspaper in which a reader asked: "Why does Rolfe Commissiong not like white people?" was barking up the wrong tree.

"First of all, I think there are a number of white people who can speak to my relationship, to how I relate to white Bermudians on an individual basis," he said.

"It may be disappointing to the letter writer, but I don't put much weight to letters like that, except to say it's more of the same from certain quarters. Being in this position as long as I have it's not unexpected."

Water off a duck's back to the only black boy in the class at Mount St. Agnes.

"While I retain some great friendships with many of the students I went with, it certainly had its moments," said Mr. Commissiong of his school days.

"Coming to school at age six or seven and having to deal with that piece of paper. It didn't really hit home until later. I just knew it was something that wasn't that good.

"It may take a psychiatrist to understand this but I never told my mom and dad or the teacher. I simply threw it in the trash.

"I wouldn't say it scars you but it certainly makes you very sober in terms of recognising then how far you still have to go and how much work still remains.

"It's been a struggle for black people in the west and that struggle has not ended.

"Black Bermudians have been very resilient despite the significant oppression they have had to endure."

However, Mr. Commissiong does not describe himself as bitter.

"I recognise that the work we have embarked upon, not only the Race Relations Initiative but also the movement of our people, is one which presents a challenge, but a challenge that we welcome," he said.

"We know that what keeps us going is the fact that we are creating a Bermuda that will be a place for all Bermudians."

So if Mr. Commissiong is trying to create a Bermuda for all, blacks and whites, why do so many whites get the impression he's against them?

"You have some white Bermudians who can't separate my comments about white Bermudians as a group. It grates against their western sense of being an individual. But they are also a cultural group," he said.

"I think there's another group, Bermudians of British descent, who believe it's in their political interests to characterise myself and others like the Premier in that fashion.

"That's an attempt to demonise us. Certainly it hasn't worked in the last three elections. I don't think it will work in another.

"The same group's putting out that the PLP is racist; they say the black majority was hoodwinked into voting for the PLP. They are some of the loudest opinion-makers."

Mr. Commissiong points out he is of mixed heritage himself, with white family members on his paternal side and with a white Irish/American stepmother. Whether he's for them or against them, whites had better get used to Mr. Commissiong because he and his Big Conversation are not going away.

"I think mindsets are changing because people are talking about race," he explained.

"Three or four years ago, people didn't mention race in Bermuda and were afraid to tackle it.

"Now people are talking about it. The genie is not going back in the bottle. I think it's in white Bermuda's best interest to engage.

"It is in the interest of all Bermudians to fight for racial equity in this country. That is the door by which we can put the past behind us in a healthy and constructive way."