is increasingly being spoken about in terms of race.

But educator and author Dr. Eva Hodgson said Government Cabinet Ministers have done an about-face on racism. And she said the change in attitude is suspect.

"People have to vote the way they feel,'' Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness said recently. "If they support (Premier the Hon.) Sir John (Swan) and they believe what he's trying to say, that we need a new beginning in this Country between the races, and we need to have equal opportunity economically, then they will vote for Independence and trust him.'' In the lead-up to next Tuesday's Independence referendum, the Premier and others in the UBP have recently voiced similar views, saying the referendum was a vote not just on Independence, but on equal opportunity.

Golf pro Mr. Kim Swan, who 12 years ago was a UBP candidate in Sandys South, said race was "the key ingredient'' in the 1993 general election.

But "half of the people in Bermuda, particularly those in control of the wealth of this Country, are in denial that a racial problem exists''.

And blacks were sometimes nothing more than "window dressing'' for the UBP, he said.

Dr. Hodgson said talk like that from the UBP demonstrates "they have not been successful in doing anything about racism in the 15 years they've been associated with Sir John.

"The reason it's very much at the top of the agenda today is because when Sir John came to power in the '80s, he put a a lid on it.'' Back in the 1980s, Dr.

Hodgson said Sir John accused her of causing divisiveness by talking about race.

Noting that Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan recently said the greatest division within Bermudian society is racial, Dr. Hodgson said Sir John and other UBP blacks have helped indoctrinate people with the idea that blacks are inferior to whites.

"They have been reinforcing racist attitudes for ten to 15 years,'' she said.

And she felt that while UBP blacks resented racism they experienced within that party, they were less concerned about it within society at large.

Dr. Hodgson said 90 percent of the Island's blacks support the Progressive Labour Party, whose members UBP blacks repeatedly said were "irresponsible, incompetent, and couldn't govern.

Black UBP members "were reinforcing the stereotypes about blacks, when it came to the PLP.'' Rhetoric from the UBP was part of the reason "some white folks are genuinely terrified of a PLP Government,'' she said.

Cabinet Ministers who have threatened to resign in the event of a `no' vote "are saying...the UBP Government will grow more right-wing, which in my language and most Bermudians' language means more racist,'' Dr. Hodgson said.

But for most blacks, "a right-wing UBP is to our advantage,'' she said. "We expect to be punished by white people.'' Dr. Hodgson said that in the last 15 years, having returned to Bermuda with a string of degrees and other credentials, "every one of the people who have refused (to hire or promote) me have been black people trying to do the work of the white power structure.'' It would be "a lot less painful'' coming from whites, she said.

Sir John said yesterday that "race in Bermuda has been on the cards for a very long time. It's a question of whether we approach it from Dr. Hodgson's point of view.

"If Dr. Hodgson is offended by a civil service system not embracing her the way she wanted to be embraced, it's most unfortunate,'' he said. "They might have their reasons.'' The Premier said Dr. Hodgson had done valuable work on the subject of racism. "If Dr. Hodgson feels we've stolen some ideas from her, we have,'' he said. But Government had also made progress combatting racism, he said.

Comparisons had been drawn between the UBP and the PLP, but "in some ways, the UBP had a much broader professional management group than the PLP have had,'' he said. "It's not designed to discredit the PLP because they're black, it's a fact of life.'' He added: "Without the support of the black community, the UBP wouldn't be in power.'' sentiments about the Independence issue.