Dr. Eva Hodgson has consistently stood by her convictions ... even at the risk of offending both blacks and whites in Bermuda.

Agree with her or not, certainly she cannot be denied. She spoke out aggressively against racial injustices under the previous Government, and, not happy with the Progressive Labour Party Government's stand on the same issues, she has criticised it, too.

Last week on a morning talk show a caller - probably not normally in agreement with what she says or writes - urged people in Bermuda to read her recent opinion piece on Page Four of The Royal Gazette. In it she voiced strong views on, among other things, the Rolfe Commissiong-Mark Selley controversy (Mr. Selley attacked Mr. Commissiong by bringing up his criminal past), party politics and "internalised racism" within the black community.

Racism has been on her agenda for the better part of three decades. That isn't likely to change anytime soon.

On any given day either one of her letters will appear in a newspaper or someone will be responding to something she has written or said. Last Friday in the Mid Ocean News, Robert Pires of the Coalition for Long Term Residents responded to a Dr. Hodgson letter of the previous week by asking why should Portuguese-Bermudians support CURE (Commission for for Racial Unity and Equality) when CURE has done nothing to support Portuguese-Bermudians.

"I don't know anything that CURE has done for the black community," Dr. Hodgson replied.

"But a few more blacks have supported it under the assumption that if it is there it might get around to doing something. He's saying they (Portuguese-Bermudians) have every right not to support it if it hasn't done anything for them. But the point is until it was there and got support it couldn't do anything for anybody anyhow.

"The problem is this Government isn't giving it a whole lot of support. But black people supported it, not because it had done anything, but even now they think or hope it might do something. To have it there is better than not having it there."

On the same day in this newspaper, Dr. Hodgson agreed with Mr. Pires that "most Bermudians have 'me-itus'. But she is quick to add: "He is, however, being naive, or deliberately dishonest to suggest that E. Simmons, or almost any other black person would necessarily be sympathetic to another black person. It is often a black person carrying out the discrimination against another black person."

If there is one topic on which Dr. Hodgson feels strongly about it is race. She has pursued it at her peril, having been turned down for jobs for which she is qualified based, she believes, on her strong views.

Two days after Christmas a letter appeared in her mailbox from new Minister of Community and Cultural Affairs, Randy Horton, informing her she would no longer be serving on the Human Rights Commission, ending her three year tenure which began under a previous Minister.

It read in part: "Thank you very much for serving as a Human Rights Commissioner over the past three years. I understand that you served well during your tenure, this community is a better place because of your contributions and efforts.

"I will not be re-appointing you to the Human Rights Commission this year. May I take the opportunity to wish you a joyous Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year."

She added: "The letters they send you when they are firing you are very courteous letters thanking you for your service and that they are sure you made a significant contribution or words to that effect."

"I heard him (Mr. Horton) talk about one of his civil servants (Director of Youth and Sports, Brenton Roberts) when he said he was going to wait to see how he functioned and I'm curious at the fact that he wasn't interested in seeing how some of the commissioners in the Human Rights functioned before he sacked them.

"I don't have so much a reaction to that. My reaction was primarily when he ignored me when I was requesting a role at the Bermuda College, for which I was more than qualified.

"One of the things it reflects is that decision makers in this Government are really not behaving any differently from the decision makers in the previous Government. Somebody on one of the talk shows said 'if you don't agree with them, how can you expect them to find you useful'?"

Such occurrences are nothing new for Dr. Hodgson. She remembers former Premier Sir John Swan once telling her at a funeral in Bailey's Bay that she was the cause of the divide between the black and white races.

Many years before that, she recalls F.S. Furbert, the late principal at Berkeley where she taught for about 20 years up until 1968, telling her 'the reason Berkeley Institute didn't get white students was because of me'. "But they didn't get a whole lot of white students after I left, either," she says.

Another time she says she was turned down for a job in the Human Rights Department after a Civil Servant wrote in his submission that 'she couldn't get along with white folks'.

"Many of the people who are in decision-making roles today I have taught and I think their sense of insecurity has increased," she stated.

Dr. Hodgson refuses to be quietened on issues she believes strongly in, and makes no apologies for how she feels or what she says.

"You don't make any apology for how tall or how short you are and if you have any brains in your head, you don't make any apologies for what colour you are," she pointed out.

"Apart from that, the racial dilemma has not been completely solved, even though there have been some changes. As long as it exists as a problem, why should one not talk about it or challenge it?"

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She added: "At one time the Education Minister brought together myself and somebody from Saltus Grammar. I don't remember what motivated the dialogue but I do remember the teacher or principal from Saltus Grammar said to me when asked the definition of racism - because I was charged with being a racist - was somebody who talked about race all the time.

"I think that is the definition for a great many Bermudians, that if you talk about it then you are creating the problem."

During a visit to her home in Hamilton Parish, Dr. Hodgson spoke about her early experiences with racism.

"I've had a problem with racism literally all of my life," she says bluntly.

"Some of my first experiences had to do with the fact that I had an aunt who taught school. She taught her family but she also taught children who could pass as white but couldn't go to a white school.

"Also, living down here in the country and going to a black church meant that I didn't have much contact with white folks, apart from these children and their parents and one or two white families I might pass down here. When we were down here they would speak and when we met them in Hamilton they wouldn't speak, so that was the beginning of my racial awareness.

"I began to write letters the first time I went away to college. Whether I did it before I went away I can't remember, but I do know I wrote letters back to Bermuda when I was at Queen's University in Canada. The consistency of letters began when I came back from University in the late 1940s."

Her letters got a reaction, many supporting her views ... many not. But even in the face of criticism she continued to stand her ground.

"At that time one of the people with whom I had a dialogue in the newspaper was somebody called Earl Outerbridge, who used to write letters, too." she recalled.

"I don't have a very clear image of him at the moment but we wouldn't have been in agreement with each other. He was white."

Dr. Hodgson came from a family of six and is the sister of MP Arthur Hodgson. Another sister is a business owner while two other siblings have died.

"I have brothers and sisters who may have the same emotional reaction to racism that I have, but may not have felt a need to respond to it the way I have done," she explained.

"My responding to it the way I've done is very much, I believe, a matter of my temperament and personality. My family had a strong sense of race consciousness and self worth.

"I had an uncle who always used to quote the text 'Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands'. That uncle, when he left Berkeley Institute, went to work for a printing company and at one point the workers came out on strike. In those days they went back to work without getting what they wanted and he, rather than going back to work without achieving his objective, came down here and farmed for the rest of his life.

"That indicates the kind of thinking within my family which inevitably influenced me."

She was a founding member of NAR (National Association for Reconciliation) in 1989 in a bid to bring race issues more to the forefront. Lately the association has not been very active and Dr. Hodgson admits not many people are involved with the group.

"We have not had very many functions lately so we do not have many people involved," she said.

'One of the reasons we stopped doing things is because CURE is there and they were having meetings in the early years and that meant Government was prepared to talk about race. Before that people were intimidated because it was something you weren't supposed to talk about."

Dr. Hodgson refuses to support the PLP irrespective of what they are doing or not doing. Politics isn't something she ever aspired to become involved in, but she has been a member of the party sporadically.

"I went and joined when they had the Gilbert Darrell, Austin Thomas issues so that I could participate," she said.

"A few months ago the (party) branch down here sent me notices and I went and joined again. My loyalty is to the black community and not to the PLP. When the PLP is not serving the black people like I think it should be then I'm critical of them.

"I want to see black people have a measure of self confidence in themselves without concerning themselves so much about what white people or the UBP is doing or may not do.

"A lot of times when you see a black person being mean towards another black person it grows out of their own insecurity, which is a result of racism. What I would like to see more than anything else is black people acquiring self confidence and self esteem, which will result in an attitude of believing that they can work out solutions and overcome problems without looking over their shoulder to see if it has met with the approval of others."

If it means continuing to speak out to achieve that then Dr. Hodgson is prepared to do it.

She said: "My brother Arthur said to me 'when you talk about the issue you make white people uncomfortable and when whites are uncomfortable then the black people who have to deal with them are uncomfortable'.

"In some way I think that what I do I was meant to do, and some of the experiences I've had is because the Lord wants to make sure I know what it feels like. With a lot of people, when life gets comfortable and they get an upgrading in status, they forget the people they are supposed to be representing or the people who are still facing problems.

"I think the Lord wants to make sure I didn't forget what I was supposed to do, which is to speak out against injustices, even if they are primarily racial."