racism in Bermuda's offices.

Up to 45 people, mainly from the "caring professions'', will attend the anti-racism courses run by English expert Ms Pamela Brown.

Organisers hope managers from major businesses will then sign up for similar courses in the winter and spring.

Details of the courses were revealed yesterday after a closed-door meeting between Ms Brown and prominent Bermudians -- black and white.

Of the 50 organisations and companies invited to the meeting, about half sent representatives.

The meeting was "a wonderful cross-section of Bermuda'', said National Association for Reconciliation coordinator Dr. Emily Liddell, whose group invited Ms Brown to the Island.

Dr. Liddell would not reveal who attended, but said Government departments, helping organisations, hospitals, big retailers, banks and construction companies were all represented.

The meeting had "good input'' from the retailers, said Dr. Liddell. The banks had been "interested'', while not enthusiastic.

But two or three older black people had spoken against the courses. "They said they didn't believe this would work,'' she said. "They had tried to deal with the subject of racism throughout their lives and they were now feeling discouraged that anything could be done, and tired of it all.

"The answer is that anti-racism courses have not been tried. It's something new.'' Ms Brown, 36, comes from an Indian family and lives in London. After getting an MA in criminology she worked with offenders serving life sentences in top-security prisons.

After a time in personnel management she became a race relations adviser to local government in London.

For the past eight years she has had her own management consultancy, teaching management skills and holding courses on racism, sexism and people with disabilities.

She has worked all over the UK and in Italy, Kenya and New York. A number of people at the meeting said they would be sending delegates on the courses, she said yesterday.

"It's a sensitive, difficult issue but people are prepared to come and work at it.

"People were saying: `Yes, there's racism within Bermuda' and they do want to do something about it and work towards closing the gap between the two communities.

"At the end of the day some of the business sector will also recognise that anti-racism is essentially good management practice.'' The two-day courses, called anti-racism training workshops, will start on October 19. Three are planned, each taking 15 people at about $100 a head.

Although the NAR anticipates most people will be managers, members of the public will be invited to take part. The courses are open to people of all races.

Their aim, said Ms Brown, would be to examine how racism operates in Bermuda and how to challenge it, individually and in organisations.

The workshops would use videos, case studies, group discussion, exercises and tutors. They would deal with changing in-built attitudes and altering behaviour which might be affecting other people's life chances. They would also see how to get greater equality of opportunity in organisations.

"You don't all hold hands and burst into tears and say `I'm guilty','' she joked. "If you bang people over their heads and make them guilty, the first thing a human being does is to put their defences up.'' Bermuda was like a "microcosm'' of other societies, Ms Brown said. "I went onto a black-only beach, and then I went onto Horseshoe Bay, which was almost entirely white.

"Court Street is like a mini Brixton,'' she added, referring to the famous black area of south London.

"But here people don't speak so openly about the issue of racism. There does seem to be a sense in both black and white people of fear of victimisation if they were to speak out.'' People even feared they could lose their jobs, she said.

"Given Bermuda's history and how far it's come, to be satisfied with where we are is to say it can get no better.

"I think that all of us have a kind of duty for the future, that we keep striving to make it better. If we stop and say `That's it' then we start to slip backward.'' People who thought they weren't racist could find that in subtle ways they were.

"I have noticed white people talking about `white people', but they also talk about `blacks'. That says something about your thinking.'' Ms. Pamela Brown.