In a recent Royal Gazette opinion piece commentator Christian Dunleavy, a long time supporter of the United Bermuda Party, criticised Premier Brown's recent statement that if Barack Obama had run in a Bermudian election, then the chances of him attracting much of the white vote were slim (given the group's long history of voting almost exclusively for the UBP).

In the aftermath of the Premier's statement, which set off a firestorm of indignation and criticism coming mostly from whites, one question has not been asked: "Was the Premier speaking in isolation or is that a belief held generally by the black community?"

I have no problem with calling the Progressive Labour Party a black-based party. But white people in this country are loath to describe the UBP as a white politically based party, in part because it has always been able to claim a modicum of black political support.

In viewing Bermuda's racial-political divide, I always beleievd that as long as the UBP remained in power, then Bermuda's black majority would remain a political minority.

A black UBP political supporter was deemed to operatae within the tenets of UBP core beliefs. By way of illustration, the political fate of former UBP leader Wayne Furbert provides yet one more example of what happens to blacks who dare call for racial reform in that party. It could be said the white community had opportunities to embrace its own Barack Obamas but has chosen, time after time, to reject them.

The delusion commentators like Christian Dunleavy operatre under is they think the black community does not have the intellectual ability to observe what is going on and come to their own conclusions.

One curious political phenomenon that has manifested itself since the PLP won control of the Government 10 years ago is the claim there is a put-upon white minority which clings to the UBP because it considers itself to be under siege from a vengeful black political party. The PLP, it is argued, is out to even the score and to bring the white community to book for the racial crimes of their ancestors.

Christian Dunleavy attempted to rationalise and justify this argument by comparing almost monolithic African-American support for the Democratic party to the voting patterns of white Bermudians. In other words, they vote for the party they perceive will best represent their interests.But his contention the UBP is better placed to become a genuinely bi-racial, issues-focussed party is far beyond our political and racial realities.The great fault in this supposition is you cannot separate the black community from the PLP any more than you can do the same with the labour movement in this country or, for that matter, the black church.

All of these entities grew out of the common struggle of black Bermudians that goes back generations.

You might not like Premier Brown, but his assuming the political leadership at this time grew out of that long political and social struggle of the black community as a whole. But he hardly seems to be mobilising the PLP Government to drive the white community into the sea.

In fact, the reality is that Bermuda is the only black majority country in the post colonial era that repeatedly returned to political power a white-based party. This happened for 30 yearss before voting the black-led PLP was finally elected in 1998.

No, the PLP is not hatching venegeful plots against whites.

But I will tell you what is happening now. There is a growing indifference and scepticism within the black community over pronouncements coming from the white community concerning race relations in this country. Premier Brown received little or no critical comment from the black community over his statement about Obama because most in the black community consider it to be the truth.

As racist as America was when the black community began their struggle for civil and human rights, some white Americans joined them and were beaten (and in some instances martyred) right along with their African-American countrymen for the sake of pursuing real freedom in America.

I have always said that the only white man I respect in American history was John Brown who not only talked about the true meaning of freedom in America but considered that freedom was for everybody in America including black slaves. Brown was an American abolitionist who advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to end all slavery. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas and the unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859. That second rebellion against slave owning America resulted in him being led to the gallows.

Where was white Bermuda when black Bermudians took a stand for freedom? There was only Dr. Barbara Ball, a white Bermudian woman who could have taken the path of privilege, being the first woman doctor in this country. Instead she took a stand with her black Bermudian countrymen to struggle for a more just Bermuda and as a result will go down in history as a true Bermudian heroine who struggled for the cause of freedom in this country.

Until Bermuda has the courage and wisdom to face the truth about its history, its social reality, the ground will not become fertile for the rise of an Obama-like political leader despite the protestations of the Christian Dunleavys of this world.