Government Minister Dale Butler yesterday told the House of Assembly that he was was misquoted in an article in on race and politics.

Under the headline ?Butler criticises Burch comments?, this newspaper said the Minister of Community Affairs and Sport appeared to agree with the sentiments of Senator David Burch and quoted Mr. Butler as saying: ?Black people who want to join that party (the United Bermuda Party) want to be white.?

The article had earlier referred to Sen. David Burch?s use of the phrase ?house nigger? after cutting off a caller on his Sunday evening Hott 107.5 FM call-in show last summer, prior to being appointed to the Senate or being made Housing Minister.

And the article said Mr. Butler was ?ashamed? the word nigger was ?part of the black vocabulary? ? and wished that kind of language could be buried in Bermuda.

Yesterday, Editor Bill Zuill said the newspaper stood by the story and the quotations, which excerpted at the bottom of this story.

But Mr. Butler yesterday told the House: ?I did not state that blacks who want to join that party want to be white. I said they want to be right, by joining the UBP, given all of the negative comments made regularly about our party.?

Mr. Butler told the House that he made that comment when he had been speaking to reporter Sam Strangeways, who was researching a series of features which ran last week on why more whites do not join the Progressive Labour Party.

He told MPs yesterday: ?I talked about the constant battering and labelling that the PLP had received, being told that we are learning on the job, we are incompetent, incapable and inadequate.

?Having stated that, I went on to comment that because of the constant labelling of our party in this way, who would want to join something that was so wrong??

He said there was a ?big difference? between saying blacks who wanted to join the UBP wanted to be ?white? and that they wanted to be ?right?.

The Minister continued: ?I explained that such labelling made it difficult for people to join a party that is labelled as being so wrong.

?The negative labelling of the PLP not only had an impact on whites, but also blacks who wanted to be right and not wrong all the time.?

Mr. Butler also hit out at the headline ?Butler criticises Burch comments?, and said he ?never mentioned a name?.

He said that when asked if he condoned the use of the term house nigger, he replied: ?I don?t see why we have to label ourselves as something that whites used to label us with.

?It?s part of the psychological damage that has been done to black people over the years. We don?t need it in Bermuda from anybody.?

He added: ?In an effort to steer completely away from the Human Rights Commission decision to dismiss a complaint made against the Senator I stated: ?I do not have an opinion on it?.

?As the Minister responsible for Human Rights, I though this was best because I did not appoint the Board to hear the case and I do not get involved directly with the day to day running of its affairs.?

Earlier, Mr. Butler praised the series of articles about whites in the PLP. He said they had been ?excellent?.

And he said he hoped the inaccuracy would not prevent the newspaper from ?exploring those painful subjects that must be tackled as we build nationhood, national pride and retain democratic traditions.?Mr. Butler spoke to on May 18 for the final part of a series on whites in the Progressive Labour Party. In the context of a conversation on why whites weren?t joining the party, he said: ?Whites at the moment have no need to join the PLP. As long as they are comfortable there is no need to join a political party that can?t be doing anything more.

?They will never ever join the PLP because they have hang-ups.?

He went on to talk about the United Bermuda Party and why black people join that party.

He said the UBP had no interest in working with working class people. A clear shorthand note of the conversation records him as saying to Ms Strangeways: ?Black people who want to join that party want to be white. Blacks who join that party want to be part of the middle class economic structure of Bermuda.?

Ms Strangeways has no recollection or shorthand note of him saying ?who would want to join something that was so wrong?? or that there were ?blacks who wanted to be right and not wrong all the time?.

The Minister was asked specifically about Sen. David Burch?s ?house nigger? comment and he said: ?I hope we can bury the use of that language. He?s a political colleague of mine and I would hope that he can bury it. I don?t condone the use of that language at all.?

Of the term ?house nigger? he said: ?I would like to see that type of language dispelled, never used. There is no room for that type of language in Bermuda.

?It?s a term that I feel ashamed is part of the black vocabulary. I don?t see why we have to label ourselves as something that whites used to label us with. It?s part of the psychological damage that has been done to black people over the years deliberately and indirectly. We don?t need it in Bermuda at all from anybody.?

As the story stated, Mr. Butler refused to comment directly on the Human Rights Commission decision decision to dismiss a complaint made against Sen. Burch.

Mr. Butler told the reporter he expected to receive some criticism for his outspoken remarks.