In February 1978, an aspiring young politician lost his job as an estate agent after switching from the United Bermuda Party to the Progressive Labour Party.

Alex Outerbridge, then 29, was white and his employer, John Chiappa, of Dorchester Realty, told him in a letter: ?Your conduct has caused embarrassment to my company.?

He resigned ? at Mr. Chiappa?s behest ? on February 17. Three days later he quit the PLP ? and indeed all politics ? and apologised to Dorchester Realty ?for the publicity and embarrassment that my political activities may have caused them?.

The company did not reinstate him but he received 12 other job offers after publicly renouncing his support for the Opposition party.

Mr. Outerbridge, who no longer lives on the Island, opted not to talk to for this series on whites in the party. But the legacy of what happened to him lives on.

It mattered then, to many people, that racism and the economic and societal constraints fostered by it meant Mr. Outerbridge was not free to support the political party of his choice.

The question now, almost 30 years later, is whether it matters that white people are still ? for a mass of complicated reasons, the tangled roots of which can be traced far back into the Island?s history of colonialism, slavery and segregation ? not joining the PLP.

Several people who spoke to believe that it doesn?t.

Eva Hodgson, the founder of the National Association of Reconciliation, doesn?t mince her words when asked why the number of whites in the party is so low.

?White racism is the reason,? she says. ?The reality is that white people in Bermuda have not changed all that much. They are not going to join something that black people started as a general principle.?

She adds: ?I don?t think it?s important whether the PLP has white representation. I don?t care whether they join the PLP or not.?

She thinks the party has attempted to woo whites in the past and uses a phrase which is later repeated by others: ?The PLP has bent over backwards to get white people to join.?

Inflammatory language about race used recently by Government Ministers Ewart Brown and David Burch is a red herring, she claims; an excuse used ?to justify something that white people weren?t going to do anyway? i.e. join the PLP.

She says the pair have only begun this rhetoric since the party came to power. ?White people didn?t join before,? she adds.

?All I want is the white community to take some responsibility instead of always putting responsibility on black people.?

Former PLP chairman and senator Ira Philip says the issue of race in the party is ?incidental and relatively unimportant and always has been to all of those in leadership positions in the party?.

He says: ?If white people choose not to ?belong? that?s incidental. It really hasn?t mattered to me. What difference does it make?

?The party has not projected its ideas to white people per se or black people per se but to people who subscribe to certain forward-thinking ideas. People who think in terms of being Bermudian.?

Political commentator Rolfe Commissiong goes further. ?White opinion-makers in Bermuda have basically put forward the idea that the PLP is a black party and that by implication black Bermudians are racist,? he alleges. ?In fact, it is the habit of white Bermudians to vote as an identifiable racial block.?

But he thinks there will be change. ?I think the dam of white racism may just burst after the next election,? he says.

For Dale Butler, Minister for Community Affairs, the problem is multi-layered and the outlook is not optimistic.

He says his white constituents tell him openly that he is the best MP they have ever had but that they can?t vote for him while he remains in the ?black? PLP.

?Whites only join organisations where they can be in charge,? he claims. ?You don?t see them in numbers where there is anything that is predominantly black. Whites have no interest in having chit chats with blacks.?

But he talks too of PLP meetings which whites have attended only to be verbally abused by black members who remain angry about the past.

?My heart goes out to whites because there have been meetings where blacks did not get up and speak properly and nicely to whites.

?They got up and chastised them or told them off.?

He doesn?t ?ever see whites joining the PLP? and says of the Island in 2006: ?It?s a mixed-up ball of confusion. What we have basically got are a bunch of people here who are running around headless.?

So does anyone within the PLP want to see more whites involved?

Party backbencher Rene? Webb does but believes there are not many like her. She says it?s a topic that is rarely discussed by members.

?I believe that the party should reach out and try to extend the membership,? she says.

?I think it?s important for a government to be representative of its community as a whole and I think it should try, wherever possible, to have that reflected in what it does.?

She wants to see an ?active outreach programme? to attract whites and a white PLP senator appointed.

?Obviously it would be good if the leadership of the party believed that it was important,? she says. ?But I also don?t see people in the country clamouring out for change.?

She believes ? like Mr. Butler ? that whites have no reason to join the party while they benefit from the Government?s economic policies.

?If people?s pockets were being affected as a consequence of being run by all blacks then they would rise up and change it.?

Political analyst and researcher Walton Brown says the party has a history of seeking white support yet adds ?the PLP to date has not been able to wrestle itself free of the racial divide that really affects every aspect of the Island?.

He says: ?There needs to be a much more active pursuit of broad membership in the party. It?s good politics. To not actively pursue 40 percent of the population is bad politics.

?Part of the challenge is that whites have been disinclined over the decades to join black-run organisations.

?That?s a hurdle that the PLP in and of itself can?t adequately address. That?s something white people have to address.

?I?m convinced the PLP hierarchy would open up their arms to white members who share the philosophy of the PLP.?

The Premier tells that the PLP, under his leadership, won?t be pursuing a white membership drive.

But he says: ?We knock on every door. That?s a reflection of our policy when we are canvassing. It reflects a broader policy.

?I have learned over the years that we have to be very careful how we pursue any one group for political purposes, especially for membership purposes.

?If you use race as a premise for your strategies... you will find that it is like a quagmire, like quicksand. You get bogged down in it and you never free yourself from this pernicious social ill.?

He insists a shared goal of Independence is the only thing that can unite black and white Bermudians. And of alleged racism towards whites within his party, he says: ?I?m acutely aware of the fact that the PLP and the UBP, any political entity, are grounded in our practices of the past. Not everybody has escaped it.

?Some have been mired by it to the extent that they still carry and act out prejudicial behaviour. I?m disappointed every time I see it happen in Bermuda in general. I?m working tirelessly to change it.?

Whether he will and whether large numbers of whites will ever join his party remains to be seen.

As Ms Webb says: ?The only way you can change is to make a conscious effort. It has to come from both sides.?

A comment by a PLP spokesman back in 1978 resonates as much now as it did then. The remark was made just after Mr. Outerbridge had pledged his allegiance to the PLP and hopes were perhaps still high that he was the first of an influx of whites.

He said: ?It is the healthiest thing for Bermuda when people truly cross racial lines.?

In 2006, is anyone prepared to?