begin to discuss racial attitudes and to look for solutions to racial problems. This is the fifth of an open series of editorials dealing with race and it may be helpful to point out what we see as some of the reasons race is not a common topic.

Clearly there is some reluctance even to speak the word "race''.

Black Bermudians have a long history of having to hide racial attitudes in order to be comfortable in a white-dominated society. Some of that hiding continues today simply because it is the easy and less confrontational way to proceed. Few of us venture any opinion on anything if we think that opinion may be greeted with disdain or even hostility and embarrassment.

White Bermudians hesitate to speak out because they are uncomfortable over the segregation of blacks and the racial attitudes of the past and the racial attitudes they know they still hear today. Whites understand that a benign attitude and good intentions are no longer sufficient but they are uncertain what is appropriate or what will be acceptable to black Bermudians. Some of that creates a Catch-22 situation, they do not speak out because there is no dialogue by which they can judge acceptable opinion.

Bermuda is basically a conservative and middle class country and many Bermudians, black and white, appear to be embarrassed and even resentful of those people who do go public to politicise extreme views of the right or the left. Often Bermudians find those views frightening and threatening and withdraw from discussions. We do not think that whites are any longer frightened of blacks holding power but they are frightened of the results of black radicals holding power and that sometimes is seen as racist. It is often difficult to explain that extreme views are not held by the majority of Bermudians but are often expounded with a good deal of publicity by people who have a personal agenda, sometimes a personal agenda created by their own failure.

Bermuda is unusual because it has very few liberal whites of the type who would fight along with blacks for black causes. Indeed it has very few liberals, black or white, to fight for liberal causes as opposed to racial causes. Bermuda is also unusual because it must have a higher percentage of conservative blacks than most countries, some of them much more conservative than conservative whites. Those blacks seem to have had easier access to success, financial and political, because they have been more acceptable to a conservative social structure. We think that radical blacks have been left behind not because they were black but because their politics were not trusted by the more conservative majority.

Racial divisions have been encouraged because blacks who succeed are often stigmatised, called names and demeaned by other blacks for a variety of reasons ranging from politics to jealousy. In a very similar way, whites who are out of the main stream of white behaviour and openly support black causes or join the Progressive Labour Party have been cut down and shut out by other whites.

Thus, a fair amount of the reluctance to discuss race has to stem from a fear of some sort of reprisal or unpleasant accusation. Far too often anyone of any stripe who has attempted to discuss race has been branded as racist, not for the views expounded but for simply speaking out. Being branded as "noisy'' or "difficult'' or "a trouble maker'' has not been an asset to anyone and has kept people quiet.

The average Bermudian is a decent sort who wants Bermuda to get on about its business. Bermudians are not generally inclined toward fuss or confrontation.

And there is a school of thought which says that long-standing Bermudians get on well together and the racial problems are being caused by more recent arrivals. We see that as being partly true in the sense that recent arrivals impose on Bermuda the problems and the attitudes they bring with them. But it should not be used as an excuse.

Perhaps it would be wise to start by discussing what is right about racial attitudes in Bermuda. From that we should move to a discussion which may be painful and difficult, what is wrong.