The incident of the lady at the march with her sign saying white mental illness was killing African Bermudians may have a silver lining.

This community doesn’t often get a chance to discuss, without tempers being lost, what is offensive to people and what is not. This time, however, we did get that chance.

The One Bermuda Alliance started the ball rolling, but not before pausing to question whether our condemnation would prompt knee jerk partisan attacks that are doing so much to wear down community spirit.

But that did not happen. Those most involved in the organisation of the march took a measured and responsible view.

The People’s Campaign was forthright in their condemnation, and said the sign would have been removed had they been aware of it.

The Bermuda Public Services Union also criticised the sign and said radio announcements had been made prior to the march saying offensive placards or verbal remarks that were racist in nature would not be welcome.

Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB) said the sign was divisive and inflammatory, but urged the community to reflect on what prompted the “divisive” sign.

“We acknowledge it is hard for many white Bermudians to look at this hurtful sign without anger,” CURB said. Mentioning the many vitriolic posts that had been published on social media, they urged people to condemn the message, but not the messenger.

“Our society is not healthy, “ CURB said. “We have allowed a wound to fester and have never tried to heal it, much less pay it attention.”

Even the lady who carried the placard made some public, measured remarks explaining her motivation.

The Progressive Labour Party said nothing, which is perhaps not surprising for a group whose use of race as a political tool has been criticised by many for making the unhealed wound that CURB talked about worse recently than it has ever been before.

What has come out of the incident, though, is that many people acknowledged that name-calling cuts all ways, uplifting no one. In order to build the spirit of community in Bermuda, all of us should be concerned at the most basic level with taking the feelings of others into account and, ultimately, doing to others as you would have them do unto you.

Perhaps that is the silver lining from which we can start to heal the wound.

Toni Daniels is the Chairman of Communications for the One Bermuda Alliance