Sadly, but predictably, it's taken a single shocking incident to refocus our attention on a major issue; whether it's a road traffic fatality, a shooting at a bar or most recently the vicious beating of a Portugal-supporting Bermudian football fan, one event spurs people to act.

While it's important to highlight these individual examples ? which have a lasting impact on the families and friends of the victims of violence and hate ? we tend to miss the forest for the trees.

Also sadly but predictably, the fallout from these incidents tends to be relatively short-lived; we drift back into our collective slumber, to be re-awakened after the next inevitable event.

There are times though when an event becomes a catalyst for change with a lasting effect. Judging by the flurry of activity on the heels of the alleged World Cup attack on Mr. Medeiros, this may be one of those times. Only time will tell.

The incident has been rather simplistically characterised as racial. The motive behind the attack seems to be driven by something more complicated: race as a proxy for a politically stoked anti-foreigner sentiment, one which has been simmering for years and may now be boiling over.

The irony of the attack of course is that Mr. Medeiros was allegedly advised to "go home" while getting kicked in the face. He is home.

Mr. Medeiros is first and foremost Bermudian, not Portuguese-Bermudian, Bermudian. Full stop. To some that distinction may seem strange, but sometimes it's important to state the obvious.

There's been an increasing tendency of late to add a qualifier before the word 'Bermudian', be it white-Bermudian, Portuguese-Bermudian, black-Bermudian or others. Isn't it time we returned to plain old 'Bermudian'? That doesn't mean you disown your heritage, but we must come together as Bermudians.

The use of a prefix is one component of a long-running political effort to redefine what is and is not Bermudian. Listen closely and you'll hear it, the conscious and subconscious effort to make 'Bermudian' synonymous with black and 'Expat' with white (and more recently everything else).

A few examples to make my case.

Like any good Bermudian at Cup Match I head east or west to sweat with the oldies, watch a little cricket and lose a few bucks in the crown and anchor tent. Simple pleasures right? Not so much lately.

In recent years, after entering the grounds I've been very politely and courteously directed ? by a no-doubt well-meaning worker ? to the tourist tent, where I can have the game explained to me in baseball terminology.

For the record, I don't wear flowered shirts, ride a rental bike, sport a lobster-red sunburn and have a massive camera hanging from my neck. None of the above to be precise.

There is only one reason why I would be immediately directed to the tourist tent, which comes complete with free beer if you're interested in working that angle this year; it's because of my complexion.

There's no other explanation: white equals expat or white equals tourist. Harmless enough in that context I know, but highly annoying nonetheless.

Here's another. Several months ago, in responding to the Bermuda International Business Association's critique of the Government's workforce empowerment programme (which is different from the Parliamentary salary empowerment programme), Minister Dale Butler said the following:

"The Government is saying if you have a hundred employees, 50 of them are black, you have ten senior positions and not one of them is black. Tell us why you have no Bermudians in your top ten positions."

Notice how casually Minister Butler uses 'black' and 'Bermudian' interchangeably. Is this an accident, a slip of the tongue, an isolated incident?

Nope.

This dynamic was also on display in the Bermuda Sun last week, where Mid Ocean News columnist Alvin Williams, in commenting on the attack of Mr. Medeiros, said:

"It had to do with the soccer thing and the display of Portuguese nationalism and in the background of that was the feeling among the young, black working class that they're being displaced?.Bermudians do not have a sense of this country belonging to them and they feel insecure about it."

There it is again. The 'young, black working class' becomes 'Bermudians' in the next sentence; hence my visits to the Cup Match tourist tent. We're teaching people that skin colour is the sole criteria for being Bermudian.

You hear it all the time in Parliament and in particular during elections. Why? Simple.

The PLP has made a strategic decision that their political success is best served by continuing racial divisions in our community, pitting a black majority against a (mostly) white minority and vice versa.

The list is long and legendary:

The PLP's 1998 election campaign was dubbed 'emancipation', while the 2003 campaign was 'affirmation'; campaign ads/rally skits were used labelling UBP MPs as Uncle Toms, Shysters and sun-burned; Dr. Brown advised people to not 'vote yourself back on the plantation'.

More recently we've been treated to Minister Butler's kindler and gentler rephrasing of his colleague's 'House Nigger' comment into black UBP MPs 'wanting to be white' (his implausible denial notwithstanding) and Dr. Brown's quaint 'plantation question' get out of jail free card.

These incidents are not, as Minister Butler attempted to explain away last week, 'aberrations'. Even if they were, surely he should heed his own advice from the anti-racism rally and condemn all acts, not reinforce them. These statements are not anomalies; they're the cold calculated components of an ongoing political/electoral strategy to incite racial hatred.

To be fair, the roots of racism in Bermuda are old and run deep, preceding the PLP. The party is throwing plenty of manure on them though. One could argue that in the last eight years they've decided to reseed the lawn.

This fixation on race has even extended to tourism, with Dr. Brown wanting not just more tourists, but specifically more black tourists (ignoring the more lucrative gay travel demographic?.I wonder why?), even delivering a bizarre quote that 'money is brown', whatever that means.

Reality of course paints a different picture. The PLP have done nothing to address the racial problem which they claim is their reason for being. Quite the opposite in fact. They've rejected proposals for an Economic Empowerment Bill, a Code of Conduct for Parliamentarians, and just last week a Truth and Reconciliation Commission while offering up nothing as an alternative, just slurs.

The PLP Government isn't interested in fixing the problem; they want us to keep talking about it while they do nothing but fan the flames when politically expedient. The rising chorus of enough is enough ? from all segments of the community ? suggests that they may have finally overplayed their hand.

So much is wrapped up into that little word, 'Bermudian'. The term has become a political weapon, so loaded, so judgmental that the real meaning must be reclaimed before we tear ourselves to shreds.

We can't allow PLP politicians and their proxies to speak in code, delivering speeches professing racial unity with a wink that only black Bermudians are legitimate Bermudians.

It's terribly divisive. But that is of course the intent. It's easier to breed resentment and hatred than understanding and unity.

It's up to us to emancipate the PLP from their racial campaigning by not affirming it at the polls.