The furore over the attack on Portuguese-Bermudian Rui Medeiros, far from abating, appears to be growing, with public meetings being held and a rally scheduled for today to protest racism.

This outcome in many ways is a positive thing.

While it is true that nothing in this case has been proven yet, and that only one side of the story has been heard, there is a good deal of evidence to suggest that the attack was sparked by anti-immigrant feelings if not racism.

That is a serious and worrying development for Bermuda, and one that needs to be nipped in the bud.

Bermuda should be the kind of society where racism and discrimination of all stripes is condemned by all sectors of society and where violence between all races is abhorred.

Regrettably, this has not always been the case, and it is being argued that the recent violence has been sparked in part by politicians’ use of the race card, especially from Government Ministers who should know better, but also from within organisations like the Human Rights Commission, whose tortured explanations for why Sen. David Burch’s use of the phrase house nigger did not breach the Human Rights Act satisfied no one and angered many.

Of course, Sen. Burch is not alone. Drugs Control Minister Wayne Perinchief — who, to his credit, went to and spoke at Wednesday night’s public meeting at Vasco da Gama Club — recently said the following in the House of Assembly: “And Mr. Perinchief went further to claim that giving British Territory citizens Bermudian status, and also to those from other parts of the Commonwealth and to Portuguese settlers, had led to “ ‘their offspring turning against us, saying ‘We are going to use our vote to stop your shift to Independence’.”

Just who Mr. Perinchief was referring to when he said “us” is anyone’s guess, but the thinking here is that he meant black Bermudians.

And in and of itself, Mr. Perinchief’s statement might seem harmless. But when it is combined with statements like “plantation questions”, ‘voting for the UBP is a vote to go back on the plantation”, “people who look like Tony Brannon” and so forth, a picture starts to emerge from the Government that it sees everything in racial terms and also tends to see the white and Portuguese communities as a bloc in which all people of one particular ethnic group see all issues in exactly the same way.

This does not mean that the black experience in Bermuda should be demeaned or that the legacy of segregation towards black Bermudians should not be taken seriously. Indeed, in any discussion about race — and it is a discussion that has to continue — things will be said that others will find disagreeable.

But there is a risk that the use of the race card and the encouragement of racial divisions by politicians in particular creates an atmosphere in which others feel it is all right to attack people who don’t look like them without any consequences, and this is what is alleged to have occurred in the Medeiros case.

That is a very dangerous place to go in a community like Bermuda.

In fairness, politicians from all sides of the political spectrum have criticised and continue to criticise this attack, and rightly so.

But the Island’s political leaders — especially those in Government — need to look in the mirror and ask themselves honestly whether they have contributed to this atmosphere.