Racial inequity persists in Bermuda despite a lack of any racist intent, according to Kevin Comeau.But while he said many white Bermudians are unwilling to discuss the issue, making it difficult to make any headway, he said the coming general election could provide an opportunity to deal with the issue.“With the election soon upon us, there is an additional reason for whites to listen carefully to the concerns of the black community,” he said.“Simply put, if they fail to do so, the Progressive Labour Party will likely be re-elected, and many in the white community believe that outcome will be extremely detrimental to the future of Bermuda.“Justified or not, there is a strong feeling in Bermuda’s white community, with a fair amount of support from blacks employed in senior positions in International Business, that this country’s large economic problems are, to a great extent, the result of Government incompetence and the perception of corruption“And [they believe] that if the PLP were to win the next election, Bermuda’s problems will become decidedly worse, not simply because the PLP are unlikely to govern better in the future than they have in the past, but because many Bermudians and expats will simply give up on Bermuda.“Those Bermudians who hold this strong belief have a correspondingly strong incentive to reduce the odds of that happening.“And that means addressing the race issue in a meaningful and constructive manner.”He said that many white people in Bermuda do not wish to discuss the topic of racial inequity because they do not believe it exists on the Island anymore, noting the end of segregation and the removal of glass ceilings.However, Mr Comeau argued that hundreds of years of slavery and racism has had a lasting impact on the black community, setting them at a disadvantage compared to their white peers.“In racially segregated Bermuda, all whites gained economic and educational advantage because they had better access to jobs, housing, schools and bank financing,” Mr Comeau said.“Further, even Bermudians of Portuguese decent, who themselves were the victims of discrimination, were granted access to better jobs in Bermuda long before the racial glass ceiling was lifted for blacks.“[This] gave many of these Portuguese men and women the ability to earn and save enough money that they can now afford to send their children to private schools to eventually take advantage of the great opportunities in International Business.“These lingering white advantages and black disadvantages are something that the black community is very aware of and something that the white community often fails to see, and it can be particularly galling for blacks to hear the repeated myth that the end of segregation brought an end to racial inequity.”He also said the gap between the public and private educational systems serves to maintain the racial inequity, with wealthier families able to provide better educational opportunities, and in turn better job opportunities, to their children.While in some cases, the obstacles but forward can be overcome by hard work and the help of dedicated parents, but in other cases the challenge posed by inherited poverty and generational family dysfunction are great.He also noted the connection between race and gang activity, saying that gangs are targeting young black teens from single parent homes.Even refusing to be involved in gang activity, he said, can cause challenges for young black men.“If a teenager were to stand firm and say ‘no’, he becomes vulnerable to physical attacks from rival gangs, who simply assume he said yes,” Mr Comeau said.“Further if a young man ever wants to leave the gang lifestyle, the jobs he can realistically obtain are extremely limited, not simply because he has a minimal education, but also because he is often unable to work at a job that takes him far from his neighbourhood.“If he were a 42 gang member, he can’t become a plumber or even a delivery truck driver because if he goes west of Warwick, he risks getting shot.“This is not simply a poverty issue. Young white males from poor, single parent homes in bad neighbourhoods do not have the same bleak future as their black counterparts.“They are not the target of gang recruiting, they are not assumed by rival gangs to have joined their neighbourhood gang and they don’t feel the threat of being shot if they travel past Warwick.”He said the issue of racial inequity is the root cause of many of the issues facing the Island, and in order for Bermuda to make a change the white community needs to move from not wanting to talk about the issue, to wanting to deal with the problem.“It is this shift in the white community that can give racial-equity advocates the opportunity to build the coalition needed to heal this lingering wound that lies at the centre of just about every problem Bermuda faces,” Mr Comeau said.