The Island’s legacy of slavery still exists today and we must engage more openly in dialogue to promote healing, according to anti-racism campaigner Mark Nash.Speaking with UK based broadcast station Colorful Radio this week, Mr Nash said many people in Bermuda’s white community hadn’t fully acknowledged the benefits they had reaped due to their racial heritage.He said there needed to be healing amongst both races, but said that can’t happen unless there is some “acknowledgment on the part of the white community and an apology and a truly human dialogue”.Mr Nash told the radio host he himself was a descendant of slave owners who once owned Bermuda heroine Mary Prince.Ms Prince, an abolitionist and author, was this week honoured with a bronze plaque erected at the University of London.When asked about his feelings on the unveiling, Mr Nash said: “I am very pleased that Mary Prince is going to be honoured in this way.“This is an important part of our shared history, although a painful history, it’s something that needs to be spoken about and her part in the struggle towards abolition really needs to be honoured. I am very pleased this is happening.”Mr Nash said he found out about his link to Ms Prince about eight or ten years ago. “It was brought to my attention. It is not a hidden fact but its not something that is spoken about openly,” he told the radio station.He said there was still a sense of shame felt by some white families on the Island whose genealogy could be linked back to slave owners.Mr Nash said: “White people do not seem to want to talk about this openly. It has been swept under the rug but it takes an active covering up of our history to not remember the institution of slavery and not remember that people whose families were here for the last 300 years must have been involved in that trade and that heinous institution.“And I believe a lot has to do with the shame of the descendants who enslaved African people.”Mr Nash said people on the Island were still living with the legacy of slavery, including institutions and structures that were traditionally racist and disparaging.Through his involvement with antiracism group CURB, he said he has addressed the issue before publicly.“Within the white community many people do not want to hear about it and many people want to forget it even though it hasn’t truly been acknowledged and people do not want to feel they have had some benefits and some affirmative action for whites.“They want to believe everything they have and everything they have gained in their life has come solely from hard work but everyone works hard, but there is disparaged outcomes and how does that happen?“Really people do not want to hear and have open dialogue, but slowly we are getting more and more people in their wounds to talk about it.“We have to deal with these wounds and deal with them before we can move forward in healing.”