Like many Bermudians, I read the OBA’s recent calls for a “national conversation” about our challenges with interest. And on one level, I agree. Bermuda does need honest discussion about opportunity, inequality, safety, and the future we are leaving our young people.

But conversation alone is not enough.

Anyone who has spent time in our community and really spent time listening, knows that these conversations have been happening for years. The issue is that it has mostly only been happening among Black Bermudians who have lived under the burden of a racist, unfair societal structure every day.

When those conversations were heard by the beneficiaries of the racist unfair structure, they were dismissed, ridiculed, and attacked. Those who raised the issue were called “divisive”, and accused of “stirring up emotions” and “playing the race card”.

So when we talk about conversation, we also have to talk about credibility.

Trust isn’t built overnight and it isn’t built through words alone. It’s built by showing up consistently and by standing on the side of justice, not just when it’s comfortable, but when it’s hard.

I say that as someone who didn’t grow up experiencing discrimination first-hand, but who has spent enough time listening to understand that fairness in Bermuda has never been automatic. It has had to be fought for, organised for, and legislated for.

That’s why I joined the Progressive Labour Party.

Not because it was easy. Not because it was popular in every room I walked into. But because I saw, up close, that this was the party doing the work and fighting to expand opportunity for people who had been pushed aside for far too long.

So yes, let’s talk. Let’s listen. Let’s challenge ourselves to do better.

But let’s also be honest about who has been willing to turn those conversations into action and who is still just talking.

The PLP welcomes any genuine effort to engage the country. We’ve never claimed to have all the answers. If we want a future that works for everyone, the conversation must be paired with commitment and not just from people who don't look like me and it must lead to action.

Anything less risks being just talk.

And Bermuda deserves more than that.

· Zane DeSilva is the Deputy Premier, Minister of Housing and Municipalities and MP for Southampton East