We invited Philly mayoral candidates to talk about race. Only two agreed.

Some 15 years ago, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama came to Philadelphia to address the issue of race in the United States. Against the backdrop of the National Constitution Center, Obama urged us as a nation to tackle the issue of race that has continued to divide us for generations.

At the time, Michael Nutter was mayor, and he took Obama’s charge in calling for more conversations about race that could help us become a better city.

Shortly thereafter, a small group of clergy from various faith traditions, of which I was a part, decided to take up that challenge.

In 2008, we gathered for breakfast one weekday morning to start having a dialogue around how our individual lives have informed our own understanding of race. That small gathering led to the formation of the New Conversation on Race and Ethnicity, which we call NewCORE. For more than a decade, we have invited individuals — from the highest pinnacles of power to regular folks from the street — to share their stories about race. The goal of the project is to boost understanding and compassion, to build bridges where there was once conflict and division.

Now, as we enter the home stretch of the mayor’s race, and with so many candidates vying for the top prize, the leaders of NewCORE made a simple but timely gesture. On April 13, we invited all the candidates to meet with us individually via Zoom for a 15-minute conversation on how they’ve come to understand race, and how that perspective might shape how they would govern if elected mayor. We would record the conversation, place it on our website, and share it on social media. We assured the candidates that this would be a safe space for them to share their thoughts on this sometimes volatile topic.

» READ MORE: Simply admitting more Black students won’t fix Temple’s diversity problems | Opinion

Four of us committed to conducting the conversations: the Rev. Dr. Malcolm T. Byrd, NewCORE’s president, the Rev. Dr. Marsha Brown-Woodard, NewCORE’s vice president, and board members the Rev. David W. Brown of First United Methodist Church of Media and Adam Kessler, former director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

What happened next was surprising and frustrating.

Only two of the candidates took us up on our invitation. One apologized that they couldn’t find time to get this conversation on their calendar. The rest of the candidates didn’t respond at all.

We’re all fairly mature persons of faith, and we understand the crushing demands on candidates seeking public office. But the lukewarm response to this got us wondering: How important is race to those seeking to take Philadelphia into its next chapter?

It could be argued that we talk about race all the time, so why do we need a separate conversation to understand how race informs what we do? Or that we’ve had several debates and forums in which race plays a part in everything from policy platforms to promises of reform. Or it could be that we’re so close to Election Day that there simply wasn’t room for one more conversation that may or may not make a difference in how voters will select their next mayor.

These are all valid explanations. But in the end, we believe there’s no good excuse for not talking about race.

No problem can be fixed until it is faced.

So here we are. On May 16, we will cast our ballots for one of the candidates who will serve as the 100th mayor of Philadelphia. That person will be responsible for a city that is among one of the most diverse in the country — with the majority identifying as Black, brown, and people of color.

With that in mind, we’re making both an offer and a request. The offer is that NewCORE is extending an open invitation to any of the remaining candidates to have that conversation with us. From now and through Election Day, we’re ready, eager, and able to sit down virtually, allowing you to share your perspective.

The request is that, if you’re elected, you’ll commit to having an annual mayor’s conversation on race that will enable a citywide dialogue, with the hopes of building more bridges to healing in a city fractured by our differences.

We know these conversations can be uncomfortable. We know they can be awkward. We know they can sometimes feel confrontational. But we also understand that no problem can be fixed until it is faced. And for us, conversation is the first step to fixing the problem that — left unspoken — will continue to hold us back when we need to push ourselves ever forward.

The Rev. Steven Lawrence is board chairman of New Conversation on Race and Ethnicity (NewCORE).