When white people employ silence to maintain a degree of comfort, that silence functions as a means to maintain control. In addition to maintaining control, I submit that the issue taken with my approach that day was one of unfulfilled expectations. As white progressives, the participants expected to be validated in their wokeness, not called in and exposed. Their need to maintain face was so powerful as to allow them to continue maintaining silence, even when those they were ostensibly worried about hurting were telling them it was hurtful. This is the heartbreaking power of the white need
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