 Some time ago, I was speaking at a corporate event in America, I was the guest speaker. That night at dinner I was at a table full of white people and the guy, one of the bosses who'd invited me, actually started to tell a joke that I knew straight away was going to be racial. And black people were going to be the butt of the joke. In those split seconds, in the early sentences of the joke, I had a decision to make. Do I say something or stay quiet? No one else was saying anything, though I'm sure they felt uncomfortable. So I spoke up and I said, I don't think this joke is one I want to hear. I don't like the way it's going. I think it's going to be at the expense of black people. I'm not comfortable with that. Would you mind not telling it or I could leave the table? It was very uncomfortable. I remember he didn't tell the joke, but it was uncomfortable the rest of the night. Later in my room, I journaled what I felt about what was going on. I thought two things were to play. One was what I would call white solidarity. The other was what I would call white social capital. White solidarity is an unspoken code I think that we have as white people that means we would never embarrass each other by creating a racial discomfort for each other, by interrupting a racist joke or pointing out a act of prejudice or discrimination. We cannot keep quiet because it's a social code that we have that we would remain in solidarity with each other which protects our whiteness, our white advantage, our white privilege. That was a play at the table that night that allowed him to do what he'd done obviously many times. White social capital is what you get if you stay quiet. You get included. You are one of the boys. You are an insider. You are good to be around. You're a team player. You're fun, which may give you opportunities of inclusion as well in a corporate setting, a business setting or social setting. It is an accruing of white capital by going along with it. All I say to my white friends listening to this that our silence of those times is not benign. It is malignant because we become complicit in the continuation of the racist joke telling. It gets told again and again because when we heard it we didn't say anything and are socially awkward as it is and knowing you'll be penalized if you say something. I'm appealing to us because millions of us every day have this opportunity to say something, to speak up, to stand up for people of color and black people and you will be excluded and you will lose social capital, but you will be a champion of a cause that you wish someone had been for you at times in your life. And I think many of us feel we can't do anything at the large government level. We can't protest on the streets. We don't feel comfortable with this or that. Can you say something today, whatever you are in your life? Can you speak up because our silence is not benign? It is continuing the problem. We can all play a part like this every single day. Let's speak up. Let's play our part is what I'm appealing for. Love you guys. Thank you.