Through the story of her failure to speak out when salesclerks in a clothing store make racist remarks, Williams creates a space to discuss her sense of guilt about this moment of silence. She uses this space as part of her discussion about the various dangers of silence.(126-8). Although I have experienced many moments of complicity and silence which are painful to remember, I have also experienced the guilt of absent conspiracy -- a sense that I have enabled situations of racism which I did not witness.

This seems an important addition to the discussion of transgressing boundaries of racial silence. How do we speak about what we know but do not experience?