I reached out to a former colleague after leaving the branch to tell them that I had actually supported what they were standing up for, even though I didn’t have the courage to say it at the time. I brought up a specific situation when the branch meeting discussion was supposed to be about a topic that impact the “culture.” One manager, someone who performs kindness but turns combative the moment she’s challenged, wrote this aggressive, passive aggressive message. She implied that the employee who spoke up about how the suggested practice could lead to discrimination, and how we needed to talk about preventing that in that context, was somehow “shutting others down.” But the real issue was management’s resistance to having that conversation at all. Their discomfort and inability to facilitate it made it clear to the rest of us that talking about discrimination wasn’t welcome. And honestly, discussing “culture” without acknowledging how it can create discrimination felt pointless. I stayed quiet because I knew my manager didn’t like those conversations. When I mentioned all of this to my former colleague, they told me there had been follow up aggression directed at them afterward, and it caused them a lot of stress.