On the limits of White Listening

This is a long story and the beginning is probably going to sound trivial, but it has a relevant point, so bear with me.

To set the stage:

Back when I started college, my school gave its incoming freshmen a bunch of onboarding activities and presentations. One of them was "trying to give all our new white students, many from super-white areas, a quick shot of appreciation for the experiences of all the non-white students who have to share a campus with them."

So we all piled into an auditorium, and a series of older students got up on stage, sat on a stool in a narrow spotlight, and gave little monologues about some of the everyday struggles they went through as young POC. There was a mic in the center aisle of the audience, so when each person was done talking, we were invited to line up and ask questions about anything we hadn't understood.

( Well, there was a point I didn't understand.... )