Silence when someone’s being picked on isn’t neutral. It’s just quiet agreement.

Groups take their cues from whatever goes unchallenged. One person can make a room feel like it is fine to treat somebody a certain way, and the only thing that contradicts them is another voice, not an absence of one. Staying out of it keeps you comfortable and leaves the room exactly as it was. What people remember years later is often not what was said but who said nothing.

Bravery here can be very small. A flat “that is not funny” from one person shifts the temperature more than you would think. Or find the person afterward, alone, and say you saw it.