(CNN)I first heard the silence late Tuesday night, while pecking at my phone, waiting for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to denounce President Donald Trump's latest comments on neo-Nazis after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the death and mayhem that resulted.

After the President tried to compare neo-Nazis to what he described as the "alt-left," saying "I think there is blame on both sides," there was still no outcry from Jared or Ivanka.

Slowly, as the hours ticked away, the silence descended.

Many think of silence as the absence of noise, but that's only one type of silence. There is a different, darker variety, one Jews and African-Americans have gotten to know well over the centuries. This silence doesn't suppress sound -- it amplifies it. It is the boom of the MS St. Louis departing for Nazi-threatened Europe after being denied entry by port after port. It's the whisk-whisk of Southern belles fanning themselves at the slave auction. It's the presence of apathy amid injustice and horror.