What is tone policing?

Oluo describes the harmful practice of tone policing, saying that it means to “refuse to listen to someone’s cries for justice and equality until the request comes in a language you feel comfortable with is a way of asserting your dominance over them in that situation” (158). She states that tone policing can come about verbally, or even through nonverbal cues used by a person in power listening to the details of the plight of another person with less power.