3.2 Gaslighting

It is common to hear Black people saying that they have experienced gaslighting – at work and in society. What is meant by this is that Black people can be made to feel that they are imagining experiences of racism, even though they are the victims of very real prejudice.

Gaslighting is a form of power typically associated with abusive personal relationships, where an abuser seeks to create an alternate reality through distortions, untruths and manipulations (Smolović Jones, 2023). The effect is to make the victim feel as if they are losing their ability to correctly perceive reality, eroding their mental health. Recently, gaslighting has been explored as a significant weapon of institutional and organisational power, particularly in seeking to make Black people feel as though they are imagining racism where it does not exist. Former US President Donald Trump and his followers are masters at such gaslighting (Honig, 2021). They take advantage of the increasingly short attention spans of the media and people at large to continuously hop from one outrageously untrue statement to another, never allowing attention to settle, offering increasingly bizarre interpretations of reality to unsettle those they target.

As gaslighting is increasingly used by people in power to divert attention away from racism, you will now proceed to explore the practice in more depth by engaging with an academic expert in this area.

Activity 4 Gaslighting

Timing: Allow around 15 minutes for this activity

Nela Smolović Jones has studied gaslighting in organisational and institutional settings (Smolović-Jones, 2023). She states that gaslighting is a form of corruption, wielded by organisations and individuals to defend their positions of power and privilege over those they oppress. In her study, she highlights four dimensions of gaslighting practice from corrupt organisational actors.

Watch the video, where Dr Smolović Jones talks about her framework of gaslighting practices. After you watch, complete the table below with an example from your own experience, or an experience you know about.

Download this video clip.Video player: blep_2023j_vid014_1280x720.mp4

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Transcript: Video 3 Nela Smolović Jones – Gaslighting in organisational settings

NELA SMOLOVIĆ JONES

My name is Nela Smolović Jones. I am a gender academic who explores how equality is achieved in organisations and societies. I am also director of the Open University’s Gendered Organisational Practice Research Cluster.

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Gaslighting is a form of organisational corruption where powerful individuals and groups can gain even more power by confusing and undermining those who could potentially challenge them. And this is achieved via complex web of actions through which targets are made to question their own sanity and their own competence and thus prevented from equalising the playing field in organisations where power and wealth can be distributed more fairly

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Gaslighting is a useful concept to know, especially in contexts where power is overwhelmingly skewed towards one group at the expense of another, such as patriarchal and racist contexts or contexts where these two forces of inequality overlap. For example, institutions such as the media, judiciary, or police may be less responsive to and protective of interests of Black communities and individuals. And moreover, such institutions or let’s say, certain groups within them may proactively aim to gaslight those who openly challenge acts of racism be it within these or in broader society.

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Ruling refers to the introduction of arbitrary and unspoken rules into procedures and spaces employed to confuse and inhibit meaningful participation in those conversations that matter. For example, talks about decolonising the curriculum in schools or introducing positive action or positive discrimination practices in workplaces may be obstructed by deliberately complicated bureaucratic procedures.

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Exposing describes those situations in which people are made to appear inept in front of an audience when they raise queries and questions regarding corrupt practices. For example, attempts to talk about discriminatory portrayals of Black people on television may be countered not with facts, but by concerted unfair character assassinations of the people speaking out.

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Weaponising victimhood is probably the most devious aspect of gaslighting. This is when gaslighters is assumed the status of victim portraying their targets as bullies, realigning the boundaries of engagement in the process. So, for example, you may wish to challenge racially-motivated police malpractice but end up being accused of bullying or slandering the very police officers who are at fault.

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Collective affirmation describes those situations where the practice of gaslighting is shifted to a collective level through the power of a crowd, which is called into action to affirm the logic and sense of otherwise, senseless and corrupt practice. For example, you may publicly voice your experience of racially-motivated crime to raise awareness about it. However, media outlets may collectively overwhelm public consciousness by deliberately constructing a misleading narrative about the event.

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End transcript: Video 3 Nela Smolović Jones – Gaslighting in organisational settings

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Video 3 Nela Smolović Jones – Gaslighting in organisational settings

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Type of gaslighting	Definition	Example
Weaponising victimhood	Oppressors claim the status of victimhood, inverting the claims of the truly oppressed to strengthen dominant power.	To use this interactive functionality a free OU account is required. Sign in or register.
Ruling	Those in power introduce previously unspoken rules as it suits their purposes. They use such ruling to restrict meaningful access to spaces and participation.	To use this interactive functionality a free OU account is required. Sign in or register.
Exposing	Corrupt organisations can make their critics look and feel incompetent in front of other people, when in fact they are making valid points or asking important questions.	To use this interactive functionality a free OU account is required. Sign in or register.
Collective affirmation	People in power gain approval from other corrupt actors, particularly those seeking more access to power and wealth. Although they are still misrepresenting reality, such tactics can make it harder for those seeking to resist because they can feel outnumbered.	To use this interactive functionality a free OU account is required. Sign in or register.

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Below is an example of how the table could have been completed.

Type of gaslighting	Definition	Example
Weaponising victimhood	Oppressors claim the status of victimhood, inverting the claims of the truly oppressed to strengthen dominant power.	White supremacists claiming that a fictional ‘woke’ elite is marginalising them from power.
Ruling	Those in power introduce previously unspoken rules as it suits their purposes. They use such ruling to restrict meaningful access to spaces and participation.	Can range in application, from governments introducing draconian laws to tackle virtually non-existent problems, to white-dominated organisations eroding self-confidence through micro-aggressions against apparent minor infringements of unspoken rules.
Exposing	Corrupt organisations can make their critics look and feel incompetent in front of other people, when in fact they are making valid points or asking important questions.	A corrupt person telling someone in a meeting that they are imagining things, even though they are making valid and substantiated points.
Collective affirmation	People in power gain approval from other corrupt actors, particularly those seeking more access to power and wealth. Although they are still misrepresenting reality, such tactics can make it harder for those seeking to resist because they can feel outnumbered.	Supporters of a corrupt person in a meeting agreeing – despite knowing that they are wrong – that the person being gaslit is imagining things.

Although gaslighting is increasingly common and can feel difficult to combat, you can effectively resist it. Sometimes it is possible to do this in a direct and confrontational way. However, because gaslighting often emerges as a series of practices in corrupt contexts, it can be difficult to find enough support for direct forms of resistance, meaning that people are often forced into adopting subtle and indirect resistance. You will explore these issues in Week 3.