Transcript
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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