Racial gaslighting as affective injustice: a conceptual framework for education

Abstract

In this theoretical paper, I bring together work on structural, racial, and affective gaslighting to turn attention to 'affective injustice' as a distinct kind of injustice suffered by victims of racial gaslighting in educational settings. Under this conceptual framework, it is possible to explore how education spaces facilitate racial gaslighting as a form of affective injustice – from the intentional prejudices of individuals (students and educators) to the unconscious biases and insidious norms that allow the production of racialized practices and pathologize students and educators of color for their resistance against white supremacy. I argue that a social and political theory of racial gaslighting in education offers an opportunity to identify and analyze how gaslighting mobilizes racialized stereotypes and structural inequalities to perpetuate affective injustice against marginalized educators and students. The paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and pedagogical implications of examining racial gaslighting in education.