ABSTRACT
The chapter begins with an analysis of racial gaslighting, whereby those who experience racist oppression are faced with an alternate view of reality that erases racism from the discussion. Racial gaslighting comprises numerous different approaches that have the effect of denying the significance of racism while emphasizing endless possible alternative explanations, including deficit analyses that locate the fault in minoritized children, their parents, their communities, their ‘culture’ and even their genes. Statistics are a powerful tool that serve to racially gaslight on a grand scale, and the chapter shows how the application of CRT principles – via Quantitative CRT (QuantCrit) – can help to expose where racist assumptions and stereotypes may be built into quantitative methods. The example of the UK Timpson Review, on school exclusions, illustrates some key problems, including the recycling of discredited research and the use of ‘garbage can’ regression analyses, which reduce the apparent size of race inequities. Additional forms of gaslighting include the assertion that racism is a US-specific problem and that historical race inequality highlights inherent problems with Black people themselves. The second part of the chapter looks at additional strategies that have the effect of silencing antiracism; where gaslighting fails to persuade, intimidation is a crude and effective partner. Intimidation is most obvious when practiced by trolls and expressed through hate-speech online, but the actions of lawmakers-makers and think tanks can also be intimidatory. The chapter documents the development of intimidatory political tactics in both the US and the UK.
