The Tools of Institutional Gaslighting

Understanding what we're up against as a strategy for psychological self-defence

We are living in a new chapter in history. Some of us awake to this fact, others are still asleep. This can feel incredibly frustrating. This would all be much simpler if it were easy to wake people up, wouldn’t it? But I suppose that if it were easy, we would have universal justice by now. The reality is that we have ways to go in our fight to abolish anti-Arab racism.

As Arabs in the diaspora, one of the challenges we face is that we live in societies that view themselves as having made substantial progress in eliminating racism. It’s not that there has been no progress; to say this would be an insult to our Black siblings who have been fighting for centuries. The trouble for Arabs lies in the fact that our societies do not recognize that there is nuance between how different non-white groups are treated. We are on different timelines.

Anti-Arab racism is the last acceptable form of racism. In the words of media scholar Sut Jhally:

“Indeed anti-Arab racism seems to be almost officially sanctioned. You can make generalized and racist statements about Arab peoples that would not be tolerated for any other group.”

It’s a painful reality, it’s profoundly unfair. At the same time though, we have the great blessing of being able to seek guidance and wisdom from the great social justice movements of history. We are not alone. Others have walked this path before us. This has perhaps never been more beautifully evident than in the actions of South Africa in recent weeks.

For decades, Palestinians have been fighting simply to be heard and believed. Now here we are. It took horror upon horror to get us here, but we’ve made it. Enough people have seen. We now have an unstoppable momentum, and that is a huge victory. Now though, we are beginning to tackle racism on a more granular level. We have battles ahead of us, fighting against anti-Arab racism in our societies in the West. We are up against racist practices both overt and subtle. From censorship in the universities to microaggressions in the workplace, there is work to do everywhere.

Today I want to discuss some of the challenges will continue to face as we continue doing this work. I’ve said in the past that we must keep in mind that there is not only a physical war, but also a psychological war. The fight for a free Palestine, and for global liberation by extension, often comes down to the work of changing minds. We are going to continue to challenge groups and institutions to see things from new perspectives. In so doing, we will be met with pushback, because these systems are typically deeply invested in the old perspectives.

The kinds of pushback we will face will hurt our feelings, yes, but we must remember something else. The pushback we will face will come in the form of gaslighting, and the thing about gaslighting is that it functions to weaken our confidence and self-trust. So, it is in our best interest to learn about these tactics in advance, so that we know how to recognize them when they come up, so that we can buffer against the hurt they cause us. In so doing, we will be able to come back into our own power more easily, and carry on with our mission.