Gaslighting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Faculty With Demands for "More" Resilience

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Six
  In Roundtable Session: Pathways to Collective Truth and Resilience: (Re)Imagining the World and/as Curriculum Through Critical Projects (Table 5)

Abstract

This work offers a critique of resilience discourses in education. I use the term resilience here in a specific sense, distinct from definitions that derive from psychology (Patrón & Garcia, 2016). While a definition of resilience from other fields denotes positive personal traits or adaptations that aid in overcoming adversity, I use the term here to pinpoint ways White faculty weaponize resilience against BIPOC faculty. By demanding that BIPOC faculty “go with the flow” or “roll with the punches,” instead of talking about racism, White faculty use resilience, defined by them as not complaining, as a form of racial gaslighting (Berenstain, 2020). Theorizing racial gaslighting exposes how the practice of demanding resilience functions as a tool of White supremacy.

Author

• Ramon Vasquez, University of Minnesota
  Presenting Author