“Gaslighting” is the psychological manipulation of individuals or groups into questioning their reality, memory, or sanity—often to maintain control. In a week of continuing mounting chaos in US politics marked by the meeting of the National Organization of Black County Officials in Birmingham, we can recognize that both colonialism and American institutions have gaslit Black communities into believing that our cultures, languages, and histories are inferior.

New Ancestor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s work explains how elites from would-be oppressed groups are often recruited into tempering mass liberation movements through mental colonization in language, law, politics and economics, enabling forms of structural oppression masked as deep democracy.

The critique extends to today’s struggles, from myths of meritocracy to distortions of Black identity and potential power in education and demography. While selective buying campaigns remain powerful in moments, the example of Alabama’s A.G. Gaston underscores that building movements anchored by independent Black institutions—banks, schools, businesses—is essential for generating sustainable power.

These examples also challenge strands of Black radicalism that suffer from ideological gaslighting, leading them to reject economic self-determination and political pragmatism in favor of ideological purity—undermining efforts to deliver material gains for the poor.

Real liberation requires long-view strategies, rooted in cultural self-determination, global awareness, and networked community infrastructure—not just litigation or protest, but power gleaned from purposeful creation. This is an antidote to being manipulated and trying to govern by gaslight.

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