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Racelighting refers to the process whereby [People of Color] question their own thoughts and actions due to systematically delivered racialized messages that make them second guess their own lived experiences with racism.

The term was developed by professors Luke Wood and Frank Harris III to represent a unique type of gaslighting experienced in the daily, normalized realities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

When racelighted, People of Color may begin to question their [interpretation] of reality and begin to wonder if they are being overly sensitive. Racelighting is most commonly seen when Black and other People of Color question being mistreated. The perpetrators’ passionate delivery of innocence and claims of the victim’s misinterpretation can be incredibly convincing.

A common example of this is when a Black student is told, with a sense of surprise, that they are “actually smart.” If this microaggression is brought to the attention of the person who said it, their most common response is to state, with extreme conviction, that the student “misunderstood,” “took their comments [out of context],” or is “being too sensitive.” The level of conviction can lead to the student considering if they actually created the problem in this [interaction] rather than the person who caused the infraction.

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