{"product_id":"the-benevolent-gaslight-louis-m-maraj-9781646428472","title":"The Benevolent Gaslight: A Technology of Race-Making","description":"\u003cp\u003eAt the intersection of rhetorical studies and critical race\/ethnic studies, \u003ci\u003eThe Benevolent Gaslight\u003c\/i\u003e analyzes cultural and political discourses that recharacterize acts of racial violence as teaching moments and learning opportunities. Naming this phenomenon \"benevolent gaslighting,\" Louis M. Maraj and Pritha Prasad explore its application across academic disciplines\/epistemologies, educational history, and university race management, while also diving into how popular culture and political figures use benevolent gaslighting to reinscribe normative operations of race, gender, and sexuality.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough this rhetoric usually presents as progressive, when used for the purposes of advancing \"antiracism,\" the benevolent gaslight re-centers the very whiteness it supposedly critiques. It prompts peoples of color to question their histories, memories, and realities by suggesting their pain has been necessary for positive social change and by situating racial trauma as opportunities for public learning. Specific examples include antiracist teaching initiatives and the sudden proliferation of apologies for past acts of racism by public figures. Both trends saw an uptick from 2020 onward as a result of publicity crises and public \"reckonings\" necessitated by Black Lives Matter protests in response to widely reported, hypervisible anti-Black violences like the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese discourses deflect blame for past or present racial violence by narrating it as an opportunity for \"antiracist\" growth and intervention. Utilizing conventional academic and creative\/narrative methods to examine examples of the benevolent gaslight across US histories of education during the First Reconstruction, the post-Civil Rights management of student activists in the university, and the progressivist discourses of humanities disciplines and popular culture, this book reveals the insidious ways in which peoples of color are routinely (re)traumatized through mechanisms of \"pedagogy.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Louis M. Maraj\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1646428471\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781646428472\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Utah State University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/22\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 194\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.49lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.25h x 5.50w x 0.45d","brand":"Louis M. Maraj","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48801463730431,"sku":"9781646428472","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-benevolent-gaslight-louis-m-maraj-9781646428472","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}