05-05-2025
State lawmakers manipulate language to gaslight Tennesseans on diversity
State Rep. Aron Maberry, a Clarksville Republican, sponsored a pair of bills aiming to "dismantle DEI." (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Language is fluid; it shifts, contorts, and adjusts as culture progresses. Largely due to social media, the fluidity of language has increased exponentially over the last decade.
One word that exploded into the public lexicon around 2016 was the term 'gaslighting.' The meaning of the word is quite broad and can apply to interpersonal relationships, work dynamics, and, most notably, politics. Ironically, gaslighting is most effective when it uses the fluidity of language to manipulate a message.
When boiled down to its most primal definition, gaslighting is the exploitation of thoughts and emotions by twisting language and truth to fit a desired mindset. To use gaslighting to its fullest potential, one must be well-versed in language, be willing to overlook any nuance, and boil a topic down to the one idea that will elicit the most emotional response in someone else.
During the last several legislative sessions, Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have conducted a masterclass in how to gaslight Tennesseeans.
The most recent pieces of egregious legislation by the GOP supermajority are bills designed to strip away diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives related to departmental appointments and hiring practices. As with most recent controversial legislation by the GOP, there was a lawmaker ready and willing to break down the gaslighting process.
Logic and nuance would tell anyone that 61 years of 'equality' doesn't amount to much when you weigh that amount of time against 300 years of abuse, murder, slavery and marginalization simply based on one's skin color, sexuality or gender.
Rep. Aron Maberry, a first term Clarksville Republican, was the House sponsor for HB0622 and HB0923 – both designed to 'dismantle DEI.'
The first step for any gaslighting expert is to find a word to target. It doesn't matter what the true definition of that word is as long as that word has attained a certain connotation. In this case, the word Maberry chose was equity — the meat of the DEI sandwich.
'The big problem in DEI is equity. We all know diversity, we all love including people. Equity is not equality, and it's not about treating people fairly or ensuring equal opportunity … equity in the context of DEI is essentially that everybody gets the same outcome,' Maberry said.
Maberry paints a bullseye on the word equity and fires. This isn't a difficult shot for him because the connotation of the word had already been established in corners of right-wing conversations five years ago. Now, the word is blasphemous in the world of most conservatives.
The true meaning of equity has been lost and replaced by a mutated form of the word, one that is often equated with socialism and promises an equal outcome for everyone, when the actual definition of equity does everything except guarantee an equal outcome for everyone. Equity provides gateways and resources to opportunities that have been historically out of reach for many women and people of color.
Maberry and Senate sponsor Jack Johnson, a Franklin Republican, sought to further explain the reasoning behind their bills by entering into phase two of the gaslighting process: ignore all nuances of a given topic.
Maberry and Johnson saidthat their bills focus on merit, qualifications, skill and competency in employment decisions, and diversity will 'happen naturally through fair hiring practices.'
Yes, in a world devoid of history and nuance, 'fair' hiring practices would occur naturally.
What Johnson and Maberry fail to take into account is that systemic racism is still very much alive today, 61 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. DEI initiatives were put in place to catalyze the pursuit of more diverse personnel in business and government by intentionally recruiting people who would typically fall outside a company or department's purview. DEI is about making sure we all understand that we don't live in a post-racial society simply because certain hiring practices are illegal. Subconscious and systemic prejudice will always find a way to circumvent the law, even unintentionally.
Logic and nuance would tell anyone that 61 years of 'equality' doesn't amount to much when you weigh that amount of time against 300 years of abuse, murder, slavery and marginalization simply based on one's skin color, sexuality or gender. Our society is still in the formative stages of course correction from these atrocities, and the systemic rivers of opportunity that have benefited white men for centuries haven't dried up yet. Removing the dam of DEI initiatives simply allows those rivers to flow faster.
For their final act, Maberry and Johnson needed something to stoke the flames of emotion; something to indisputably turn the tables on inclusive initiatives. If DEI were about making room for all people to have equal access and opportunity, then the last card to play in the gaslighting hand is to flip the script completely.
Maberry and Johnson initially tread lightly into this final act by disarming their skeptics with the admission that diversity could be beneficial before sealing the entire process with the claim that DEI initiatives weren't just misguided but were actually a form of discrimination themselves. Nothing angers people of privilege more than believing they are the ones being discriminated against.
Tennesseans can agree to disagree on issues of policy and legislation, but we should collectively be offended when our supermajority lies to our faces and tells us it's the truth, as members have with anti-DEI laws designed to penalize minorities.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
