Double Consciousness Under The White Gaze

DuBois’ theory on the “Double Consciousness” states, “After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,--a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels

The space of liminality, of ambiguity, is the space through which the determination of racial classifications can become most complex and deterministic for further understandings. In this space of liminality the distinctions between races become further obscured, yet concurrently these racial distinctions are made most evident. In both the Nazi and Jim Crow contexts, the liminal space between German versus Jew, and White versus African-American becomes how race is constructed. Yet, these liminal spaces are not simple, nor binary, instead these spaces are multidimensional; German versus Jew becomes German versus German-Jew versus Jew, and White versus African-American becomes White versus less White versus African-American. In this complexity, in these liminal spaces, the fundamental question of race emerges: who is an other?

In The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois coins “double consciousness”, as a “peculiar feeling… this sense of always looking at one 's self through the eyes of others” (Du Bois I). He goes on to say that as a black person, “one ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body,” (Du Bois I). In other words, double consciousness refers to living with two identities that are at constant war with each other. For Du Bois, a black man can never simply just be an “American” or a “Negro”, for blacks will

Her strong belief that the lighter you are, the more respect you deserve is fallacious; the Harlem Renaissance brought those of all colors together through music, art, and literature, making this ideal a departure from that epoch. In the novel Mrs.Turner states, “You’se different from me. Ah can’t stand black niggers. Ah don’t blame de white folks from hatin’ ‘em ‘cause Ah can’t stand ‘em mahself. ‘Nother thing, Ah hates tuh see folks lak me and you mixed up wid ‘em. Us oughta class off”. Mrs.Turner’s thoughts and beliefs are included to show how superiority and prejudice are not only discriminatory but also pernicious to those of color, in particular African Americans. This mindset is inimical to equality and is used to help the reader visualize how the drive to be preeminent and obtain the highest social class is

W.E.B. DuBois, in The Souls of Black Folk describes the very poignant image of a veil between the blacks and the whites in his society. He constructs the concept of a double-consciousness, wherein a black person has two identities as two completely separate individuals, in order to demonstrate the fallacy of these opinions. J.S. Mill also describes a certain fallacy in his own freedom of thought, a general conception of individuals that allows them to accept something similar to DuBois’ double-consciousness and perpetuates the existence of the veil.

Very little is known about the nature of the human mind. The mental and social life of humans is based on the mind, yet not much is known about it and the extent to which it can go. In all cultures there is a belief about the mind, the heart, and the soul, with a variety of notions about these parts of the human being. Psyche in its ancient sense is extended to limits that go beyond the human body in many of the existing cultures. Surveys that have been done in most countries of the West, Britain, and the U.S have consistently shown that a significant portion of the populations in these regions believe in the occurrence of psychic phenomenon and more than fifty percent believe that they have at one point or another personally experienced it (Sheldrake 102). Considering these beliefs and experiences, it is senseless to claim that the mind is only restricted to the brain. This makes the advocates of mechanistic orthodoxy make an assertion that since paranormal phenomena lacks a scientific explanation, it is non-existent. According to scientific education, this is regarded as superstition but there still calls for need of more study and research into this widespread phenomenon.

Dubois’ describes the African American experience as a “double-consciousness.” He theorizes that the world “yields him no true self-consciousness;” however he goes on to describe the experience of having a dual consciousness as a “sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others” (Dubois, 38). Self-consciousness is defined as being hyperaware and concerned with the opinions of others in relation to oneself, therefore Dubois has contradicted himself. The aspect of examining oneself through the eyes of others shall hereafter be referred to as “self-consciousness” for the sake of clarity between the theory of double-consciousness and the

2. W.EB. Du Bois introduces the expression “double consciousness,” which is the idea that Black Americans are aware that they are perceived as two different identities. In Society white oppressors don’t view black people as individuals but as stereotypes of what they think of black people. This leads two conflicting identities because black people are torn between joining their black identity and their American identify. Two pieces of work that illustrate characters that are conscious of experiencing both identities are Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Nella Larsen’s Passing.

The author is looking back at his childhood memories, the author recalls a trip when he went to a place on summer vacations with the rest of his family. The lake serves as the setting for both the whites past and present-day. White redirects on his own childhood when his father would take him to the lake. Then explaining that now he is taking his own son to that very same lake. The event allows him to reflect back on the chemistry between him and his father. White understands that some things don’t change, and you can’t stop someone from doing something. White refers to a dual reality that he experiences when spending time with his child by the lake. This is apparent every time White has a tough time differentiating himself from his particular

Double Consciousness is when a personal identity is split up into different parts. W.E.B. DuBois came up with the term and sociological theory. For example, a young black man is aware of how he views and feels himself. That same young black man is also aware of how other black people view and how other people from different races view him. The theory of Double Consciousness does not only pertain to men but to women as well. The two books that show double consciousness in action but in different time periods and different genders are, "Passing". “Passing” was written by Nella Larsen deals with the situation of being a black woman that is passing for white and how that affects Double Consciousness in that of a woman who is passing. "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates discuss how double consciousness plays is still apart of everyday life for African Americans in the United States but from the viewpoint of a Black man.

After reading, Acting White (Fryer, 2006) my point of view has been changed and I have became more aware of the acting white phenomenon. I realized that it is a larger issue than I considered it to be. This issue is very important to me because I am Hispanic and Hispanics fall under the same situation that other minorities are struggling with.

W.E.B DuBois was a well-known civil rights activists, Pan-Africanist, and a co-founder of the NAACP. Double-consciousness is a phrase coined by DuBois in his novel The Souls of Black Folks in 1903, which describes the idea of double-consciousness as a state of affairs in which an individual is both representative of and immersed in two distinct ways of life. When DuBois introduced this phrase, he was specifically talking about black Americans in the United States who face a double jeopardy of being identified as black and American while having to deal with the injustices of Jim Crow America. Black Americans, unlike their white counterparts, have this internal conflict of having to identify with their ‘black’ culture, which was stripped from them and deemed improper and the American experience, which denied them of their basic human rights through systematic oppression. Black Americans have always dealt with having to see themselves through the perspective of the society they live in and needing to prove their worth in order to obtain a sense of belonging. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eyes are able to depict the psychological trauma of what double-consciousness does to an individual through the eyes of their main characters who suffer immensely due to their social circumstances. Through racial discontent and self-realization acknowledged in both Ellison 's Invisible Man and Morrison’s

“I wish my son to go back to the grave.” It had been a year since Jerold White had said those seemingly unpleasant, but altogether necessary words. Eileen White was never the same after Herbert passed away. She was distant, trying to keep herself busy with different tasks all the time.

According to Jennifer Eberhardt (2004), the mere presence of black individuals, is associated with violence and crime. She stated that, “Not only are Blacks thought of as criminal, but also crime is thought of as Black” (Eberhardt, 2004). It is also quite disturbing that these finding were found consistently and frequently. Psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt, confirms this theory, collaborating with Phillip Atiba Goff, Valerie J. Purdie, and Paul G. Davies. They performed a study using police officers, as well as college students as participants (Eberhardt, Goff, Purdie, & Davies, 2004). They performed five different studies and the results were all consistent. In the first study they used pictures of black and white faces, then they were shown unclear objects and asked to identify them. After concluding the first study, they found that, “mere exposure to Black faces facilitated the detection of crime-relevant objects” (Eberhardt et al., 2004). The second Study was performed in a similar nature. Using images of crime related weapons and face stimuli, they found that the neutral images of crime related weapons became identified with blackness. During study three, they used neutral words instead of images, to test a neutral factor that was considered positive. During this the study, evidence stated that blacks were also identified as being athletic and musically gifted. In study four, they decided to test police officers and their ability to remember and identify

The struggles of a double consciousness clearly don’t just apply to African American’s, it can apply to all