Double consciousness

Double consciousness is a term describing the internal conflict experienced by subordinated groups in an oppressive society. It was coined by W. E. B. Du Bois with reference to African American "double consciousness," including his own, and published in the autoethnographic work, The Souls of Black Folk. The term originally referred to the psychological challenge of "always looking at one's self through the eyes" of a racist white society, and "measuring oneself by the means of a nation that looked back in contempt". The term also referred to Du Bois' experiences of reconciling his African heritage with an upbringing in a European-dominated society. The term has since been applied to numerous situations of social inequality, notably women living in patriarchal societies.

The term originated from an Atlantic Monthly article of Du Bois's titled "Strivings of the Negro People." It was later republished and slightly edited under the title "Of Our Spiritual Strivings" in his book, The Souls of Black Folk. Du Bois describes double consciousness as follows:

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 his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife – this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He does not wish to Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He wouldn't bleach his Negro blood in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face.”

African Americans struggle with a multi-faceted conception of self, a double consciousness. They are constantly trying to reconcile the two cultures that compose their identity. Early African Americans saw Africa as their homeland and the place they belonged while they saw America as the land they were brought to against their will in order to be enslaved. This led to the idea that all African Americans should one day return to their rightful home, Africa. However, as a result of the experiences of slavery and southern acculturation, early African Americans' ideas of both of their identities were greatly distorted. The American plantation system created slave populations that mixed Africans from different ethnic groups and discouraged African cultural practices in attempts to prevent slave revolts. As slaves, Africans were forbidden to speak their original languages, stripped of their original African names, converted to Christianity, discouraged from dancing, and not allowed to use drums. Such practices ensured the distortion of the African cultural legacy and that the same legacy would be severely impaired, if not lost completely, among later generations of African Americans. It also prohibited them from gaining the same cultural experience in America that white people received, creating a situation exclusively unique to African Americans.

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