Solving The Du Boisian Double Consciousness (W E B DU BOIS DUBOIS ESSAY)

Solving The Du Boisian Double Consciousness

 

Jason Crockett

Sociology of Minorities

Spring 1997

Professor William Morgan, PhD (Instructor)

 

 

In this essay, the words and ideas of Molefi K. Asante and C. Eric Lincoln are used, taken from their respective essays, “Racism, Consciousness, and Afrocentricity” and “The Du Boisian Dubiety and the American Dilemma,” in an attempt to understand the Du Boisian Dilemma faced by at least one famous African American and described in the first chapter of his text, The Souls of Black Folk. He wrote a cryptic passage, considering the identity of African Americans, that has been regarded as perplexing, mysterious, and very important: 

“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 twoness—an American, a Negro…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.” (Lure and Loathing, xvii-xviii)

Both essayists describe what they feel the problem, “double-consciousness,” of which W. E. B. Du Bois wrote over 100 years ago, is, differing and agreeing with each other, and they offer what were, are, and may someday be solutions to this crisis.

            Lincoln found a way to see through mystery surrounding what Du Bois wrote, by looking at the historical setting that the passage was written in and the life of its author. “Although Du Bois escaped the direct experience of slavery, the society and the culture in which he was to be immersed and to which he was to struggle to relate, did not.” (Lure, 195-196)  When Du Bois wrote of the African American’s “double consciousness,” he was standing at the junction of two periods, one in which many promises were made to African Americans, and another in which it would be clear these promises were hollow. He was unprepared for the prejudice and opposition he would face, unarmed ideologically and perhaps emotionally. Lincoln says, “Du Bois was socialized to be a white man in a society which was not yet prepared to accept him unconditionally as a person at any level. His unacceptability made no sense to him…,” although it would be taken for granted by others, especially later generations. (Lure, 202) 

In his personal confusion over expectations, Du Bois described his own inner turmoil as if it were that of all black America, probably believing as much. In turn, “Du Bois’ personal apperceptions [were] seized on and universalized,” in a kind of intellectual racial project, by an America “in desperate need of some way to understand ‘the Negro’ which…could justify freezing him in a perpetual time warp that would obviate the need to grant him the full spectrum of human complexity.” (Lure 196) It was an easy way to excuse not giving blacks equality, to avoid eliminating society’s prejudices, and to blame it on the victim. It was because of a psychological problem of African Americans, “cultural schizophrenia,” that old stereotypes and social stratification could be confirmed and perpetuated. (Lure, 196) What Lincoln describes predated the label of “modern racism,” but it has some of the same qualities seen in today’s post-Civil Rights Movement world, where surveys show that in America “the single most popular explanation [for racial inequality is that it] stems from problems in the black community, not in the society as a whole.” (Healey, 55)

Unlike Lincoln, Asante, in his very autobiographical essay, sees the problem Du Bois described as a real psychological condition, which exists in some black people today, not only in the historical Du Bois. The Asante vision of Du Boisian “double-consciousness” is when blacks behave similarly to Berreman’s Pattern’s of Accommodation for members of subordinate groups. He considers these patterns—emulation and envy of whites, identification with whites, self-doubt, and self-hatred—parts of the pathological state that Du Bois was afflicted with and described in his “twoness” passage. (Notes, April 16, 1997) “I was never affected by…double-consciousness,” writes Asante. “I never felt ‘two warring souls in one dark body’ [sic] nor did I experience a conflict over my identity.” Raised in an extremely segregated community in the South, he saw, and sees, an America split into two “societies, one white and richer, one black and poorer.” He has no doubts to which section he belongs (group identity) but realizes that “perhaps in a great number of Africans these societies and the ‘two warring souls’ converge to create a caldron of psychological problems.”(Lure, 136) By growing up where and when he did, Asante says he avoided “the longing to be white or to be accepted by whites that Du Bois must have felt.” (Lure, 137) Asante assures the reader that denial by an African American of his or her “Africanity” (blackness) is an attempt to avoid reality, to avoid the common classification a prejudiced, discriminatory society places him or her in,  and “you cannot escape [this] historical condition and remain sane.” (Lure, 140)

            Lincoln says that “double-consciousness” is not really, as the “twoness” passage romantically and mystically suggested, a psychological disturbance in the minds of most African Americans, other than Du Bois. The true problem is that America was, and is, a racist society, in which black Americans are victims of unfair treatment and low expectations and denied the equality promised in this nation’s ideals. Lincoln writes, “There were flaws in the society which mirrored and may well have been the source of those which  troubled [Du Bois.] It is possible to argue that there was nothing wrong with Du Bois, or with those afflicted by his syndrome, which would not be healed if America herself were healed.” (Lure, 201) 

Lincoln feels that any universal black “twoness” dilemma, like what was imaged by Du Bois, has been largely solved, and perhaps avoided completely, by the passage of time, and that there are other more pertinent issues on the mind of the average African American today. “In any case,” he writes, “it is clear the critical question for most African Americans has nothing to do with double-consciousness. That question was long since laid to rest by the confirmations of history” that blacks were reserved a special and low place in American society. (Lure, 204) So, in this essayist’s mind, the Du Boisian Dilemma was solved for black America and even for an older, expatriate Du Bois, years removed from his original shock and dismay. “A more pertinent [and universal] question than ‘What am I?’ is ‘How can I be who I am and still hack it in America?’” says Lincoln. (Lure, 205) (Du Bois never was able to answer this newer question.)

In some ways, the historical answering of  the Du Boisian, “Who am I?” question that Lincoln describes was like a racial project. Although the reaffirmation of the Color Line that occurred in America, in the years after the Civil War, nearing the beginning of  a new century, was not a redefining of what being black was (since this had been decided during the period of  slavery), it did tell the nation, and African Americans, what race meant. It told black Americans of that period what it meant to be free and black in American society after universal emancipation. Omi and Winant say that racial projects use ideas that appeal to the public’s “common sense” and are simplifications of the real situation. (Class notes, April, 23, 1997) This is the way Du Bois’ Dilemma was incorporated into America’s view of African Americans, as an explanation for their failures to achieve parity with white America, ignoring the context of a historically racist society and widespread discrimination, and to give a good reason to continue a tradition of racial prejudice. (Lure, 197) 

Asante does not feel the problem of “double-consciousness” has been solved in a universal way by history, because many African Americans choose to ignore history and deny society’s definition for being black. He calls this situation “misorientation.”  He explains that “the misoriented African…runs away from his or her Africanity by attempting to deny it, conceal it, or attack it.” When a black American allows European culture to overwhelm their sense of their true (group) identity, he or she “becomes for all practical purposes the spitting image of the racist anti-Africanite,” detached from his or her group identity, and what Asante calls “disoriented.” This even worse than “double-consciousness.” (Lure, 139)  Asante says he has seen many who feel African Americans  should aspire to being white and has an opinion of those who do so: “Such ‘Negroes’ are often insane, suffering from a deep sense of self-hatred.”

Asante’s answer for “misorientation” and “disorientation,” each being self-hate and “insanity,” is careful control of the information received and accepted by each African American, in order for him or her to avoid being overcome by a Europe-oriented viewpoint. In other words, it is important for black Americans to steer the development of their own personal ideologies, “[charting their] path out of the maze of disinformation and misinformation [that surrounds them.]” (Lure, 138) This leads to good mental health and a good self image.

The writer Cross points out that research since the earlier “self-hate” theories of the black Americans, which said that blacks had internalized society’s negative attitudes toward themselves, has shown no correlation between group identification and personal identity. So, a negative view of being black will not negatively influence self-esteem.. Asante’s assertion that developing an Afrocentric group identity will improve  psychological health defies Cross’ findings that a positive group identity will not necessarily lead to a positive personal identity, either. (Class notes, April 5, 1997) 

So, classroom evidence is not supportive of Molefi K. Asante’s solution to the Du Boisian problem of  “twoness” as it is of that of C. Eric Lincoln.

-jason lindsay crockett-