A Football Star's Double Consciousness

      Double consciousness is essentially described as viewing yourself not only through your own eyes but the eyes of society as well. W.E.B Du Bois makes clear that double consciousness is just like looking at two different people who are technically you. There is the "you" that you identify with when you look at yourself through your own eyes. Then there is the "you" that you see when you look at yourself through the eyes of society and the world. For example Du Bois relates that to African Americans like when they saw themselves as Americans but society saw them as Negro people and treated them as such. The main thing he focuses on is how we attempt to merge those two different identities together in order to make them one without possible losing one of the two identities. We do this in order to receive approval from those who have put labels on us while trying to feel comfortable in the skin we are in.

      In Michael Sam's case, he was a football player who was living a double life behind closed doors. Society looked at him as a straight football player who was slowing making his way up to the big league close to being drafted into the NFL. Behind closed doors he was keeping his true identity hidden from family and the public. He was attempting to conform to the image that society had given him. He could of easily just waited until he was drafted into the NFL to come out to the world about his sexuality or not even come out at all but that was not his intention.
       He made the decision to publicly announce his sexuality not only to stop hiding who he really was, but to see if society would still accept him even though he was gay. Would the NFL still view him as a top pick draft even though he was a gay? Or would he be persecuted for his life choice? He wanted to bring change to the LGBT community within the sports arena. Sam wanted to merge the two identities he had without losing one. He wanted to blend the identity of him being gay and him being an athlete together while still maintaining the acceptance from those closest to him. Michael Sam wanted society to see his one and true identity which is him being a homosexual football star and not the identity they placed on him.
        Double consciousness is the feeling you have when you attempt to transform yourself into the person society sees when they look at you. You know inside that that is not the person you see when you look at yourself but, for the acceptance you attempt to view yourself in through the eyes of others. You spend time measuring yourself up to the standards of others not aware of your own. Usually you make an attempt to fit in and try to act how you have been described as. You make the decision to lead a double life- keep our real identity locked away behind closed doors while exposing only the portion of us society is used to or approves of. That plan usually fails. So you make it the best of both worlds and mix these different conceptions of ourselves into one so that way not only will you feel comfortable with yourself but society will feel comfortable with you too. W.E.B Du Bois was correct when he came up with this concept of double consciousness. This concept is very relatable to today's society and the way the world works now since sometimes people force us to lead double lives through fear of the truth. Should we really have to do that though?