Double-Consciousness

Double-Consciousness is constant self-review and self-adjustment based not only on one’s own perspective, but on one’s estimation of another individual’s or group’s perspective. Put simply, Double-Consciousness is a state in which one enters entirely different states of mind, depending on the setting, because they believe it’s expected of them. One might even feign an entire persona because they believe it best suits the social scenario at hand, even if the persona negatively affects the well-being of the individual.

 In “the Souls of Black Folk” W.E.B. Du Bois’ first explanation of Double-Consciousness is apolitical. He says that Double-Consciousness is a “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,”  but he goes on to portray Double-Consciousness as a racial issue. Throughout the first chapter, he examines the difficulty that comes with reasoning an African heritage with the Neo-European lifestyle that mainstream western society demands. I can’t help but agree that Double-Consciousness does often house a racial aspect.    

I went to an all-black elementary school in south west Atlanta. Most of the kids there had literally never seen white person in the flesh, yet still all their lives, they’d heard stories about the trouble that white people had caused for them. I’m not white by any stretch of the imagination, but they needed someone to vent their frustration on, and I was the closest thing to a white person that they may ever have met. My peers would always tease me about my green eyes and pallid complexion, and so I felt the need to go above and beyond to prove that I was “black.” My parents were strict, so I was quiet and well-behaved at home, but at school, I would pick fights, crack jokes in class, and try to fake a more urban-sounding dialect.

I was a nuisance at school, because I didn’t want my peers to further associate me with white people. I thought that being pugnacious and facetious was the only thing distinguishing me from the race that my community so resented and maligned.  This is an instance where Double-Consciousness caused me to behave in a way I normally wouldn’t because I looked at myself from the perspective of my classmates. I’d always been inherently timid and well-mannered, but when I started examining myself from my peer’s perspective,  I couldn’t help but try and change myself to please them, at my own cost.