Racism and Double Consciousness
Du Bois saw double consciousness as a useful theoretical model for understanding the psycho-social divisions existing in the American society. He has asserted that these conflicts often occurred at both individual and group levels. Du Bois saw the prevalence of racism and figured out that sometimes peoples internalized their oppression. He called that having a double consciousness. "It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one-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." This double consciousness lets the person see themselves through the revelation of the other world. Their behavior is influenced by what the other people think and is distorted through others’ negative image of their race. This leads to low self-esteem because of the racism. Du Bois saw the color line as a scale that divides the people and because of this distinction, people are prejudiced and stereotyped.
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Famous quotes containing the words double consciousness, racism and/or double:
“The worst feature of this double consciousness is, that the two lives, of the understanding and of the soul, which we lead, really show very little relation to each other; never meet and measure each other: one prevails now, all buzz and din; and the other prevails then, all infinitude and paradise; and, with the progress of life, the two discover no greater disposition to reconcile themselves.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so—called educational system, which is nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one’s ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the “educational system” are the prime sources of racism in the United States.”
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“The obsession with suicide is characteristic of the man who can neither live nor die, and whose attention never swerves from this double impossibility.”
—E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)