Double consciousness
The term double consciousness can be traced to an African American sociologist W.E.B Du Bois. Having being born when Jim Crow Regime was at its peak in the nineteenth century, Du Bois was determined to liberate the oppressed black race through his scholarship which would be the tool for liberation. Due to the cruelty of American racism towards the blacks, the Negros in the United States could not formulate self-evaluations because of the white stereotypes. In Du Bois perspective, blacks during this time were grappled with the question of whether they were Americans or Negros. The term double consciousness, therefore, stems from this dilemma of “twoness”. The “twoness” was experienced African-Americans because of their oppression based on race and devaluation in a white-dominated culture (Du Bois, 17). According to writings by Reed, Appiah, Watts and Gooding-Williams Du Bois considered blacks to be an inferior race although he was among them. They had strong grounds to argue that Du Bois was actually on the side of the whites in propagating stereotypes among the Negros (Du Bois, 30). In his early writings, Du Bois occasionally referred to the blacks as underdeveloped, ignorant, low social grade, first folk and in need of guidance from culturally superior groups like the whites (Du Bois, 30). From this statement by Du Bois, we can see some element of “twoness”. Although Du Bois wanted to liberate the Africans from racial oppression by the Whites, he still has some affiliation and attachment to the white people which makes him be inclined to them too. He has both the feeling of being an African as well as that of being an American. This is where the concept of double consciousness comes into play. These sentiments according to the critics indicate that Du Bois though usually considered to be a crusader and champion of black liberation, actually loathed the Negros and concurred with the whites that blacks were an inferior race (Du Bois, 30). Thus, it can be deduced that the identity of Du Bois is divided into two facets, two thoughts, two souls and unreconciled strivings which is referred to as double consciousness.
One of the scholarly references-peer reviewed articles that engage the concept of double consciousness is Franz Fanon’s book Black Skin, White Masks in 1952. In this book, Fanon expressed his hopelessness in being neither a black nor white (65). He identifies the double consciousness that African Americans face and its source. According to Fanon, the social and cultural confusions of African American is a result of European culture. In the book, Fanon illustrates with examples the things he encountered that demonstrate the double consciousness. He gives an example of two people who claim completely conforming to being white and says that they are wrong. He also contends that the people who believe that complete rejection of whites is also erroneous. There is a close connection between Franz Fanon’s work and Du Bois concept of double consciousness. Fanon’s work demonstrates that double consciousness is a condition of colonized people. He states that in this world the white man is imposing a historical racial schema (Fanon, 84) on the blacks based on their skin color. In the chapter on “the fact of blackness”, Fanon describes how the identity of the blacks is not something that can be self-created but rather something that is imposed on them by society. Fanon brings up the idea of “black problem” which is the experienced inferiority of the black people (Fanon, 87).
Fanon proceeds to tell the reason why the African American adopts cultures that according to him, are very strange (56). He explains how when an African American leaves for Europe, coming back they speak a language different from their own. Additionally, Fanon talks about the way white men talk to African Americans and its contribution to the problem of double consciousness. He states that when white men talk to an African American man, they are changing their language in which stereotypical blacks would speak analogously of how one would talk to a child with different language slang and sophistication. He says that this annoyed the African American because he feels as if he has been categorized and imprisoned in a cage from which he cannot escape because of this judgment. This stereotype is portrayed and then explains how African American need to be educated not to follow such stereotypes displayed by white culture. From Fanon’s account, it is clear that the subject of double consciousness which was developed by his predecessor Du Bois is evident.
Another peer-reviewed article that engages or relates to the concept of double consciousness is Gilroy and the Black Atlantic account. In this account, Paul Gilroy uses theories of race and culture to the construction of African American intellectual history. Gilroy is best known for marking a turning point in the study of the African Diasporas living across the Atlantic coastline in the United Kingdom, the United States, the Caribbean and other nations. In the book The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double consciousness in 1993, Gilroy introduces the Black Atlantic as a source for cultural construction. He mainly focused on the critique of ethnic nationalism as excessively “essentialist” (Gilroy, 43).
Gilroy points out that many people see the black culture of these areas as wholly defined by their national experiences like that of African-Americas (50). He, however, contends that since the mid-nineteenth century black intellectuals have thought transnationally. They look elsewhere in the black Atlantic for inspiration and ideas, he adds. This goes in tandem with Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness. He states that this idea by Du Bois is essential to understanding the transnational experiences of the black diaspora. The black Diasporas were expected to conform to their social worlds as well as to simultaneously alienate from them through their knowledge of terror of slavery.
Additionally, Gilroy brings the idea of music in his book. He argues that music is for the blacks and a psychological method of expressing pain and rage caused by the continued oppression which could not be quickly put into words. Since blacks were denied the right to read and write, music was the only way to express one’s feeling. He pointed out the significance of African and European transnational travel as the genesis for double consciousness. The transatlantic slave trade was the basis for the diaspora. He used the theory of his predecessor Du Bois of double consciousness to explain the existence of an internal struggle of reconciling between being not Black and European. This struggle to reconcile was Gilroy’s main focus in the book which brings the concept of double consciousness. He aimed to bring unity between the black culture connection to the native homeland and the cultural exchanges that occurred afterwards (Gilroy, 68).
According to Gilroy, they are occupying the space between the two dialectally subjectivities as an oppositional act of political insubordination. This means that for the blacks in the diaspora, thinking of the duality in their identity is paradoxical and actualising is a move of symbolic resistance in modernity.
The two peers reviewed articles: Black Skin, White Masks by Franz Fanon and Paul Gilroy’s book The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double consciousness (1993). The two accounts all rotate and are common in one thing: double consciousness, a concept which was developed much earlier by W.E.B Du Bois in his book The Souls of Black Folk (1903). The two accounts demonstrate a state of “twoness” and the inability for the African American people to reconcile with the two identities. In Fanon’s account, he expressed his hopelessness in being neither a black nor white. Here Fanon expresses a state of confusion that the African-American people face due to their dual identities.
Similarly, in Gilroy’s account, the people in diaspora face similar challenges of dual identity. The transatlantic slave trade was the basis for diaspora which brought about the dual personality of the African-Americans. Although the two accounts are different and were written in different timelines, their perspectives remain in tension with one another as their basic ideas are rooted in the concept of double consciousness (Bruce, 299).
The concept of double consciousness can be applied in the Black Panther movie. The dual identity present evident in both Marvel’s Black Panther and the race theory of double consciousness enables black American viewers to see their double personalities played in the movie. Du Bois concept of double consciousness plays out for both the villain and the hero within the black viewer’s psyche (Greene, 23). From the movie T’Challa who is African born and American born Erik Stevens are cousins at first, yet T’ Challa comes from the technologically advanced and prosperous Wakanda kingdom, and Erik who is the villain in the movie hails from the slums of Oakland as an orphan. Erik aims to overthrow T’Challa asking for him to destroy those who have wronged the blacks. Erik is demonstrated as the monster which results from the generational abandonment in an unwelcoming country. T’Challa, on the other hand, is the epitome of a thoughtful leader from a peace-loving nation. In this way, the characters represent a distinct side of double consciousness by Du Bois: an American, an African which results to two thoughts and two unreconciled strivings, two conflicting ideals in one dark body (Greene, 27).
This double consciousness also plays out in the black American viewers as well who see themselves in the jaded Erik “Killmonger” and can embrace the new utopian kingdom. Therefore, the black American viewers are confronted with double identity; one in America and one in their native or ancestral Africa. Although Wakanda is an imaginary kingdom, it represents the thriving African countries that are often confronted with stereotypes from America and other western countries. The black American viewers have difficulty in having one unified identity. Therefore, the Black Panther movie is one of the real applications of double consciousness of the black Americans face today. The black American viewers are torn between the identities to adopt, the African or the American. This is what Du Bois’s idea of double consciousness is all about (Bruce, 299).
Works cited
Bruce, Dickson D. “WEB Du Bois and the idea of double consciousness.” American Literature 64.2 (1992): 299-309.
Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. New York, Avenel, NJ: Gramercy Books; 1993
Fanon, Frantz. Black skin, white masks. Grove press, 2008.
Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and double consciousness. Verso, 1993.
Greene, J. Lee. Blacks in Eden: The African American Novel’s First Century. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996.