Double Consciousness

First used by William Edward Burghardt DuBois in his 1903 work, The Souls of Black Folk, the term "double-consciousness" was taken from this passage in the first chapter:

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 two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

Much has been written about it as it applies to race -- the terms DuBois originally linked it to. Considerably less has been written about it as it applies to other structural elements of identity, community, and the regimes of truth that in many ways undergird societies in general.

The most liberating/de-paralyzing moment in the class, for me as a white scholar dealing with issues of race/racism, was in hearing Gloria's advice: don't think about it terms of race, think of it terms of the greater structures in society. Somehow, this empowers me to begrudgingly accept my own participation in the racist Discourse of society as I simultaneously work to resist it.

Bending Identity Discourse

I believe that by moving double-consciousness to this macro-level of societal structure, beyond race, that double-consciousness can have a greater effect on the discourse of identity. W.E.B. DuBois, in turn might perhaps become more widely known as an identity scholar who is black, rather than a black scholar who considered identity. This, however, risks losing some of the powerful associations it has with the U.S. history of race-based slavery.

The final "paper" for my Fall 2004 "Multicultural Perspectives in Education" class with Gloria Ladson-Billings.