As with many sociological concepts,
double consciousness is a living idea that has variations in how it is
understood and applied. Furthermore, DuBois invited such a diversity of
interpretation in how he phrased the concept. This paper contends that there
are two features of the definition that need to be highlighted and extended to
the modern arena of race. The first aspect is, as DuBois defined it, "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
(DuBois, 1897: 194)." This formulation has strong parallels with Charles Horton Cooley's
concept of "The Looking Glass Self", especially in how it corresponds
to Cooley's definition that "in
imagination we perceive in another's mind some thought of our appearance, manners, aims, deeds, character, friends, and so
on, and are variously affected by it (Cooley, 1964: 184)." We use society as a mirror (see here) and imagine what that mirror reflects when we look into it. If we think the image in the mirror is one that society dislikes, we feel shame. This is useful
in understanding the role played by shame in double consciousness; the shame
that results from "measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world
that looks on in amused contempt and pity."
This
is where the second component of DuBois' formulation becomes crucial. This
notes that the African-American "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
(DuBois, 1897: 194)." When this is added to the first part, we are left
with a person looking into a "looking glass" that does not accept
that the person is fully human because a Negro cannot be an American. DuBois
viewed the person as striving bravely but in vain to unite their Black and
American selves in a society that refuses to accept that such a marriage could
ever exist. Indeed, for white America
at that time, the concept of African-American was a form of semantic
miscegenation: an illegitimate racial union.
How does this resonate today? Barack Obama made an important
contribution to answering that objection when he gave a press conference
reacting to the protests that followed the acquittal of George Zimmerman. Obama
noted that most Black males have had the experience of being profiled
negatively as a threat:
There are very few African
American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and
hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me — at least before
I was a senator. There are very few African Americans who haven't had the
experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously
and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often
(NPR, 2013).
Such profiling strongly resembles
the DuBois notion of "contempt" and it compels the Black male to
monitor his "looking-glass self" more closely and warily than a White
male in identical circumstances. Some students will object that negative White
responses only occur when the male is dressed in attire associated with street
gangs, such as the hoodie. However, this
can be debunked by citing testimonies such as that of Father Bryan Massingale, who is a
priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and a professor of theology at Marquette University. He records that:
Once, while walking on a busy and
well-lit street at night, I was abruptly stopped by the police, rudely
questioned and roughly searched, under the suspicion that I was the perpetrator
of a robbery—only to later discover that the only characteristic I shared with
the actual criminal was the pigmentation of our skin, he being much younger,
shorter, and heavier than I. This happened despite my being a priest, a
university professor, and a respected member of the community (or so I would
have thought). The police offered no apology. Nor, to be honest, did I really
expect one. Living with such terror and indignity is to be expected
(Massingale, 2013).
Testimonies such as these challenge the complacent assumption of
some Whites that only those who dress in deviant ways (deviant as defined by the
hegemonic culture) need to fear surveillance, profiling and a hostile
looking-glass.
REFERENCES
Cooley, Charles Horton (1964) Human
Nature and the Social Order. New York: Schocken . (Orig.
pub. 1902.)
DuBois,
W.E.B., 'Strivings
of the Negro People.'
Atlantic Monthly 80, no. 478 (August 1897): 194-198.
Massingale,
Father Bryan, 'When profiling is “reasonable,” injustice becomes excusable', U.S.
Catholic blog, July 2013, retrieved on September 1st, 2013, from http://www.uscatholic.org/blog/201307/when-profiling-"reasonable"-injustice-becomes-excusable-27574
NPR,
'Transcript: President Obama's Remarks On Trayvon Martin Ruling', 19.7.2013,
retrieved on September 1st, 2013, from
http://www.npr.org/2013/07/19/203679977/transcript-obamas-remarks-on-trayvon-martin-ruling.
Roberts,
Frank, Lee Daniels' The Butler, Huffington Post, 8.16.2013, retrieved on September 1st, 2013,
from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-leon-roberts/lee-daniels-double-consci_b_3767252.html.
Scott,
A.O., Black Man, White House, and History, New York Times, 15.8.2013, retrieved on September 1st, 2013,
from http://movies.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/movies/lee-daniels-the-butler-stars-forest-whitaker.html?pagewanted=all.