African-American Double Consciousness

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Double-consciousness, as explained by W. E. B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk, is the process by which one group of people, in this case African-Americans, must judge themselves in a way that factors in the evaluation of others. Although any person can experience double-consciousness, African-Americans, throughout history and still today, have had the most significant dealings with double-consciousness in America.
Du Bois describes double consciousness as “a world which yields [African-Americans] no self-consciousness, but only lets [African-Americans] see [themselves] through the revelation of the other world” (534). Meaning that African-Americans, specifically in America, are faced wih a difficult task of being separated from the main …show more content…
Some examples of these barriers were low access to education, poll taxes, literacy tests, and the grandfather clause, which all were placed specifically to disenfranchise African-Americans who were now eligible to vote. I believe that the “longing to attain self-conscious manhood” is still present among African-Americans today even though they have overcome most of the institutional barriers holding them back. Because of the historical strife in The United States, and particularly the South, between African-Americans and whites, the playing field is not easily leveled, and the suffering is not easily forgotten. Some examples of the playing field not being levelled between African-Americans and whites is the still-present income gap. With current problems and past suffering such as these still in the forefront of American politics today, double consciousness is, most likely, still strong among African-Americans. Another example where African-Americans most likely experience double-consciousness today is with police officers. Given the politicized animosity between African-Americans and police officers, Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, it is hard to believe that this conflict alone does not lead African-Americans to feel as if they are often evaluated on the basis of what they
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