On Du Bois’ Notion of Double Consciousness

On Du Bois’ Notion of Double Consciousness

Frank M. Kirkland

If there is any notion that defines or identifies W.E.B Du Bois, at least in the popular

mind, it is the notion of ‘‘double consciousness’’ presented in his The Souls of Black Folk

(SBF). It is usually characterized as a kind of socio-psychological and, sometimes, sociohistorical

disposition of African Americans specifically or people of color generally to

their aims and goals as shaped by the social barrier of racial segregation and colonization.

Du Bois refers to this barrier as ‘‘the Veil.’’ It signifies the ubiquitous and pervasive

impediment, on racially segregated grounds, both to the fulfillment and the belief in the

fulfillment of African American ideals and objectives. But it also signifies the concealment

from white people’s comprehension the legacy and currency of African-American practices

and forms of life as shaped by this racial hindrance 137

Finally the political scientist Adolph Reed argues that ‘‘double consciousness’’ is the

result of the ‘‘intellectual and political conventions’’ of its time, 138

Contrary to the social science literature, Du Bois’ conception of ‘‘double consciousness’’

in the humanities literature, is regarded as if it were the point d’appui of his thought

and as if it were the knotty cultural trait of all African Americans.7 Generally, in this literature,

it is defended as irreplaceably conveying a ‘pre- and a re-understanding’ of the meaning

through which black people take up what ought to be done or ought to be believed,

given ‘‘the Veil.’’ Broadly speaking, then, ‘‘double consciousness’’ would not typify, with

causal implications, black people as unequivocally being in psychologically conflicted

states of mind concerning racial matters. It would rather typify, with a sense of understanding,

black people as problematically responding to scenarios with racially contested

expectations. 138

For Du Bois, ‘‘double consciousness’’ arises, first of all, from what is raised in ‘‘The Forethought’’

of SBF – ‘‘the strange meaning of being black.’’10 The ‘‘strange meaning’’ of

having a specific racial identity, ‘‘of being black,’’ 138

This would suggest that ‘‘double consciousness’’ as a ‘‘kind of feeling’’ is a feeling of

discontent concerning (a) one’s estimation of the displeasure of the sensation of being a

problem produced by one’s encounter with something or someone and (b) one’s comparison

of the displeasure of this sensation so produced either with reflection or from others’

estimation. 139

Du Bois refers to ‘‘double consciousness’’ as ‘‘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’’ or as belonging to ‘‘a world yielding him no true self-consciousness,

but only letting him see himself through the revelation of the other world.’’ 139

Each temperament is expressive of what has been called ‘‘double consciousness’’ as

‘‘dualist ⁄ duelist’’ (i.e., being of two conflicting minds) and as ‘‘duplicitous’’ (i.e., being

two-faced).20 Regarding the former, ‘‘double consciousness’’ would engage in less a logical

than a performative ‘‘contradiction of double aims’’ 141

Du Bois, however, does hint at another way out, a ‘‘longing,’’ evident in the history

of black people, ‘‘to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better

and truer self.’’23 Although most tend to consider this merger as the elimination of ‘‘double

consciousness’’ and the emergence of a ‘‘synthetic’’ self, so to speak, as now both

‘‘American’’ and ‘‘Negro’’ unified, it is unclear what Du Bois has in mind here. I would

hazard the guess that Du Bois’ claim here refers not to the elimination of ‘‘double consciousness,’’

but to its emergence as ‘‘dyadic.’’24 He also rather vaguely connects this

emergent or ‘‘dyadic’’ double consciousness, this merging of selves, so to speak, to the

‘‘rending of the Veil,’’ portrayed as a far-off event and on the premise of the conditional

existence of an ‘‘Eternal Good.’’25 141

In philosophy, ‘‘double consciousness’’ takes a different spin, because discussion concerning

Du Bois in philosophy turns more on his racialism than on ‘‘double consciousness.’’

Although the two are correlated, one can philosophically speak about Du Bois on

race and identity without even mentioning ‘‘double consciousness,’’30 but one cannot

philosophically address ‘‘double consciousness’’ without, at least, an allusion to the raceconcept.

Still, on the philosophical scene, ‘‘double consciousness’’ was once presented as

an independent truth maker or even fact about the African-American experience as a

whole and indispensable to the framing of what had then been called ‘‘Afro-American

philosophy.’’31 143

‘‘double consciousness’’ is not simply

reflective of an identity crisis amongst blacks. It is rather reflective of the stance of compromising

one’s ideals to maintain one’s esteem that others perversely deny or underestimate

for the sake of their ascendancy. 145

Frank M. Kirkland. “On Du Bois’ Notion of Double Consciousness.” Philosophy Compass, vol.8, no.2, 2013, pp. 137-148. doi: 10.1111/phc3.12001