"How does it feel to be a problem" is the challenging "unasked" question that W.E.B. DuBois proposes in "Of Our Spiritual Strivings" from his book
The Souls of Black Folk. The veil that DuBois illustrates has been passed down through the black race, generation after generation. How insightful and foretelling that Dubois could nuance the experience of "twoness", or "Double Consciousness" of the "negro", which is very much the experience of being Black in America in 2014? With our discussion of Robinson and Woodson the question then becomes is this sense of double consciousness universal? Does it look differently for different Blacks? Dubois writes " One ever feels his twoness,-- 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". Do "emergent" Blacks feel this sense of Americaness or is their twoness routed in another set of double lenses? There is no doubt that a twoness exist for people who do not identify as African American, however, I think the twoness and double consciousness look different for different individuals. I would go as far as to suggest that Dubois' theory on double consciousness could apply to any person being marginalized in a particular space. In Irving Goffman's
Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity , he demonstrates the way in which stigmatized people respond to their known, perceived stigmas. Some people try to change them, over compensate for them, or become isolated and discouraged (1963). This is similar to the case of Black people, Dubois suggest "self-questions, self-disparagement, lowering of ideals, repression. This very response could be universally applied to any stigmatized individual in a marginalized space.
Not every black person in America is the same "problem", or so it appears. People understand different issues and identify
different problems to discuss. Can Black people seek solidarity in
expressing the experience of twoness? Even if it looks different for
different people? Even if what they think is a sensible ideology does
not look the same?
Welcome to our class. Here we are in deep discussion over crackers, tea, and coffee!
I think Black people can express solidarity in expressing their experience of twoness, if the variety in the Black experience is at least acknowledged. The non-white culture and skin tone can bring Black people together but is the acceptance that I am coming to you with my gender, religion, socioeconomic, orientation, age, nationality, etc that will solidify the commitment and bond within a group of Black people.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Shanequa! I think your right outside of the four groups that Robinson describes, there are a host of other groups that are distinct and need acknowledgment. What will it take for all those other identities to be accepted in the "Black community", if we even have one? I do not know!
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