Double consciousness Free Essay Example, 1500 words

Sarah Bruer Writing 140 The Stain of Double Consciousness Double Consciousness has and will always play a dominant role in the relationship between one race and another. By its very nature, race relations are most often the artificial imposition of anothers viewpoint on a specific group of people as well as an individual. This creates an echo in the mind, a second guessing of actions primed with the question, "What will they think? " W. E.B Du Bois coined the term in his 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folk, as, "... this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others" (Du Bois 2). The key word is artificial and once this is realized the concept of double consciousness becomes a tool for positive change and growth. This places the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the individual, since double consciousness solely exists within the individual. This realization becomes a useful means in dealing with problems of identity and race in America. This view i s supported by both Mr. Du Bois and John H. McWhorter, author of Double Consciousness in Black America. There is another book, a Phillip Roth Novel, The Human Stain, which has some relevance here. We will write a custom essay sample on Double consciousness or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The main character, Coleman Silk, a long career college professor at some prestigious New England University, come to understand the real meaning of double consciousness for both Blacks and Whites. He is Professor of Classics and was installed as Dean of Faculty, the first Jew to attain that position even as late as 1998. One eventful day, noticing the same two empty desks in his classroom for a couple of weeks, he finally asks rhetorically to the class if these two students exist, "or are they just spooks. " Turns out these students, whom he has never seen, are Black and Coleman Silk is asked to resign. Theres just one more thing, a secret. The author gives you a hint in his name: Coleman (Coal / Black) Silk (White), is actually an African American that has been "passing" for White all these years, and a White Jew no less (Roth 2000). The irony is clear and it exists in the double-conscious minds of the Black community today. Coleman Silks predica ment goes to the core of double consciousness, this double standard in not only applicable to African Americans, but to any race of human beings trying to live side by side with another. In this instance Coleman chooses to "opt-out" of his birth race and assumes the identity of a White Jew. Why would he do that? It is the conviction that â€Å"†¦ the ills of Black America can be undone only by Whites, rather than by Blacks themselves† (McWhorter 14).