Developing Double Consciousness in the Work of W.E.B. Du Bois
After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,––a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One 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. 2 In this quote, Du Bois outlines the grouping of peoples of the world based on race. He defines Black Americans as “born with a veil and gifted second sight.” In the next line, Du Bois writes that the world “only lets [the seventh son] see himself through the revelation of the other world.” Important to understanding the workings of double consciousness at the individual level is an understanding of Du Bois’ concept of the Veil, which is a motif used by Du Bois to illustrate “the problem of the color line” and the experience of living as a Black American. The Veil, too, operates at an individual psychological level, with some looking out beyond the Veil, and some living under it. Perhaps the Veil is, then, what prevents true “self-consciousness” for Black Americans, as they must look through it to “measure one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.” However, this brings us back to second sight: though the American world may not allow Black people to see themselves alone without a comparison of inferiority to white people, the Veil is indeed a gift , where they may see this American world as fabricating a racial hierarchy, rather than affirming any sort of innate one. The Veil may also be a gift in the sense that it is a form of self-knowledge and knowledge of the other. Further, it is also, as Du Bois writes of it in the forethought to Souls , a condition , one that Black Americans operate
2 W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk , (New York: Penguin Books, 2017), 8.
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