A Dual Identity by Ken Camell ll

Dual Indentity The struggle and consequence Of double consciousness A dual identity We've been fooled by My tribes enemies and seen as fools for five centuries sure my injuries Are bandaged As collateral damage All in the fusion of a more perfect union They say It's embarrassin Since Kin's Not american Dreamin And he's tweakin For not seekin The grace Of the States Assimilate Or adapt You choose This or that Or they obliterate You off the map You just read a poem by KiN Camell (google that) now what in the heavens is a double consciousness ? In the words of W E Du Bois “a double consciousness is a peculiar sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others, measuring one's soul by the tape of the world”. Since the inception of motion pictures melanated people have been portrayed as unattractive and uncivilized (“Birth of A Nation” 1915) . The power of imagery is used to propagate White Supremacy and Melanated inferiority. This propaganda fuels the notion that “White is right” and all other “minorities” must assimilate or remain uncivilized further provoking a double consciousness in the existence of melanated people .Self hatred is a direct result of double consciousness specifically when we Melanted people view beauty with a white (non melanated) lense. Some abstract examples of self hatred include negative sentiments of Melanated culture or denying melanted ancestry while some concrete examples include skin bleaching cosmetic surgery. Beyond Melanated people walking a tightrope between being a “Negro” and being a “American” there lies a battle of being accepted as a human being ! In the 21st century phrases such as ; he's a beast,he's got some dog in him, he's a workhorse or he's a stud are regarded as compliments bestowed upon stellar athletes. Ironically these same phrases were used in the Antebellum South to describe strong Melanted slaves therefore not only has the U.S labeled melanated people as non american but also as sub human (⅗ compromise). We can spend hours analyzing the parallels between plantation owners and sports team owners however we have to save that discussion for a later date. Let’s explore the origins of the double consciousness which Harvard-educated activist, sociologist, and historian W.E. Dubois defined what he called the double consciousness of being African and American. "One ever feels his twoness," he wrote in 1903, "An American, a Negro, two warring souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals, and one dark body whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder,". According to W. E. B. Du Bois “an individual whose identity is divided into several facets”, is the epitome of a double consciousness. Du Bois explains ” as a theoretical tool, double consciousness reveals the psycho-social divisions in American society and allows for a full understanding of those divisions”. The concept of a Double Consciousness was first used in an Atlantic Monthly article titled “Strivings of the Negro People” in 1897. 6 years later the concept was revised and further defined in W.E.B Du Bois’s book “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” The Souls of Black Folk. In 2006, Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page wrote an article addressing how Melanated people in the U.S still poses a double consciousness, even in the "post racial" Obama era. Mr Page goes on to acknowledge that “Black (Melanated) middle class Americans complain sometimes of being passed over by a taxi or receiving bad service in a restaurant and wondering whether it's because of our race but when we compare such problems to the days when we did not have to wonder, when we knew discrimination came because of our race, we have made some progress”. Mr page concluded his article on a optimistic note with proclaiming “our double consciousness is still a problem in the 21st century, it can also be an opportunity for us to launch ourselves into a new century and a larger world”. Works Cited Du Bois, W. E. B. (1903). The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Dover Publications Copyright © 2006 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.