By Vincent L. Hall
One of my severe misgivings about the advent of social media is the dearth of exposure to classic essays and prose in full.
Instagram and other threads introduce snippets of intellectual brilliance, but never cut to the core.
Kinda like justifying evil by pointing to a bible verse that reads, “slaves obey your masters” without contextual reference or support.
Consider one of my favorite works, “The Souls of Black Folk,” by William Edward Burghardt Du Bois. The book was written and intended to foster economic, political, and educational power for African Americans.
You can Google who Du Bois is and what he meant, but let me dive into one part of this classic book that deserves to be prominent among “the race.”
A major failing of Black people is that we don’t understand the mental and spiritual burden that we carry as Black people in this country.
Du Bois teases the essence of his thesis in Chapter One, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings.”
In this opening, he coined a word and concept that every Black person must grasp to maintain sanity and cognitive balance.
“Double consciousness,” as he defined it, is the ability and limitations that come with a “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.”
But let me share the passage that engaged my mind and made me read the entire book at 20. I have used it as a measuring stick for all I see and feel in Maya Angelou’s “Yet to be United States,” and as a member of the African Diaspora.
“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. The History of the American Negro is the history of this strive–this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.
“He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, with- out being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.”
Whew! That is as potent and poignant today as it was the first time I read it, re-read it, and read it aloud for the third time. Let me explain this double-consciousness concept to you in a way that makes sense.
To understand W.E.B. Du Bois’ “The Souls of Black folk” is to gain an appreciation and congruent respect for the “Wizard of Oz” and “The Wiz.”
There is no need to choose, you can hold them both dear.
As a natural-born American, you can admit that the 1939 ‘Lily-White” version of The Wizard of Oz was a beautifully rendered movie.
For starters, it was in “Technicolor,” which was as earth-shattering as HD in the film industry.
Judy Garland’s portrayal of Kansas-born Dorothy Gale and her sojourn with the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion was rich in beauty and emotional agility.
However, your “double consciousness “allows for an equal admiration for “The Wiz,” which was adapted from a long-running, award-winning, Broadway stage play. The movie featured two iconic stars of music and film, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. In contrast the cinematography, choreography, and music was sassy, soulful and risqué.
Black moviegoers who saw both were blown away.
The two films were considered entertaining by Black folks because we are forced to navigate both worlds.
Presidential candidate Jesse Louis Jackson made a similar statement in a 1988 campaign speech. “I know how to be pro-Black without being anti-White.”
Living with this double consciousness is not always a curse if we know how to see the blessing woven in it. Du Bois surmised that this ability was a “gift of second sight” that was unique and only available to African Americans.
As we traverse this new era of racism and tribalism in America and across the globe, we must use our second sight— that double consciousness—as a source of peace and mental stability.
You got the gift! Use it.
A long-time Texas Metro News columnist, Dallas native Vincent L. Hall is an author, writer, award-winning writer, and a lifelong Drapetomaniac.
