Black Reformation through Double Consciousness

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Recommended: role of culture in identity formation

Philosophical writer W.E.B. Du Bois provides a stimulating analysis of the importance of African American existence in a society that emphasizes white superiority and black inferiority. Du Bois introduces the idea of double consciousness, an ideology that defines African Americans seeking to reconcile two different cultures that create their modern identity. The application of this concept is important because discovering the identity of an oppressed and indoctrinated people, desperately attempting to bridge the gap between an elaborate African culture and American adaptation that desensitizes the race from heritage, creates a neutral standard of expression that is used to form a new coherent identity for the African American race at large. Du Bois asserts that in order to overcome the adversity of Black misrepresentation and the displacement of culture, the Black community must maintain awareness of two concepts highlighted as “The Veil” and “Double Consciousness”. This analysis seeks to explain these concepts and their relation to contemporary America, weighing its effects and measuring the overall outcome while providing insight to Du Bois’ solution for defining identity. Du Bois concepts propose that the identity of “Blacks” and “American” is contradictory, and as result forces the use of multiple contextual definitions to classify the Black race in America.
The first concept that will be analyzed is that of “the veil” in W.E.B Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folks. Du Bois references an experience from his childhood where students of the schoolhouse practiced what can now be perceived as a secret Santa tradition. Students purchase cards for each other in the holiday season and exchange them with each other to express gratific...

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...e contextual definitions to classify the black race in America. Understanding socialization and human study will continue to play a role in how Black assess their identity in hopes of achieving ultimate equality.

Works Cited

"Black in America – In America - CNN.com Blogs." In America RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2013. .
• Bois, W. E. B.. The souls of black folk. New York: New American Library, 1969. Print.
• Gordon, Lewis R.. An introduction to Africana philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print.
• "Understanding the Meaning of Colors in Color Psychology." Empowered By Color. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. .
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