>> Self Assured? Nah. Not Really….

In W.E.B. DuBois’ 1903 classic “The Souls of Black Folk” he states:

 “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others. . . . One ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warrings ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”

In the days of a Black man running for President, Affirmative Action (however fledgling) and Black owned enterprise, does DuBois’ quote still ring true? That is to say – in 2008 do Blacks still battle a duel-consciousness of self-perception vs. societal-perception (how Whites are believed to perceive)?

…I’ll cut the responses in half by saying that I’d bet that most Blacks still feel a sense of masking their true self in the eyes of Whites…so the question becomes….WHY???

->On a sidenote, did anybody peep how DuBois seperated “American” and “Negro“…almost as if he didn’t feel the two descriptions could fit in one person…or even further, they were inherently opposite. What’s up with that?

>> TCS