Double consciousness is the idea of seeing yourself in two different ways. You see yourself how you really are and you see yourself how America sees you. This double consciousness is instilled in Black Americans at a very early age. For example, a young black kid may be taught in the home to look for a family member rather than the police in an emergency situation, yet told to seek the police by their teacher in the classroom. Black kids are taught at a very young age that they have to be better, faster, stronger, and smarter to go where their white counterparts have to go. Often times this is not learned verbally but rather just by day to day living. Double consciousness is the idea of having two selves, one that is black and one that is American. It is quite contradictory as you may acknowledge the fact that you are both black and American but the rest of the nation may only see you as black. As W.E.B. Dubois states that [the black man] “He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. (Souls, Chapter 1)” …show more content…
In an episode of the sitcom Black-ish, Bow becomes upset at a baseball game when the commentator says, “He was born to steal” when referring to her son playing baseball. She gets upset at the comment and calls it out as insensitive, to which her husband claims that she is overreacting. (Alston) However, according to double consciousness she was not. Because Black Americans have a constant awareness of the things that happen to people of color, this awareness can sometimes be downplayed or thought of as no big deal. They become desensitized to it so that when another Black American points it out, they may come off as