— Ch. 1 · Foundations Of Double Consciousness —
Black existentialism.
~4 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
W.E.B. Du Bois earned the first doctorate from Harvard University in sociology during the late 1800s. His work established a philosophical root for Black existentialism through the concept of double consciousness. This idea describes the experience of being both black and American as contradictory forces. The first form involves seeing oneself through the eyes of white supremacy and anti-black racism. It creates a sense of self-conceptualization as lowly and inferior based on societal views. The second form sees the contradictions of a system that blames the victim. That social system limits possibilities for some groups while creating advantages for others. Du Bois argued this led to twoness where Black people faced double standards after enslavement. He raised questions about the meaning of Black suffering as a philosophical problem. History often misrepresents these struggles as an apology for white supremacy instead of acknowledging agency. Black music, especially spirituals, became central to his theory of the inner life or soul.
Colonial Alienation And Fanon
Frantz Fanon published Black Skin White Masks in 1952 with Grove Press releasing it later in 1967. The Martinican philosopher and psychiatrist argued that the modern world offered no model of a normal Black adult. Instead he described pathologies of the Black soul as a white construction. Blacks who mastered the dominant language were treated either as not really black or received suspicion. They found themselves seeking white recognition which affirmed whites as the standard by which they are judged. This effort was self-deceiving because it made Black women ask to be loved as white instead of as women. It also made Black males fail to be men according to Fanon's analysis. Jean-Paul Sartre criticized the intellectual movement called Négritude in his essay Orphée Noir. Fanon realized such paths remained relative to a white one expecting universal humanity. He concluded that while whites created the Negro, the Negro created Négritude as an act of agency. His writings demanded transformation of material circumstances and new symbols to set foot a new humanity.