A person born and raised in the United States comes from a unique upbringing. The country is among the most ethnically and racially diverse countries in the world, yet has had a troubling relationship with people of different races, specifically African Americans. Enslaved for hundreds of years and unprotected by the law until 1964, African Americans have faced a difficult journey in the United States. A double consciousness, as coined by W.E.B. DuBois, occurs when a person must look at themselves through the eyes of a different society and scrutinize themselves by those values, not ethics of their own. For many African Americans, double consciousness affects every aspect of their life. James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man details the life of a man who deals with a double consciousness and makes a decision based on his experiences. Johnson’s protagonist reflects the struggles of many people of mixed birth, and the ramifications of the double consciousness run deep and permeate themselves in different circumstances, such as politics and psychology. The confusion that comes from trying to establish an identity becomes more complicated when there are multiple voices dictating what can and cannot be done. Understanding what goes into the double consciousness and the effects of it are the first step to creating a more egalitarian and accepting society.
The title of James Weldon Johnson’s text, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, clearly details the fate of the protagonist, as he comes to reject his black identity after witnessing atrocities against black people. How the man comes to this decision indicates the struggle that comes with trying to identify oneself in a period where acceptance of mixed race people is not widespread or even heard of at this point in time. The man travels to the South in pursuit of knowledge on how black people live there as opposed to the North and elsewhere. While on the train to the South, the man encounters and listens to a debate between a Texan man and a former Union general on the role of black men in a post-Reconstruction United States. Ultimately, the man makes the following observation on the relationship between blacks and whites in the North and the South, respectively:
Northern white people love the Negro in a sort of abstract way, as a race; through a sense of justice, charity and philanthropy, they will liberally assist in his elevation… Yet, generally speaking, they have no particular liking for individuals of the race… Southern white people despise the Negro as a race, and will do nothing to aid in his elevation as such; but for certain individuals they have a strong affection, and are helpful to them in many ways. (Johnson 1020)
The man comes to understand that neither side really would welcome a black man as a fully fledged member of society. Each side has their prejudices, as Northerners only accept black people in an arbitrary way where they do not have to directly interact with them but will gladly say all the right things to suggest solidarity with their struggle; Southerners have a hatred for the race as a whole, but the interpersonal relationships between Southern whites and black people are valuable to the Southern whites. The juxtaposition reveals a significant similarity between the North and South: neither really cares for the black man. Neither will accept the black man as an equal member of society, despite black people no longer being enslaved and ostensibly having the same rights as white people. The rejection of black people by white society breeds inferiority in black culture. The resulting inferiority allows for white society to oppress black culture through the double consciousness, as black people can never feel that they are worth something when oppressed by white society.
Inferiority becomes inherent in black culture due to the oppressive nature of white society. The man in Autobiography observes this inferiority through literary images and the types of people black men and women choose to marry. The man discusses the popular image of the black man, noting that “his character has been established as a happy-go-lucky, laughing, shuffling, banjo-picking being, and the reading public has not yet been prevailed upon to take him seriously,” or that African American men were pushed to be happy and unassuming people content with their station in life (Johnson 1019). The power of literature cannot be understated, as literature can dictate what the accepted norms and ideals for a particular topic. Literature’s power is on full display, as black men are portrayed as lazy and happy, suggesting that this state is the only possible outcome for a black person. A college educated black male is something that is not heard of, and it belittles the narrator’s own life, as society does not recognize or celebrate his achievements. Moreover, the narrator observes that this inferiority manifests itself in black marriages. The man notes that “the black men generally marry women fairer than themselves; while, on the other hand, the dark women of stronger mental endowment are very often married to light-complexioned men; the effect is a tendency toward lighter complexions;” the inferiority within African Americans runs so deep that men and women marry lighter skinned people in order to save their children from the stigma of being dark skinned.
W.E.B. DuBois coined the term “double consciousness” in his work The Souls of Black Folks. DuBois talks about the unique status African Americans have, as they live in “a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world;” black identity cannot even have its own set of values without being viewed through the lens of white society (DuBois). The effects of the double consciousness run wide and run deep, as Johnson’s text describes. Black people must constantly question whether or not their decisions will affect them in two contexts: personal and in the view of a white person. Johnson’s text demonstrates what lengths a person will go to discover their place in society, and indicates that the struggles of the narrator are universal among mixed race people.
Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness analyzes DuBois’ text and states that The Souls of Black Folks represents a new beginning for black literature. Gilroy notes that the structure of The Soul of Black Folks is comprised of multiple elements, such as “sociological writing with personal and public history, fiction, autobiography” in order to properly convey the remarkable history of black people in the United States (Gilroy 117). Not one single format would be able to fully capture the essence of black history. Effectively, DuBois’s various writings came to elevate the status of black history from nothing to valuable. The progression of the African American identity begins with DuBois. Black people who read DuBois could come away with a better understanding of history and appreciate the sacrifices and hardships lived by their ancestors. As it relates to Johnson’s text, Gilroy’s text places DuBois in a context where the narrator of Autobiography represents the sociological nadir of the mixed race man. There is no infrastructure for a mixed race man to lean on; there is no role model or ideal to look up to; the only thing a mixed race person can depend on is their own eyes and experiences. When the man encounters a gruesome lynching, he solidifies the direction his life will take: “that it was not necessary for me to go about with a label of inferiority pasted across my forehead… I knew that it was shame, unbearable shame. Shame at being identified with a people that could with impunity be treated worse than animals” (Johnson 1028). Upon witnessing a brutality that only African Americans faced, the man decides that trying to configure his life to fit his black identity is not worth the struggle. Had the man understood prior to arriving in the South that “modern, civilised life in the South was developed with… patterns of brutality established during slavery,” he would have understood that the racism of the South was baked into its identity (Gilroy 119). While this does not justify the lynching of anybody, understanding how oppression became ingrained in the South would have been integral to the man’s experiences, and perhaps could have changed his outlook on his own blackness. Therefore, the lack of a cultural infrastructure that promoted black pride and black history created an environment where black and mixed race people could not be proud of their heritage, and instead had to hide it in order to survive. Effectively, the lack of community diminishes any type of solidarity that black people may have had at the time Johnson was writing, and it would not be until later that the black community could develop culturally, after the law had turned somewhat in their favor.
From a legal perspective, the law has always favored whites and white society. As a result, institutionalized racism always permeates itself in some shape or form in society. Following the Civil War, slavery was no longer legal. However, that did not mean that equality was on the table. Institutionalized racism continued in the South under the guise of Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow had a far reach, as Neil R. McMillen’s Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow details. McMillen writes that Jim Crow not only depended on separation but also “exclusion. Most recreational facilities, public and private, denied admission to blacks” (10-11). The exclusionary practices of recreational facilities appears to be minor, but actually carry major consequences. Recreational activities build community and culture, and allow children places to build friendships and bonds with others. Positive relationships are born out of recreation, and are something that Jim Crow prevented African Americans from attaining. The laws of the time pushed the African American community apart and did not allow African Americans from feeling like the free and equal people they were under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Furthermore, Jim Crow essentially kept African Americans in line as second class citizens. Jim Crow was fully embraced by the people of the South, and because of “minutia, even the young learned to attend carefully to variety of local and personal white customs,” black people were forced to carry on the tradition of being subservient to whites under the threat of persecution and possibly death.
Jim Crow became empowered even more due to landmark court decisions such as Plessy v. Ferguson. The court decided in favor of the state, effectively legitimizing “separate but equal” places for nearly 70 years. The majority opinion, written by Justice Henry Billings Brown, argues that “a statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races — a distinction which is founded in the color of the two races and which must always exist so long as white men are distinguished from the other race by color — has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races;” the flaw in Brown’s opinion – that the difference between whites and blacks does not infringe on the black person’s legal right as a citizen – came to define generations of disenfranchisement (Plessy). The results of Plessy v. Ferguson resulted in the black community having access to many of the same rights as white people, but the state and local governments could still enforce their Jim Crow laws. As a result, facilities that were designated “separate but equal” were kept in pristine condition for whites, but often fell into disrepair for blacks. Therefore, it becomes clear that the law often aligns with the interests of the dominant ethnic group, and the end result is the suppression of minority groups to the point that they cannot build their own identity and are forced to view themselves through the lens of the oppressive majority.
Despite the oppressive nature of the law and the white culture that enabled the mistreatment of “free” black people for 100 years, African American identity coalesced and flourished as a result of the Civil Rights Movement. A landmark moment came in 1967, as Loving v. Virginia shattered the barrier on marriages, as interracial couples were allowed to marry. In Johnson’s text, such a world could not be imagined. Black people aspired to marry lighter skinned black people. To marry a white person would create a child who would be accepted by neither race and cause a tremendous social strain for the parents. Interracial marriages were simply not in the realm of acceptable behavior at the time that Johnson wrote Autobiography. For the narrator of Autobiography, who was forced to choose between his two heritages, such a choice was no longer necessary. The world had changed significantly enough that a mixed race person could be accepted. The unanimous opinion in Loving v. Virginia states that “to deny this fundamental freedom [marriage] on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes” reflects a different legal landscape than the one that passed Plessy v. Ferguson just 71 years earlier (Loving). Marriage was now considered an inalienable right that the state had no right to infringe upon for whatever reason. However, the fight that was fought to get something as simple as marriage equality indicates that the struggle for black rights has always been an uphill climb, and will always be a challenge no matter the time period. The double consciousness that dominated the day of Johnson is still prevalent today, despite the progress of the last 50 years. It is easy to look at the progress made in the fight for civil rights and declare the job done, but more work needs to be done to change the culture where racist and ignorant opinions thrive.
The double consciousness is a concept that colors the lives of many African Americans today. Decisions need to be thought of in two contexts: how they affect a person personally, and how it will affect their decisions in a society where they are a minority. There is still a stigma attached to being black in the United States. However, acknowledging that there is still work to be done in the search for equality does not mean that past work has no value. It is the opposite. Analyzing a work like James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man as the sociological nadir of the mixed race person and tracing the birth and growth of a cohesive black identity starting from Johnson’s text should serve to empower a modern black person. Understanding the struggles of the past should embolden the present to take a hard line against the oppression that still exists today. Authors like W.E.B. DuBois set the tone for understanding exactly what causes the oppression of black people and how to rise above those circumstances. Court decisions, both positive and negative, provide insights into what the prevailing opinions of the time were, and the consequences that follow landmark decisions. Ultimately, it is important to realize that in the pursuit of equality, there is no such thing as compromise. Sacrificing any part of the platform represents a loss of integrity that only serves to further delay true equality. Double consciousness will continue to exist so long as white society forces its values on people that want nothing to do with it. In order to combat double consciousness, it takes a concentrated effort from both sides, black and white, to understand each other’s differences and work to educate the ignorant and reluctant members of society. Otherwise, the hope for equality becomes nonexistent.
Works Cited
DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. The University of Virginia. Web. 1 April 2016.
Gilroy, Paul R. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Harvard University
Press, 1993. Google Books. Web. 5 April 2016.
Johnson, James Weldon. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. The Norton Anthology of
American Literature. Ed. Julia Reidhead. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2012.
1011-1028. Print.
Loving v. Virginia. 388. U.S. 1. Supreme Court of the United States. 1967. Justia: US Supreme
Court. Web. 12 April 2016.
McMillen, Neil. Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow. University of
Illinois, 1990. Google Books. Web. 3 April 2016.
Plessy v. Ferguson. 163 U.S. 537. Supreme Court of the United States. 1896. Cornell University
Law School. Web. 9 April 2016.