ANTHRO 3AC Study Guide - Final Guide: Walt Whitman Rostow, Double Consciousness
!
16!
measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in
amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, an
American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled
strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose doffed
strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of
the American Negro is the history of this strife - this longing to
attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his doulbe self into a
better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the
older selves to be lost... He simply wishes to make it possible for
a man to be both a Negro and an American without being
cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of
opportunity closed roughly in his face" (look at discussion
responses)
• idea of two-ness felt by Black Americans. two souls, two lives,
two thoughts etc. One identity of being black one of being
american so rather than african american, african and american.
• Double consciousness is pretty much the idea that black people
in the United States identify with both their Black side and also
their American side. These identities are pretty separate.
§ Sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of
others
§ Sense of twoness--two souls two thoughts
§ Should know thyself outside of the double
o The Veil
• For DuBois, the veil concept primarily refers to three things.
§ the veil suggests to the literal darker skin of Blacks, which
is a physical demarcation of difference from whiteness.
§ the veil suggests white people's lack of clarity to see Blacks
as "true" Americans.
Document Summary
Measuring one"s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. American, a negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose doffed strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of the american negro is the history of this strife - this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his doulbe self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost Sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others. 16 the veil refers to blacks" lack of clarity to see themselves outside of what white america describes and prescribes for them. the white girl looking through the veil could not properly see. Modernization-focused anthropology of the 1940s and 1950s was arguing for a pathway (or process) from primitive to peasant to.
