Answer:
Du Bois's concept of double consciousness refers to the two distinct ways American black people were required to see themselves during his time. On one hand, there was "American" or European-oriented stable personhood that white society expected them to adhere to under pain of exile. On the other hand, there was a forever-foreign identity imposed on them by self-identifying elites who desired not emancipation but assimilation into white culture and norms. DuBois combats the seeming dualism in double consciousness with an understanding of African exploration and reclamation; black people can affirm their humanity and simultaneously exist as Americans and Africans (complete with both histories); objectively wrong wrongs would be righted without surrendering cultural heritage.
Step-by-step explanation:
W.E.B. Du Bois' concept of double consciousness is one of the most famous and enduring contributions to studies of racial identity. Yet despite the fact that the term makes reference to "two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings" within a single individual, what du Bois calls "two warring ideals in one dark body" comprises something more than an account of individual emotional turmoil or cognitive dissonance. Before discussing double consciousness as du Bois presents it, perhaps we should consider why he might have seen the term as an appropriate description of Black American life and experience.