Du Bois Watches Standup: Double Consciousness Revisited

For more than a century, the psychosocial concept of “double consciousness” (DC) has been inextricably linked to issues of “race,” and racial objectification. Using stand-up comedy as a close proxy for presentations of self, this article presents a fundamentally different understanding, and one that Du Bois quietly pivoted towards near the end of his life: DC is a cultural issue, one best described in terms of meaning-making in conflict and recognizable in many forms — each a “major” way a human being organizes a life. Beyond the color line, “lines” revealed through the comics’ acts include gender, age, class, aesthetics, and ethnonationality, in addition to more micro latent categories. Previously distinct forms of identity crises are united, inviting more constructive engagements with contemporary suffering. In terms of process, I notice a tripartite sequence in the creation of the DC perspective: from othering to objectification to full DC. The possibility of “merging” conflicting consciousnesses is discussed.