Double Consciousness and Malcolm X

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When the British began to enslave and import Africans into America, the Africans were
to have a singular purpose in the colonies; to work for free. In order to defend the heinous and
morally offensive act of chattel enslavement, the British (and other Europeans like the Spanish,
French, and Dutch) used the social construction of race (the social construct created by
Europeans in which European physical features and cultural traits are said to be superior to
non-European features and cultural traits). The Europeans asserted that as Whites they were
intellectually and culturally superior to Blacks (Africans) and consequently had the right to
enslave them.
Provide the definition of race.
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How did Europeans use the social construction of race to defend the enslavement of
Africans?
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In order to accomplish the mission of enslaving Blacks, Whites attempted to destroy
African cultures and group African people into the singular category of Black. Europeans argued
to be Black was a cursed condition, this cursed condition came with five traits which defined
blackness as: 1) animalistic/savage/not fully human, 2) sexually aggressive, 3) violent, 4)
ignorant, and 5) absent of religion. Through enslavement, Whites extended the lie that they
were civilizing Blacks.
What are the five traits that Europeans used to define blackness?
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In response to being subjugated to European chattel enslavement and their definition of
Blackness, Africans (from many different ethnic groups) understood their survival was
contingent upon unified resistance. Part of the unified resistance of Africans was having their
own definition of Blackness (or what it means to be Black). The African definition of Blackness
begins with the understanding that Black people are African and African people come from rich
histories and cultures. Due to their history and culture, Africans were able to retain their
humanity despite European attempts to treat and make Africans believe they are less than
human. The African conception of Blackness was characterized by the following traits: 1)
African ancestry – African history exists PRIOR to enslavement, 2) unity in reverence for
ancestry, spirituality and the role of art (music, sculpture, dance, etc.) in the maintenance of
traditions and ritual, 3) shared plight of European oppression, 4) shared stake in
freedom/survival (“I ain’t free til we all free” and “play cousins” are examples), and 5) the
common goal of liberation. In short, Africans understood their identity was African, but Black to
survive.
What are the five traits Africans used to define blackness?
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5. ________________________________________________________________________
Still, the most obvious factor in the transition from African ethnic identities into a Black
racial identity is due to the birth of Africans in America. These American born Africans were
taught both the African definition of Blackness and the European definition of Blackness. The
manner in which two totally opposite definitions of Blackness impacted Black people was
explained by WEB DuBois in his classic text The Souls of Black Folk. Through his theory of
double-consciousness, DuBois explains the American Negro has two souls, one American and
one African. The American soul and the Negro soul struggle to co-exist, in many ways the
American soul represents the European conception of Blackness and the Negro soul represents
the African conception of Blackness. The American soul rejects the Negro soul, it sees the Negro
as sub-human and not worthy of respect. The Negro soul knows its own humanity and fights for
the right to express itself. Thus, DuBois argues the American Negro has a double-aimed struggle
– to succeed in America (the birth place and home of the American Negro) without
relinquishing what it means to be human.
Through independent research, find five facts on WEB DuBois.
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Define double consciousness in your own words.
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The Black Bourgeoisie
The economic system of capitalism is reliant on social constructs which place people
into three general categories (each of these categories have their own subcategories):
capitalists1, managerial laborers2, and proletariats3. A reoccurring critique that is seen
throughout The Autobiography is Malcolm’s critique of the Black bourgeoisie. The Black
bourgeoisie are a hybrid of the managerial laborers and the proletariats. On one hand, the
Black bourgeoisie is treated better than the Black proletariats and are largely used as
representatives of the Black community to keep the order in return for minimal economic gains.
On the other hand, the Black bourgeoisie are not nearly as well compensated as White
managerial laborers (or the White bourgeoisie) and depending on the particular interests 4 of
the White capitalists can be treated better or worse than White proletariats. The Black
bourgeoisie therefore has more economic power than the majority of the Black community, but
this economic power is tied to their subservience to the White managerial laborers and White
capitalists. Additionally, the existence of the Black bourgeoisie that simply carries out the
wishes of the White capitalists and White managerial laborers prevents the Black community
from uniting to completely overthrow a system of racialized capitalism.
1. Are Black elected officials members of the Black bourgeoisie? What is their obligation to the
Black community? Defend your response.
1
The small group of individuals that own property and control the resources in a capitalist economic system. Due
to their ownership of property and control of resources they create a governing system which protects their
ownership of property and control of resources through law. Additionally, they create laws which allow for their
profits to be maximized at the expense of the lives of the laborers (the rest of society which is forced to work for
capitalists in order to acquire resources).
2
The group of individuals that have some access to resources and small amounts of property ownership. Due to
their access to resources and limited property ownership they have some benefits from the capitalist economic
system. They have the potential to be elevated into the capitalist class. Due to the potential to become a capitalist,
the managerial laborers job is to manage the proletariats and prevent action that would lead to the disruption or
destruction of capitalism.
3
The largest group of individuals in a capitalist economic system. This group of people are the most underpaid and
overworked. The goods produced from their labor are owned by the capitalists. In order to maximize the profits of
these goods, the capitalists aim to gain as much work out of the proletariats for as little money as possible
4
In Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, Zinn explains indigenous American’s have three major
takeaways from the Pequot War – the first I find applicable here: “the Englishmen's most solemn pledge would be
broken whenever obligation conflicted with advantage.” Meaning, the White capitalist makes decisions solely
based off of the anticipated money to be made or lost from such a decision.
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2. Listen to the song “Black Republican” by Jay Z and Nas. How could this song be viewed as an
example of double consciousness?
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3. How does the song “Black Republican” explain the challenge of the Black bourgeoisie?
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The Black Bourgeois, Assimilation, and Double Consciousness
In Chapter 3, “Homeboy,” Malcolm remarks that the Negroes in Roxbury were “acting and
living differently from any black people I’d ever dreamed of in my life. This was the snooty-black
neighborhood; they called themselves the ‘Four Hundred,’ and looked down their noses at the
Negroes of the black ghetto, or so-called ‘town’ section where Mary, my other half-sister,
lived.” Malcolm continues, “They prided themselves on being incomparably more ‘cultured,’
‘cultivated,’ ‘dignified,’ and better off than their black brethren down in the ghetto, which was
no further away than you could throw a rock. Under the pitiful misapprehension that it would
make them ‘better,’ these Hill Negroes were breaking their backs trying to imitate white
people.”
 In addition to being another critique of the Black bourgeois, 5 Malcolm is also examining the
challenge of assimilation within the Black community. Malcolm sees assimilation as a foolish
attempt of the Black bourgeois to recreate a White society which only seeks to reduce, destroy,
and humiliate Black people. Malcolm believes these attempts were Black people fooling
themselves and states
In those days on the Hill, any who could claim “professional” status – teachers, preachers,
practical nurses – also considered themselves superior. Foreign diplomats could have
modeled their conduct on the way the Negro postmen, Pullman porters, and dining car
waiters of Roxbury acted, striding around as if they were wearing top hats and cutaways.
I’d guess that eight out of ten of the Hill Negroes of Roxbury, despite the impressive-
sounding job titles the affected, actually worked as menials and servants. “He’s in banking,”
or “He’s in securities.” It sounded as though they were discussing a Rockefeller or a Mellon
– and not some grayheaded, dignity-posturing bank janitor, or bond-house messenger . . . I
don’t know how many forty- and fifty-year-old errand boys went down the Hill dressed like
ambassadors in black suits and white collars, to downtown jobs “in government,” “in
finance,” or “in law.” It has never ceased to amaze me how so many Negroes, then and
now, could stand the indignity of that kind of self-delusion.
In essence, Malcolm is explaining the manner in which the Black bourgeois has negotiated its
double-consciousness. In short, the Black bourgeois Malcolm describes has decided to attempt
to recreate White society and according to Malcolm deludes themselves of being superior to
poorer Blacks in the process. Malcolm is outlining the challenge of the assimilation of the Black
bourgeois who have attempted to negotiate double consciousness by attempting to recreate
White society rather than critically examine, question, and destroy a system which has
relegated them as “wannabe” Whites at best and delusion at worst.
Still, the question remains can Black people (bourgeoisie or not) assimilate into America
– a state that has only seen Black Americans as tools for exploitation – without sacrificing what
DuBois describes as the “Negro soul.” The answer to this questions lies within the manner in
which the assimilation occurs. Malcolm’s general frustration with the Black bourgeoisie is that
their assimilation ignores and attempts to forget the value of Black people and culture and is
reduced to Black people attempting to model their existence based off of a system which does
not regard Black people as fully human. DuBois correctly points out the double-aimed struggle
of the Black American experience is the struggle to exist as human in America, meaning Black
Americans must assimilate, but on whose terms? Moreover, the project of Black people existing
as human in America cannot simply be an attempt of Black people adjusting to White America,
but rather White America critically reevaluating its own existence. James Baldwin, a

5
The group of black laborers who do not have the money of the white bourgeoisie, and are actually middle class -
managers, but due to the high concentration of low paid laborers in the black community are seen as the
bourgeoisie. This class due to their proximity to the white bourgeoisie and white capitalists (through the white
bourgeoisie) have the ability to distribute resources within the black community and often serve as the community
leaders. The black bourgeoisie works to uphold capitalism sometimes to the dismay of the rest of the black
community.
contemporary of Malcolm X, reframes the challenge of double consciousness and the double
aimed struggle by stating, “What white people have to do is try to find out in their hearts why it
was necessary for them to have a nigger in the first place. Because I am not a nigger. I’m a man.
If I’m not the nigger here, and if you invented him, you the white people invented him, then
you have to find out why. And the future of the country depends on that. Whether or not it is
able to answer that question.”
1. Explain DuBois’s theory of double-consciousness in your own words.
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2. Define assimilation in your own words.
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3. Explain DuBois’s concept of the double-aimed struggle in your own words.
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4. Independently find five facts on James Baldwin. Provide them below.
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b. _____________________________________________________________________
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c. _____________________________________________________________________
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d. _____________________________________________________________________
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e. _____________________________________________________________________
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Malcolm X and his personal battle with double-consciousness

 In Chapters 3-5 (“Homeboy,” Laura, and Harlemite) Malcolm has his own challenges
understanding his Black identity. On one hand, Malcolm has great respect for his older sister
Ella as a strong, proud, Southern Black woman, but at the same time he explains why he
preferred a relationship with Sophia as opposed to Laura (and blames himself for ruining
Laura’s life). Additionally, Malcolm explains his love for Harlem, lindy-hopping, jazz music, and
the “ghetto” to the Hill, yet still conks his hair in what he describes as the first step of self-
degradation. Malcolm’s love for white women and attempt to Europeanize his appearance is an
example of not only internalized racism6, but also an attempt to minimize (at best) or erase (at
worst) what DuBois explains as the Negro soul. Malcolm clearly has an affinity for Black culture,
but at the same time has a hatred of his Black appearance. Malcolm wishes to express his
Negro soul through jazz and lindy-hopping, but at the same time wishes to erase it through his
conked hair and relationship with Sophia. Malcolm believes he is most human if he
Europeanizes his appearance and can seduce white women, yet attempts to reject White
culture by rejecting the “uppity” Negroes of the Hill. Even as a worker on the train, Malcolm
finds that he will secure the most tips by conforming to a foolish, ignorant representation of
Black identity – yet finds this performance to be utterly dehumanizing.
In the box below, draw a picture displaying Malcolm’s double consciousness.

Culture and Malcolm’s “Negro Soul”

Dr. Maulana Karenga defines culture as, “The totality of thought and practice by which a
people creates itself; celebrates, sustains, and develops itself; and introduces itself to history
and humanity.” In essence, culture is the manner in which a nation expresses and showcases
who they are. This expression becomes tradition and gives a nation a sense of identity, or what
it means to be a member of their nation. Additionally, culture allows nations to explain who
6
The mental illness that occurs when black people believe European cultural traits and physical features are
superior to non-European physical features and cultural traits. This causes black people to hate themselves and
feel that they deserve to be treated as less than human due to their race.
they are to people who are not members of their nation. Below draw a picture which shows
culture combines both: 1) ideas and actions a nation does, 2) that culture is a celebration of a
nation, 3) that culture keeps a nation alive, 4) that culture helps a people grow, and 5) culture is
the manner in which a nation tells other people who they are. Be sure to number the different
parts of your picture to obtain full credit.

Dr. Karenga states that culture has seven traits: history; spirituality and ethics (religion); social
organization (sports teams, fraternities and sororities, restaurants, ceremonies); political
organization (government); economic organization (how people make money); creative
production (art, music, literature, dance, etc.) and ethos (ideas that people accept as true).
What are three specific examples of culture you have seen in The Autobiography of Malcolm X:
As Told to Alex Haley? Which trait of culture does your example fit? Each example must be a
different trait of culture, however, you can use the same example with multiple traits. For
example, jazz fulfills more than one trait of culture. Be prepared to defend your assertions.
1. ______________________________________________________
2. ______________________________________________________
3. ______________________________________________________
Understanding Culture and Malcolm X’s Love for Harlem
Although Malcolm X arrives in Harlem in 1943, about 14 years after the “end” of the
Harlem Renaissance, Malcolm is immediately infatuated with this area. While working at
Small’s Paradise, Malcolm explains that he loves when customers and colleagues alike talk to
him about the “good ole days.” The stories being told to Malcolm are stories of the Harlem
Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance occurs during both one of the most prosperous economic
periods in American history and during the Great Migration, a period in time when black
families begin to move in large quantities to both the north and California in hopes of finding
work. Some of the popular landing spots for Black people during the Great Migration were
Chicago, Oakland, Detroit, and of course Harlem, four cities which would birth important black
movements in decades to come.
As Blacks moved from the south to Harlem to find work and an egalitarian society as
promised by northern White job recruiters (Whites from the north with booming businesses
and not enough whites to fill these positions went to the south to encourage Blacks to move for
work). Black folks began to realize the north was just as racist as the south. For example, Earl
Little is killed by the Black Legions an ideological twin of the Ku Klux Klan. Moreover, Blacks in
the north still faced job discrimination and housing discrimination both of which negatively
impacted their living conditions. These living conditions and a growing political consciousness
that America would not embrace Black people serve as the core motivation for the cultural
movement that is known as the Harlem Renaissance.
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that had both performance and
political manifestations. For example, in the 1920s, not only did Harlem host a great deal of
Black artists like Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Romare Bearden, and Duke Ellington (a
quick and totally incomplete list), but also was the stronghold of Marcus Garvey’s United Negro
Improvement Association during the same time period and hosted the Fifth Pan-African
Conference in 1927. Throughout Africana (meaning indigenous descendants of Africa regardless
of birth place) history, artistic movements and political movements accompany each other; for
this reason it is best to understand the Harlem Renaissance (and other movements like the
Black Arts Movement or the birth of Hip Hop) not as an artistic movement, but as a cultural
movement. It is important to understand that Black art is not created solely for entertainment
and aesthetics (created for beauty), but is a manifestation of Black living conditions and an
expression of Black struggle and goals for liberation. Performance seen though Romare
Bearden’s visual art, Langston Hughes’s poetry, or the jazz of Duke Ellington’s band is therefore
Black expression of discontent with America’s white supremacy and a strategy to organize Black
communities free of European oppression; it also happens to be entertaining. It is no surprise
then that Harlem in addition to housing Black artists, it also was the headquarters for Garvey’s
UNIA during the same time period or hosting a Pan-African Congress. It is clear that Harlem was
a center of Black political thought, this political thought was communicated not only through
the creation of the UNIA (one example), but also through the many artists.
While Malcolm never articulates the aforementioned understanding of Black art, he
does explain his love for dance and jazz. He also states that the dancing that occurred at places
like the Roseland (in Roxbury, not Harlem) was African. The description of this dancing (which
Malcolm calls lindy-hopping) as African relates to the understanding of Black art as an
expression of a want for Black liberation. During this dancing, Malcolm feels free, it is
unscripted in comparison to Whites whose dancing was quite scripted. Moreover, Malcolm
expresses discontent and self-degrading behavior, however he loves jazz and dancing so much
he is willing to do anything to live in Harlem where there Black culture is in large supply.
While Malcolm is not politically critically of the United States during his Harlem and
Boston years, he is not happy with his living conditions. At this stage of his development he has
not tied his understanding of freedom to political organizing, but rather through expression. His
conk (which in retrospect he says is degrading) and zoot suits are used to show he is cool and
not to be held back by his Black identity, on the contrary, jazz and lindy-hopping and his love for
black art are ways he finds freedom from white supremacy within his Black identity. Hence,
Malcolm’s love for Harlem, shows a love for Black culture and an underlying understanding that
expressions of Black culture are acts that are done to lead to the liberation of Black people.
1. What is the Great Migration? What are some popular cities Black people moved to?
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2. What is the relationship between the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance?
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3. What are the two examples of Black political organization occurring in Harlem cited by the
author?
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b. _________________________________________
4. Why does the author argue that Black political movements and Black artistic movements
should be classified as one cultural movement? Do you agree? Defend your response.
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5. Choose a poem written by a writer during the Harlem Renaissance. This poem must have
evidence that speaks to Black Americans discontent with America or expressing a want of
freedom from white supremacy. Explain how the poem you chose is A) written by a Harlem
Renaissance writer, B) an example of Black culture (using the traits outlined by Dr. Karenga),
and C) speaks to wanting Black liberation.
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Colorism, Internalized Racism, and Patriarchy
Internalized racism is the effect of African (Black) people believing European myths and
stereotypes about Africans. At the core of internalized racism is self-hatred or Black people
hating their physical and cultural traits due to believing the European (White) lie that Black
people are inferior. One of the clearest examples of internalized racism is colorism. Colorism is
defined as the belief that African physical features like darker skin, kinkier hair, a wider nose,
big lips, etc. are inferior to European physical traits like lighter skin, straighter hair, a thin nose,
thin lips, etc.
Draw a picture or diagram showing that colorism is an example of internalized racism.

To properly understand colorism, it is imperative to begin with an analysis of how European’s

have used race to legitimize the dehumanization of African people. Race as a social construct
argues that European physical and cultural traits are superior to non-European physical
features and cultural traits. Due to the European’s superior culture, race argues Europeans
reserve the right to rule non-European groups. In the context of Africans, Europeans used race
to defend the heinous and immoral actions needed for chattel enslavement by arguing Africans
and their descendants need to be tamed and were not intelligent. By this logic, enslavement
and the subjugation of Africans helped advance African culture.
Imbedded in the social construct of race is the idea that Europeans are more attractive than
non-Europeans. In essence, to be beautiful is to look European. Due to patriarchy (as defined by
bell hooks) – the political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating,
superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the
right to dominate and rule over the weak and to maintain that dominance through various
forms of psychological terrorism and violence – beauty standards are a form of psychological
terrorism and violence in which the value of a woman stems from how attractive men find her.
The combination of racism and patriarchy asserts that Black women are not only inferior to
men, but also inferior to white women as they lack the beauty that White women possess.
Since colorism is a reaction to European beauty standards, and patriarchy works to reduce
women to their beauty, colorism’s most accessible target is Black women. Dark skinned Black
women have long faced attacks from both Black and White men as being unattractive due to
their darker skin. Accompanying attacks on the dark skin of African women are usually attacks
on her hair. Consequently, Black women of all shades are pressured into straightening or
perming her hair in an attempt to straighten it, as Black hair in its natural state is said to be
nappy. Similarly, Black women are encouraged to wear hair weaves to conceal their naturally
kinky hair and replace it with a straightened European style.
The perming or de-kinking of African hair serves as an example of the “good hair vs. bad hair”
argument in which “good hair” is said to be straight and/or wavy like European hair, while “bad
hair” is said to be kinky (“nappy”) or African. This division of good and bad hair of course fits
into the social construction of race where the closer one’s hair is to being European, the better
it is.
Even in the work place, rules regarding hair are often put in place to police the manner in which
Black women wear their hair. Some jobs outlaw “dreadlocks,” afros, corn rows, or Marley twists
– these rules of course work to prevent Black women from wearing their hair in a natural or
kinky state, but also argue that Black hair in its natural state is unprofessional and
unacceptable. Meaning, in order for a Black woman to be professional, she must de-Africanize
and Europeanize her hair.
In efforts to resist patriarchy and racism, Black women make a number of choices to showcase
that the beauty of Black women is not reliant on European definitions. To be political means to
advance an interest. As Audre Lorde stated, “Is your hair still political?/ Tell me when it starts to
burn.” Black women often use their appearance to embrace African beauty norms and to reject
European notions of beauty which have no interest in acknowledging the beauty of Black
women. For example, a Black woman’s refusal to perm her hair, or the decision to cornrow her
hair, lock her hair, or wear a weave to protect her natural hair can be understood as a political
decision, for this woman is advancing a standard of Black beauty. This standard of Black beauty
rejects the idea that Black women must attempt to de-Africanize themselves in order to be
beautiful. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
are both classic works which tell the story of Black women and the impact of European
standards of beauty.
1. How has race been used to legitimize the dehumanization of African people?
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2. Explain how colorism is an example of internalized racism.
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3. How are beauty standards an example of patriarchy?
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4. How do race and patriarchy impact beauty standards and how Black women are seen as
beautiful?
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5. Who is colorism’s most accessible target?
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6. How does colorism impact Black women?
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7. How can the de-kinking of African hair (or perming of African hair) be an example of
colorism?
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8. ON YOUR OWN – Find five facts on Audre Lorde. List them below.
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9. What do you think the quote, “Is your hair still political? Tell me when it starts to burn”
means? Defend your response.
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10. ON YOUR OWN – Look up five facts on Toni Morrison. List them below.
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11. ON YOUR OWN – Look up five facts on Maya Angelou. List them below.
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12. Listen to the song Brown Skin by India.Arie. How is this song an example of rejecting
colorism? Use song lyrics to defend your response.
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13. Listen to the song I Am Not My Hair by India.Arie and Akon. How is this song an example of
rejecting colorism? Use song lyrics to defend your response.
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14. Listen to the song Shades by Wale. Provide lyrics from the song Shades which are an
example of colorism. Defend this response.
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15. Provide lyrics from the song Shades where Wale speaks out against colorism. Defend this
response.
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