Abstract
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.
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Notes
Jelly Roll himself: “When my grandmother found out that I was playing jazz… she told me that I had disgraced the family and forbade me to live at the house” (PBS 2000).
This term comes from a kind of social action (see: Valen Levinson 2023), but can fit also (the act of) identity construction.
Within this particular sample, there’s standardization beyond just venue and staging; each of the 47 specials are nearly identical lengths (within a minute of 28 minutes), a meaningful factor in comedy performances (or in conversations). For more on the standardization (or “staticity”) of the comedy setting, see Rutter (1997).
And all without forgetting Junot Diaz’s demand: “to start out as fractured so we don’t commit the bullshit and erasures that trying to live under the banner of sameness entails” (quoted in Flores 2007). Similarity does not require sameness; identity, as it becomes a multidimensional thing, can resist erasure even further.
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To Phil Smith, Jeffrey Alexander, Yale’s Center for Cultural Sociology, and Yegor Lazarev.
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Valen Levinson, A. Du Bois Watches Standup: Double Consciousness Revisited. Soc 60, 954–967 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-023-00893-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-023-00893-2