Double Consciousness

 Reading Double Consciousness gave me an overwhelming amount of sadness. African Americans have experienced so much persecution and to read about how they constantly feel gives you an idea about how they had to experience the struggle between two identities. On the one hand, they had the identity of being African and trying to be proud of their heritage, then they had the American identity where they wanted to be proud of where they were now living but were unable to because they had everyone around them telling them that they were ugly, inadequate and unequal to white people. Someone telling another person these things will have a mental effect on anyone and make them begin to hate the way they look and even make them want to become someone else. This makes me think of Braudy's quote. No one has any control over what others think of them. The narrator talks about how once he realized that there was a divide between him and the rest of them, he did not want to break that divide. This makes sense to me because when you know that you're not wanted somewhere, it's hard to still have that feeling of being a part of it. My mom always told me to never ask to go somewhere, where you weren't invited because they weren't worthy of your time if they didn't want you there in the first place. It's hard to understand the difference between Doubles Consciousness and Passing, especially when I really haven't experienced what these narrators have experienced. But what I think is the main difference is that in Double Consciousness the narrator did not want to have anything to do with them if he was not wanted. With Jack, he knew how he would be been treated if people knew he was half black, knew how they would treat his family and anyone who looked like him, yet he still wanted to keep his true identity a secret and live as a double of his true self. Jack passes his mother without acknowledging her because he realizes that if the world knew his true identity, he would have no control over what they would say about him, like what Braudy talks about. So, he takes advantage of the ability to control his unexpressed self and conceals his true self in a way of living a double life.