To protect themselves, African Americans have had to try and see through the eyes of white people, as well as their own—what W.E.B. DuBois called double consciousness. White folks too rarely attempt to see themselves through the eyes of Black people. During slavery, how were whites seen by Blacks? Philosopher George Yancy urges white people to engage in the work of developing double consciousness so they can see, as most people of color do, the pernicious white and class advantages that haunt them. Carefully reading slave narratives from North Carolina and the testimonies offered by the formerly enslaved to Works Progress Administration (WPA) interviewers during the Great Depression, the author distills how those subjected to slavery viewed and understood white people. Their descriptions point to the psychic, familial, and community costs of becoming “white” and being involved in slavery. They describe the individual and cultural pathologies in white people intimately involved in slavery: dehumanizing, pathological narcissism, authoritarian character, greed, cruelty, sadism, the policing of racial borders, paranoia, absence of deserved shame and moral injury. These understandings underline some of the reparative psychosocial tasks that still face white people.

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Building Whites’ Double Consciousness: Looking in the Mirror Held Up by Slave Narratives from North Carolina

  • Mary Watkins

摘要

To protect themselves, African Americans have had to try and see through the eyes of white people, as well as their own—what W.E.B. DuBois called double consciousness. White folks too rarely attempt to see themselves through the eyes of Black people. During slavery, how were whites seen by Blacks? Philosopher George Yancy urges white people to engage in the work of developing double consciousness so they can see, as most people of color do, the pernicious white and class advantages that haunt them. Carefully reading slave narratives from North Carolina and the testimonies offered by the formerly enslaved to Works Progress Administration (WPA) interviewers during the Great Depression, the author distills how those subjected to slavery viewed and understood white people. Their descriptions point to the psychic, familial, and community costs of becoming “white” and being involved in slavery. They describe the individual and cultural pathologies in white people intimately involved in slavery: dehumanizing, pathological narcissism, authoritarian character, greed, cruelty, sadism, the policing of racial borders, paranoia, absence of deserved shame and moral injury. These understandings underline some of the reparative psychosocial tasks that still face white people.