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Douglas Jordan Clark
Dr. Smith
English 101
2 October 2015
How Stereotypes Establishes Double Consciousness
Stereotypes are the normative epitome of our society and everyday life. W.E.B Du Boiss
idea of double consciousness that was mentioned in his short essay Of Our Spiritual Striving
from The Souls of Black Folks actually in exist. Along with William Raspberrys view on how
stereotypes shape the individual to be a certain way in his essay Black-By Definition. Society has
shaped the way races, sexes, and ethnicities are viewed as well as formulated in our environment.
Everyone is fallen into this hole that is created, it does not matter who you are. Whether your
white, black, male, female, of religious faith, or atheistic. Raspberrys views on how societal
stereotypes affects and shapes Du Boiss theory of double consciousness of the individual
human.
First Du Boiss idea of double consciousness is stating that in life there are two ways an
individual is seen, by himself, and how he sees himself in the eyes of society. As Du Bois exerts
in his essay Of Our Spiritual Striving This double consciousness, this sense of always looking at
ones self through the eyes of others, of measuring ones soul by the tape of a world that looks on
in amused contempt and pity. (21) is the same idea that Raspberry had in his essay 80 years
later. By this Raspberry states in Black-By Definition One reason black youngsters tend to do
better at basketball, for instance, is that they assume they can learn to do it well, and so practice
constantly to prove themselves right (101). Why do black kids think they can do well in

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basketball? Well its because the majority of professional basketball players are black and society
came up with this idea that black people are more athletic then another race. This is a prime
example of Du Boiss double consciousness right here. The individual person does what they
think there society sets out to be normative for the way they look. It is the sense that a person
makes themselves strive in a certain path to meet what society demands of them to fit in, because
at the end of the day thats all anyone wants.
One great example of how Raspberrys essay associates with Du Boiss double
conciseness is body image when it comes to eating disorders. Over thirty million Americans,
mostly a majority are women, suffer from a mental illness know as eating disorders. There are
three different categories of eating disorders, Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia, and Binge Eating
Disorder. My girlfriend had suffered from Anorexia Nervosa for over three years of her life.
Anorexia is the restriction of food intake and nutrition, which leads to extreme weight loss and
eventually, if not treated, to death. Part of the disease's existence is a psychological disorder in
the brain, but what encourages the disease to come prevalent is the strive to make oneself have
the perfect ideal body image. All throughout society and the media, women are shown to have
this perfect skinny body to be considered attractive. This stereotype and idea that this is what a
women must be, creates the push to meet the images of perfection that our society calls upon.
As quoted in Du Boiss essay Of Our Spiritual Striving This longing to attain selfconscious manhood, to merging his double self into a better and truer self (21), he is staying
that the black man strives to make him self the way he is suppose to but can not because he is
being conflicted with what he must be is seen as in society. Just like Raspberry states That one
the heaviest burdens black Americans and black children in particular is the handicap of

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definitions: the question of what it means to be black (100) being black in our society taboo is a
setback. No matter what a black man can never be seen as successful because he is black even if
he strives to get success. This same analogy goes with women in our society where looking a
certain way is considered the correct way. This forces women and man to believe that they have
to look with this perfect image that is set up by what society same is normal. The same way this
makes black man push to be what society says his normal. What Du Bois and Raspberry are
saying is society makes this idea of requirements that people have to meet and only limits them
to achieve this idea that has been set up by society. Society says a women has to be skinny, a man
must be muscular, black must be athletic, asian must be a mathematical genius, and hispanic
must be a blue collar worker. Society sets up requirements based on a stereotype and makes the
individual must only stick to that to be accepted.
My girlfriend, like every other women around the nation, grew up seeing how a women is
suppose to look, skinny to be attractive. With seeing Disney princesses being depicted with an
unattainable yet perfect body to young girls and Victoria Secret models flaunting their ideal
bodies to a teenager. Which gives an unrealistic and unattainable fake idea of how a womans
body is suppose to look like. It made her at the age of 14 want to achieve this image of
perfection, and started by her wanting to get fit to have this body. This then turned her into
having a diet and working out to lose weight. As she lost weight, she wanted to lose more, and
more so she can get herself looking the way she wanted to. Unaware she started to have body
dimorphism, where she sees herself as being heavier than what she actually was, and not feeling
like she has accomplished enough weight loss and continued even though she was already
unhealthy skinny. This idea to be fit to look this certain way was only intercede because of the

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media and society persuades women to have this false idea that they must look this certain way.
A sense of double consciousness presented by Du Bois that you are concern of looking skinny
because of this stereotype that Raspberry explains about women having to be bone skinny to be
attractive.
Society makes these ideas of how the individual is suppose to be and limits them to only
achieve what it says. Du Boiss double consciousness is created by having this societal definition
of who someone is suppose to be that was mentioned by Raspberry. Du Bois and Raspberry
writing speaks to each other because the societal stereotypes creates this sense of double
consciousness to meet your wants and want society is asking of you. Just like Raspberry states
What we seem to be doing, instead, is raising up yet another generation of young blacks who
will be failures-by definition black (102), the media is only stating that blacks can be athletes or
criminals, forcing them to only do those two things, when none of those options matter.
American is making women have the idea they can either be fat and ugly or skinny and beautiful,
when this to instead the case. That a women must be this unattainable skinny, that truly is created
by fake image editing, to be considered beautiful. It is mostly white male America who made
these ideas into a double consciousness for every other Americans, and that is what Du Bois and
Raspberry are talking to each other about in their essays .

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Work Cited

Du Bois, W.E.B. Of Our Spiritual Striving. The Norton Mix. Eds. Emma Howes and Christian
Smith. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015. 19-36. Print.

Raspberry, William. Black-By Definition. The Norton Mix. Eds. Emma Howes and Christian
Smith. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015. 100-102. Print.