{"id":33498,"date":"2023-10-19T14:11:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T21:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=33498"},"modified":"2023-10-19T14:11:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T21:11:41","slug":"double-consciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/double-consciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"Double Consciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Reading Vincent W. Lloyd’s book, Black Dignity, I couldn’t help reflecting on faces, images, and events that reminded me of what black dignity looks like. I wanted to find an image that everyone would recognize, and I was able to locate a picture from the JL Zwane Memorial Church we visited in South Africa. It is a picture of the ladies in the choir singing. Lloyd speaks of the dignity one can observe while listening to Black singing. This is dignity personified. I’m sure many of you thought about the juxtaposition of the abject poverty and squalor in the neighborhood against the fine, brightly colored African garb they wore that day. But did anyone think about what it must take to keep such delicate garments in a ‘home’ that may not even have running water, a closet, or even something as small as an iron? Yet these women had a sense of dignity that spoke to their innermost being to say, “I am not defined by my circumstance” – my identity is in Christ. I can hear them speaking life to their ears to say, “I shall declare the works of the Lord forevermore. If the Lord is for us, who can stand against us?” Another image that stood out for me that day was of a young adult female who came smartly dressed – I remember her because her attire was more contemporary. I remember noticing her during service, but the end of the service seared an image in my mind. As I sat on the bus, waiting for everyone to embark so we could leave, I noticed the same young female walking down the street, going away from the building, apparently back to her home. I wanted to run and put my arms around her. I felt sorry that she had to return to the poverty-stricken area she called home. Then again, I could see that her head was held high, her shoulders were straight and back, and that spoke to a resilience and quiet Black dignity that enabled her to put one foot in front of the other. At that point, I no longer felt sorry for her. Instead, I identified with her dignity and humanity; in my heart, I knew the Lord would keep her.<\/p>\n

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Lloyd argues that “dignity is something you do, a practice, a performance, a way of engaging with the world.”[1]<\/a> He goes on to write on page 2 that in a “world that denies Black humanity and embraces racial domination, dignity names an affirmation of that humanity, which necessarily means struggle against domination.” Lloyd continues his argument by stating that we can see clear evidence of Black dignity in various artists, particularly Paul Robeson, and other athletes, poets, and writers; and, along the way he weaves in their stories to help build his case. He makes a robust case for fighting against a system of domination, which is defined as a system where one can “arbitrarily exercise their will on another”[2]<\/a> – versus fighting against the symptoms of domination such as oppression, racial injustice, and exploitation. These systems (oppression, racial injustice, and exploitation) require an ontic struggle, which is to struggle against an object controlled by the master. And as such, these systems are not going away. Lloyd suggests that an ontological struggle is needed. An ontological struggle is against the master of domination – likening this to a particular incident in Frederick Douglass’ life where he contended with an enslaver and won. After Douglass won, he saw that the enslaver was not invincible. For the first time, Douglass saw himself as more than just a cut above an animal only suitable for heavy, back-breaking labor.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Lloyd writes about so many ideas and new concepts. But, for the sake of time, I will only highlight his discourse regarding the Black Lives Matter Movement in the remainder of the essay. Briefly, Lloyd attempts to build a case that the BLM movement now encapsulates the activism and vocabulary of where Blacks are in the fight for racial justice. He writes that the movement affirms Blackness, has developed a consensus around a shared vision, and urges activism surrounding political power.[4]<\/a> According to Lloyd, the BLM political organizing movement brought about a cultural shift that affirms Black love, Black rage, Black girl magic, Black excellence, and Black bodies.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

It is Lloyd’s concept of Black dignity and assertion of the now overarching role or status of the BLM movement that put me in a conundrum. If I were summarizing the book for someone who noticed it on a table, here’s what I’d say. First, let me speak about the idea of “double consciousness” that W.E.B. DuBois wrote about to provide some context for Lloyd’s work. In The Souls of Black Folk<\/em>, DuBois writes on page 5, “it is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others, measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness – an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn under\u2026this longing\u2026to merge his double self into a better and truer self.” One of the ideals expressed in this quote and one that I believe is the quintessential problem that plagues Blacks in America is how to shape our identity into that truer self. It is a complex endeavor that has eluded Black Americans because of the Middle Passage. Then, the decimation of the slave families was further emaciated through welfare rules, and all this overlaid with the idea that there are classifications of humans based on the artificial racialized contrivance of skin color. I think Lloyd is unwittingly attempting to create a mold for defining Black identity by trying to merge a supersized definition of Black dignity with the BLM pillars. It doesn’t work for me. It feels too contrived. When I read DuBois’ explanation of double consciousness, it resonates and not just with me. When I read Lloyd’s definition of Black dignity, I struggled to understand and correlate it to my lived experiences because of his attempt to delineate the master from the overseer.<\/p>\n

Lastly, the BLM movement has decidedly cut off the Christian faith. Our faith is the one thing that has sustained Blacks through the centuries and provided the dignity Lloyd tries to write about in his book. It has been the Black church that provided the life-giving spirit to walk through the struggle against domination thus far. This Christian theological foundation cannot be dismissed or replaced by ancestor worship or new ageism as BLM members subscribe. However, I am concerned that Lloyd has captured the essence of what is a problem for many young Black adults – they are dissatisfied with the Christian church. I’ll end with two things. First, in his book Divided by Faith<\/em>, Michael O. Emerson discusses racialized religion and how it has missed vital opportunities to help heal the racial divide. Emerson writes on page 2 that the work is long overdue in terms of understanding the connection between religion and race relations. “Protestant evangelical Christianity and a major fault line of American racial division- is the black-white divide.” Secondly, in the book Smart Suits, Tattered Boots<\/em>, the case is made for the continued relevance of the Black Church and how it contributes to political movements.[6]<\/a> However, I gathered that there are some disconcerting positions that BLM supporters have taken that are problematic for some of the Black clergy. But the biggest issue, according to Lloyd’s book, is that the BLM movement thinks that the church’s idea of respectability is outdated.[7]<\/a> Also, the idea of hope is too far in the future and nebulous for BLM subscribers.<\/p>\n

To conclude, I will end with another quote from W.E.B. DuBois, \u201cthe strange meaning of being black here at the dawning of the Twentieth Century.\u00a0 This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(Not to be included in my word count – this is for Daron and David – and anyone else who is interested. There\u2019s a story here.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jtnGTAsuTg0<\/a>\u00a0 )<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Vincent W. Lloyd, Black Dignity: The struggle Against Domination (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022), 2.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 10.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 9.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid., 21.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid., 22.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Korie Little Edwards and Michelle Oyakawa, Smart Suits, Tattered Boots: Black Ministers Mobilizing the Black<\/em> Church in the Twenty-First Century<\/em> (New York: New York University Press, 2022), 9.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Vincent W. Lloyd, Black Dignity: The struggle Against Domination (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022), 93.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (Atlanta: Millennium Publications, 2014), 3.<\/p>\n

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