Sigmund Freud and WEB DuBois

How did Freud view society?

civilization is both frustrating and gratifying

• requires individuals to defer gratification, repress pleasure-seeking anti-social urges + drives

while also defending humanity against the dangers and uncertainties of nature

Three Dimensional Personality reflecting the struggle betwewen the individual and society

1. The ID

2. The Ego

3. The Super Ego

The Id

animalistic impulses

The super ego

your moral consciences attempts to contain and repress

The Ego

seeks to reconcile the tensions between the super ego and id, and decide the best course of action

Theory of Stratification (Dubois)

racial and social stratification is not natural, but a manufactured system designed by dominant groups to preserve power, secure white supremacy, and control labor

Race Relations in the U.S.

intersection of race and class: racial inequality and economic inequality go hand-in-hand, but one can’t be reduced to the other

• racism might be reduced as blacks accumulate wealth, but it won’t be eliminated in classless society

Racial Equality

Integration (Dubois)

• immediate civil rights

• political integration

• higher education for black americans

• opposed racial segregation + social caste system

Separatism (booker t. washington)

economic self reliance

pan-africanism

Double consciousness

a means of adapting to racism (code-switching)

• you have to act one way to meet the expectations of white society

• the role you have to play in order to survive

• alienation between the real you

“the viel”

the wall that african-americans hide their true character behind when interacting with white americans (double-consciousness)

“the Black Problem”

society defines you as a problem = white society has the power to demean minorities

• seen as inferior, believes they’re inferior (Pygmalion effect)