Current Political Struggles Over Police Brutality: Frantz Fanon and W.E.B. Du Bois
Overview
This essay examines how W.E.B. Du Bois's theory of double consciousness and Frantz Fanon's ideas on imperialism illuminate contemporary political struggles over police brutality against minority communities. The paper argues that the psychological impacts of systemic racism and oppression manifest in the dual identity conflict experienced by Black Americans and other marginalized groups facing disproportionate police violence.
What this essay covers
- Introduction and theoretical framework of double consciousness from Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk
- Analysis of Frantz Fanon's concepts of colonialism and mental conflict in relation to double consciousness
- Contemporary data on racial disparities in police killings and arrests across minority communities
- Application of theoretical frameworks to current political struggles and social discrimination
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Current Political Struggles Over Police Brutality: Frantz Fanon and W.E.B. Du Bois
W.E.B. Du Bois's theory of double consciousness is essential to understanding current political struggles over police brutality in the wake of several deadly altercations between civilians, particularly Blacks, and law enforcement. Du Bois first introduced the term "double consciousness" in his 1903 book, Souls of Black Folk, to explain the perennial threat and reality of racist violence throughout America. He described the concept as the internal conflict experienced by marginalized and subjugated groups living in a repressive society. Du Bois described double consciousness as blacks perceiving themselves through the perspectives of their oppressors while trying to preserve their self-conceptions. Frantz Fanon, a Caribbean psychologist, also touched on the deeper effects of colonialism and the mental conflict arising from having a dual identity. This essay will discuss how Fanon's ideas on imperialism extend to Du Bois's concept of double consciousness in the context of current political struggles over police brutality.
In his seminal book, Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois argued that the problem of the color line was the biggest issue in 20th-century America. Given the current political struggles over police brutality, particularly against minority communities, Du Boisian's theory of double consciousness is essential to highlighting the impacts of social discrimination on the inner world of the groups subject to them. The consequences of racism are not just economic and political but have a psychological component.