Social stratification does more than distinguish people based on wealth and occupation; it also affects how people see themselves and analyze others around them. The mental functioning of people is of particular interest to philosophers who propose theories about the holistic psychology of different demographics, focusing especially on the psychological development of different demographics interacting with each other. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIn Genealogy of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche explores the psychological development or resentment of those in the position of a slave relative to a master. The people who feel resentful are those who are in an inferior position and are called various names, including “the slaves,” “the mob,” “the herd,” or “the common man.” The theory Nietzsche presents about the psychological development and thought processes of slaves challenges and accompanies W.E.B. DuBois's nearly contemporary explanation of the psychological state of African Americans in 20th-century America, which he describes as the term double consciousness in his The Souls of Black People. Although Nietzsche's discussion centers on the power struggle between the slave and the master, we can still apply this psychological explanation to the limited scope that DuBois defines for this specific demographic group during a particular period in United States history. To better understand how DuBois and Nietzsche interact, we must first understand DuBois's main arguments and context in how he discusses double consciousness. DuBois describes double consciousness as the complex psychological state of African Americans dealing with two conflicting identities. He describes African Americans as “a sort of seventh child, born with the veil and gifted with second sight in the American world.” DuBois continues: “[This world] does not provide him with true self-consciousness, but only allows him to see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a particular sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of looking at oneself through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul with the yardstick of a world that looks on with amused contempt and pity. From this excerpt, DuBois highlights a number of aspects of this double consciousness, directing us to the ideas of the veil and second sight. The veil that covers the black son's eyes is something he is born with. It is not something that is achieved through realization or experience, nor can it be removed. As seen in later passages, the veil represents the psychological manifestation of racism. The veil exists in the minds of white people and forces them to structure society according to racist logic. For example, when DuBois is invited to dinner with two white men, he is initially surprised by the white man's openness, even thinking he is lucky. But once dinner was served, “then fell the horrible shadow of the Veil, for [the white men] ate first, then [he] – alone.” For a moment, DuBois thought the veil had been removed from his face, allowing white men to fully see him as a human being or an equal. But he quickly realized that he was still inside the veil, in this marginalized part of society because of his race. The veil prevents whites from seeing blacks as Americans and treating them as fully human. In addition to this veil, the black son is “gifted” with second sight. DuBois uses the word gifted ironically, for, as he reveals, this second sight is the vision the black son sees of himself through the white lens ofracism, or the “world that looks on with amused contempt and pity”. He sees himself through the same veil that white people see him through. This means that second sight is based on the veil, which means that second sight lasts as long as the veil of racism exists. In addition to this second sight of seeing himself from the perspective of white America, the black son also sees himself as he sees himself, giving him a double perspective or, as DuBois calls it, double consciousness. The black son grapples with conflicting visions of who he is as white America sees him and who he is for himself. He “feels his duplicity: an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled efforts; two conflicting ideals in a single dark body, whose tenacious strength alone prevents it from being torn to pieces.” The black son's life consists of an internal duel between two opposing perspectives. Having been born into a white world, he is immediately an outsider. Despite his attempts to assimilate and participate in this white world, he will never be accepted, because white America will never accept him as fully human and will marginalize him behind this veil. DuBois refers to his personal experience in which, once he achieved this veil, he attempted to surpass his classmates in academic endeavors and physical activities. But “over the years all this beautiful contempt began to fade; for the worlds he desired, and all their splendid opportunities, were theirs, not his.” Even if the black son offers himself to the white world, is educated in their schools, learns to speak or behave like them, he will never be treated as an equal for the sole merit of being a black man in an America that is already a world nation white. Similar to the black son who is forced into a distinct inferior position in his world, the resentful slave is also placed in an inferior position to the master. Nietzsche begins his analysis of ressentiment by examining the etymological roots of the words "good" and "bad" as they are coined in various languages, noting an alignment of "good" with "aristocratic soul", "noble", "a soul of high order” and “a privileged soul” and a “bad” alignment with “common”, “plebeian” and “low”. The development of languages ​​was based on the idea that good was linked to the noble and that evil was linked to the common. Nietzsche deduces, therefore, that it must have been the nobility, who held power, who defined these etymological associations. Through a series of chain reactions, the social distinction between nobles and commoners promoted the development of languages ​​for defining good and evil in favor of the nobles, who thereby again promoted the moral perception of good and evil in favor of the nobles, who thereby established a status quo that nobles and their attributes were good and commoners and their attributes were bad. Just as the world described by DuBois is a white America that scrutinizes African Americans, the society described by Nietzsche is ruled by the powerful nobility who call themselves good and put common people in the position of bad. It is important to note that the African American described by DuBois is actually the "folk" or "slave" described by Nietzsche. Nietzsche's terms, although used in different contexts and thus moving from "popular" to "slave", refer to the same thing and simply represent someone who is inferior or "bad" in society's judgment. The African American and the commoner or slaves are simply those who are positionally inferior. In addition to being positionally inferior, for people to develop double consciousness and resentment, there must be personal recognition of this inferiority. As discussed above, DuBois describes the veil and second sight causing the doubleconscience and are inherent to African Americans at birth. But African Americans must come to the realization or awareness of this veil. As DuBois recounts his childhood, it was only when a classmate treated him differently from his other white classmates that he realized “with some suddenness that he was different from the others; or perhaps in heart and life and desire, but shut out of their world by a vast veil." Although he always had a veil, he did not always realize it until he saw its effects. Later, when DuBois reflects on the birth and the premature death of his newborn, he confirms this again when he notes the presence of the veil when he states that his son, like himself, was born inside the veil and will continue to live within it. Upon his son's death, DuBois is initially grieved , but also recognizes his own death son as an escape from the effects of the veil. In his son's innocence, “he knew not the color line… and the Veil, though it obscured him, had not obscured half of his sun.” would have never experienced the harsh cruelties of racism, but would have simply enjoyed a simplistic and innocent life, unaffected by the veil. The veil is always present on African Americans, but it is not necessarily always recognized. Since recognition of the veil causes double consciousness, one way for double consciousness to go unnoticed is for people not to realize the veil. Therefore, double consciousness is only effective as long as the veil is noticed. Likewise, the common citizen who suffers resentment must be aware of his inferiority. Resentment, “to exist,… needs a hostile external world… [as] external stimuli”. Nietzsche refers to Jews who, like African Americans, were familiar with oppression and slavery. They were well aware of the rule of their masters who imposed moral rules and social norms on them (Nietzsche 34). Although double consciousness and resentment both require the participant to be inferior and have self-awareness of their inferiority, the difference between double consciousness and resentment is how the participant responds to their realization of inferiority. Double consciousness initially discourages African Americans, but DuBois points out how people have tried to escape and can escape its clutches. First, DuBois shows the negative effects of double consciousness. Inevitably, double consciousness brings “self-questioning, self-contempt, and the lowering of ideals that always accompany repression and generate an atmosphere of contempt and hatred.” The internalization of prejudice results in the adoption of self-deprecating judgments directed at the self. As a result, “the powers of body and mind…are strangely wasted, dispersed, or forgotten.” However, as Dubois clarifies, this obstacle to human potential and participation in social life “is not weakness, but is the contradiction of dual objectives”. Double consciousness drains African Americans of their full potential as they try to fulfill two unreconciled ideals. Despite this crippling disadvantage, DuBois points to various ways in which African Americans can and have responded to this psychological distress, identifying only one real way to escape double consciousness. First, he warns against the philosophy of Booker T. Washington, which compromises the political power, civil rights, and higher education of African Americans for physical well-being. According to DuBois, failure to achieve these goals is “practically [an acceptance of the] supposed inferiority of the Negro races.” Without this “manly self-respect,” African Americans would voluntarily give up such respect or stop fighting for it and, as seenthroughout history, DuBois argues, would make them people “not worth civilizing.” Washington's program may temporarily provide for the physical needs of African Americans, but at the expense of self-respect and the risk of losing an escape route from the veil. Second, DuBois warns against the allure of wealth as a goal. DuBois fears that African Americans will direct their struggle for “another, more just world” toward “cash and the lust for gold.” It recognizes that the ideal of a just world is “vague” and mysterious, while wealth is a clear and achievable goal pursued by both sides of the color divide. Yet, wealth is simply a false promise that does not remove the veil and distracts from the objective of self-realization and political and cultural participation. Rather than following the philosophy of Booker T. Washington or the pursuit of wealth, DuBois points to self-respect and self-affirmation as the only way to resolve the inner turmoil of double consciousness, which will be discussed later in more detail. Unlike double consciousness, which causes internal reflection or self-change, resentment is a rebellion against that which is outside of oneself. Resentment looks at what is outside and “says No to what is 'outside', to what is 'different'. that which is 'not itself'... This need to direct one's gaze outward rather than oneself – is the essence of resentment.” One tries to express hostile behavior towards another who is the source of one's inferiority, rather than reflecting on oneself. Once resentment “becomes creative itself and generates values,” “the revolt of the slaves of morality begins.” This “revolt of the slaves of morality” is an “imaginary revenge,” in the sense that it takes an ideological form, manifested as ideas and attitudes towards the world and specific aspects of life. Nietzsche points to the Jews as an example. The Jews who stood up to their enemies and conquerors were “in the end satisfied with nothing less than a radical reevaluation of the values ​​of their enemies, that is, an act of the most spiritual vengeance.” By trying to reverse the morality of their master, the Jews, in their slave morality, caused an inversion of values, attributing their own characteristics as good and those of their masters as bad. Nietzsche's resentment is more than just resentment. Resentment has power and expands until “slave morality” triumphs over the glories of “master morality.” Nietzsche points to Christianity as the pinnacle of Jewish “slave morality,” which took control away from Rome's noble class and became the new dogma for Rome. Nietzsche condemns resentment as an “essentially dangerous form of human existence” that has made man “an interesting animal, and only here has the human soul in a higher sense acquired depth and become evil.” Resentment first looks outward, condemns and hates “others”, but results in an internal change of the slave into an “animal” with depth and evil and other “dangerous” attributes, including arrogance, revenge, lust to rule , and virtue. In contrast to this transformation from the outside to the inside, Du Bois's double consciousness manifests itself as a transformation from the inside to the outside. As discussed previously, double consciousness forces African Americans to analyze themselves from this second view of who they are through the white lens of racism. But from this awareness they can develop a power of discernment. In this way, Du Bois's second sight can be analyzed through Nietzsche, where he argues that "the more eyes, different eyes, we can use to observe a thing, the more complete will be our,”.