Understanding 'La Charge Raciale': Insights into Racial Burden and Double Consciousness

BY DOUCE DIBONDO

Thanks to this essay and the works of various authors mentioned by Douce Dibondo such as Maboula Soumahoro, Franz Fanon, W.E.B Dubois, Bell Hooks, Audre Lorde, and many others, our community is beginning to grasp the psychological impact of the racial burden.

From our inner selves to our ancestors, it's the feeling of not having lost too many years battling it finally. The author introduces us to W.E.B Dubois’s concept of double consciousness: the sense of belonging to two disparate worlds, a split in one's being: we adapt to whiteness, understanding its workings and how white supremacy exploits, but this awareness and coping are draining, pushing us to adapt regardless of who we encounter.

This condition can lead to various mental and physical ailments. Douce underscores the gap in research regarding the relationship between race and mental health to this day. According to her, researchers tend to focus on economic and theological conquests, raising an intriguing question: Who benefits from the lack of understanding of the psychological mechanisms of Black and Brown people? 

“And until the world confronts the innate violence of its subconscious? Until there's genuine effort to acknowledge and rectify things, the humanity's historical journey will be called into revolution.”

Racial Burden and the Legacy of Double Consciousness

Diminishing ourselves to fit into a social group, a curse on our existence. How can we live our relationships to the fullest when the threat of oppression looms over us, concealed behind humor and feigned ignorance?

“AND AS LONG AS THE WORLD WILL NOT CONFRONT THE INHERENT VIOLENCE OF ITS SUBCONCIOUS? AS LONG AS THERE WON’T BE A GENUINE WORK ON AKNOWLEDGING AND SORTING THINHS OUT, THE HISTORICAL TOUR OF HUMANITY WILL CALL US TO REVOLUTION”

Diminishing our own selves to belong to a social group, curse of our existences. How to live our relationships to the fullest when the sword of Damoclès is hanging above our heads at any time, hiding behind humor and fake ignorance. 

“THEY DISSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM THE HISTORICAL, SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEANING OG THEIR SAYINGS, OF THE SIGNIFICANT AND THE SIGNIFIED, AND DO NOT INVEST THEIR INTENTION WHICH THEY JUDGE AS NOBLE” 

Understanding and becoming aware of the burden of the racial charge is not enough, but these experiences follow us to this day. And for the silence not to be so loud anymore, we need to keep on raising awareness and fight for it.

And to conclude, let me share a quote of the book, a as an allusion to an actual, a past and future situation : 

“IF THE RACIAL CHARGE IS A SOLENCING AND THE WESTERN WORLD IS BASED ON A RACIAL CONTRACT, IT SEEMS JUSTIFIED TO ME TO SEE THE RACIAL CHARGE AS AN IMPOSED CONTRACT OF SILENCE. THE ADHERENCE TO THIS SAID CONTRACT IS IMPLICIT, BECAUSE THE MAJORITY OF WHITE PEOPLE, BY THEIR SILENCE, GIVE THE TONE TO WHAT WE CAN SAY OR NOT.”