The term "double consciousness" originated from an 1897 Atlantic Monthly article titled "Strivings of the Negro People." It was later republished and slightly edited under the title "Of Our Spiritual Strivings" in his collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk. He spoke of “this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” ("Of Our Spiritual Strivings," p. 2), and of a two-ness, of being "an American, a Negro; [...] two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder" (The Souls of Black Folk, pp. 5)

Du Bois explained: “The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife — this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He does not wish to Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would'nt bleach his Negro blood in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face.” (The Souls of Black Folk. p. 5).

The concept of Du Boisian "double consciousness" has three manifestations. First, the power of white stereotypes on black life and thought (being forced into a context of misrepresentation of one's own people while also having the knowledge of reflexive truth). Second, the racism that excluded black Americans from the mainstream of society, being American or not American. Finally, and most significantly, the internal conflict between being African and American simultaneously.

Double consciousness is an awareness of one's self as well as an awareness of how others perceive that person. The danger of double consciousness resides in conforming and/or changing one's identity to that of how others perceive the person.

An illustration of this theme can be found in a recent science fiction short story by Andrea Hairston, "The Griots of the Galaxy." In that story, Axala, a "body historian" from the stars, snatches up the life of dying Renee and tries to see through her re-awakened senses the life that Renee experienced. To Axala's surprise, Renee carries explosives on her body, which she is supposed to detonate. “I didn’t have to follow this body’s terror story. I could rebel, invent a new scenario or ….” ("Griots," p. 29). As a griot, Hairston’s protagonist also has a multiple perspective to bear on the life-or-death struggle she is now in. Memories of other people, of other entities, crop up in her thoughts, revealing a multiple consciousness at work.

In many ways, this story addresses Du Bois's concern for the two worlds that African Americans find themselves in. Hairston's concern is for people of double consciousness to maintain their roots in their past as a means of preserving identity and building community. In this way, people can successfully resist conformity to a dominant society, which in the end denies full participation to many on account of the color of their skin, the way they speak, and so on. (For a fuller treatment of this subject, see Elaine Richardson's African American Literacies, New York: Routledge, 2003. See also any of the works of bell hooks).