Michelle is an African American middle-aged woman. When she tried to pay with a personal check for her groceries, the cashier asked her for multiple forms of identification and kept questioning the authenticity of her check. Michelle could see that the cashier assumed that she had forged the check so she agreed to present all the material she was asked to prove that she was the real owner of this check. And even though she wanted to protest about this treatment, she was thinking that this would make people around her think that she was just an angry Black woman so she decided to remain silent.
Which concept BEST fits this example?
Note that there may be several concepts that can apply in this situation but choose the one that speaks specifically to the parts highlighted in bold which describe the standpoint of Michelle's experience (what she thought and felt in this situation).

Question

Michelle is an African American middle-aged woman. When she tried to pay with a personal check for her groceries, the cashier asked her for multiple forms of identification and kept questioning the authenticity of her check. Michelle could see that the cashier assumed that she had forged the check so she agreed to present all the material she was asked to prove that she was the real owner of this check. And even though she wanted to protest about this treatment, she was thinking that this would make people around her think that she was just an angry Black woman so she decided to remain silent. 
Which concept BEST fits this example?
Note that there may be several concepts that can apply in this situation but choose the one that speaks specifically to the parts highlighted in bold which describe the standpoint of Michelle's experience (what she thought and felt in this situation).

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The prompt presents a scenario involving Michelle, an African American woman, who experiences a discriminatory interaction at a checkout. The emphasized parts describe her internal thoughts and fears about how others would interpret her and the concern that challenging the cashier could mark her as an “angry Black woman.”

Since no answer options are provided in the data, we cannot systematically evaluate each listed choice. Instead, we can discuss the most fitting concept given the highlighted elements.

What the bolded segment centers on is Michelle’s internal standpoint and the social gaze she anticipates from others—a tension between self-perception and external labeling. Double consciousness, a term introduced by W. E. B. Du Bois, describes this very phenomenon: the sense of looking at oneself through two potentially conflicting lenses—one’s own self-definition and the oppressive or biased perceptions imposed by the dominant society. In this case, Michelle is navigating how she is perceived by strangers (as potentially at fault or suspicious) while maintaining her own sense of dignity and identity, all the while fearing becoming a stereotype (the “angry Black woman” trope).

Other related concepts can be considered in broader discussions, but they do not fit the highlighted focus as precisely:
- Implicit bias describes the cashier’s unconscious biases guiding behavior, not Michelle’s internal response, which is the emphasis here.
- Stereotype threat involves performance anxiety in contexts where one’s identity could be judged, but the scenario emphasizes the anticipatory self-perception and social gaze rather than a test performance under threat.
- Microaggressions refer to brief, everyday slights; while this situation contains a microaggressive dynamic, the question’s bolded focus is on Michelle’s internal standpoint rather than the external act alone.

Thus, with the emphasis on Michelle’s thoughts and the pressure of how she might be perceived by others, double consciousness is the concept that best fits the described experience.

In sum, the scenario highlights the internal conflict of self versus perceived external judgment, which aligns with double consciousness as a framework for understanding the situational identity negotiations faced by Michelle in this interaction.

SOC 185A W25 Final Exam

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