Hegel's Master/Slave Relationship...

For some reason, Hegel's Master/Slave relationship example stuck in my mind while I was reading. Immediately, my mind went to chattel slavery and colonialism. It amazes me that Hegel could make this association with consciousness, but still believe that black people "had not historically or  intellectually evolved to consciousness and, at best, could only seek to imitate White males" (Willis et al. 9). How can Hegel acknowledge that consciousness comes from this type of relationship, and the desire for freedom, but not acknowledge the consciousness of black people who were slaves, or victims of colonial oppression? I particularly appreciated Fanon's response that basically argues black people have their own consciousness that is unique (not universal) to their experience of oppression, and not merely an imitation of white people: "I am wholly what I am. I do not have to look for the universal...My Negro consciousness does not hold itself out as a lack. It is. It is its own follower." (qtd. in Willis et al. 21).

His misunderstandings of Black consciousness (while understandable), do seem to reflect his own racism--if only in his concept of Universality. However, the book does point out that there is a "universalistic position" in the Master/Slave relationship where "slaves become conscious of their masters' dependency on the slaves' labor and obedience" (Willis et al. 10). Of course, when you add chattel slavery and good ole Willie Lynch to the equation, it seems rather difficult to make this position universalistic. In fact, it makes Hegel's idea of imitation a tad bit more palatable in the sense that American slaves didn't fully "develop a personal sense of reality based on new understandings" (Willis et al. 10). In other words, the Master used language as a tool of oppression in order to "inculcate dominant ideologies through speech and literature in the lives of the less powerful" (Willis et al. 22), and it is this dominant ideology that would be the foundation of the American slaves' understanding. The American slave, in particular, would have his/her reality shaped by, based on, the understanding of white people from the moment they were brought to this country and stripped of their own culture, language, etc., and given the language/literature of their oppressors. This is another reason I love Fanon :-).

So, seeing as how I'm a visual person, I'm really tired, and I haven't had the opportunity to throw a video in on these posts as of yet.  I found a video on Fanon. It talks about some of this stuff in there. Hope you like it.