Lordship and Youth

Hegel's chapter on Lordship and Bondage, as indicated in class today, has informed many feminist and race theorist within the past century. While reading this section I couldn't help but think of Ralph Ellison's work in Invisible Man, a novel about life for African Americans in the twentieth century and James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. Both works reference the notion of white youth, that is to say, the idea that white Americans are unable to fully take up the mantle of democracy due to a perspective so rife with privilege that their grasp on reality is compromised. In paragraph 196 Hegel asserts, "the bondsman realizes that it is precisely in his work wherein he seemed to have only an alienated existence that he acquires a mind of his own." This idea applies directly to the unique issues of race in the United States and aligns with the positions taken by both Ellison and Baldwin when they write about the distinct importance of Black Americans on the formation of this country, an importance often overlooked.  Both authors suggest that the structure of democracy is so complicated that it requires a population capable of undertaking the thankless task of upholding its principles and values. This illuminating concept can be traced back to W.E.B DuBois' work and, as a society, we have Hegel to thank for orienting this discussion in the right direction.