“The German spirit is the spirit of the new World. Its aim is the realization of absolute Truth as the unlimited self-determination of Freedom-- that Freedom which has its own absolute form itself as its purport(Hegel, p. 341).” This is a quote I took from Hegel’s book. Though I don’t agree with him considering the Germans to be superior, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having pride in your people. He believed that Germans possessed something that others didn’t have, or in other words, they were the absolute truth, and had self determination. Which is somewhat similar to saying “black pride”, “brown pride”, or “native pride”, which I’ve heard so many times.
When I hear the word freedom I don’t know what to think. Being an African American is challenging when it comes to defining your identity. We have no country, or language. So many things (positive and negative) are associated with being “black.” I personally believe in something called a “slave mentality.” Hegel was saying that his people had unlimited self determination. The ultimate purpose in being free, according to the history of slavery, is to have free will, which means making your own choices. I was talking with my sister earlier about the history of black people. We were talking about how ill determined a lot of people in our race are. Not because they’re lazy, or ignorant by choice, but because of factors in their life that have made them that way. When you oppress a group of people for hundreds of years and don’t allow them to learn or have free will, I believe that plays a part in the correlation of African Americans and academic achievement gaps even after they’re considered to be “free.” So if the purpose of making your own choices is to make your own choices, how can we as people advance without a goal?
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