Race, Feminism and Critical Race Theories: What’s Hegel Got to Do with It?

Abstract

Contemporary feminist scholarship has interestingly highlighted the relevance of Hegel's philosophy for feminist theory and politics. 1 Against readings traditionally emphasizing Hegel's misogynism and his patriarchal understanding of the relationship between the sexes, which associates the feminine with nature and relegates women to an inferior status, 2 recent feminist interpretations have stressed the multiple perspectives disclosed by Hegel for "think[ing] differently about the meanings and implications of categories such as sex and gender," as suggested by Kimberly Hutchings. 3 In the fields of postcolonial and decolonial studies, critical race theory, and critical philosophy of race, Hegel's works have not encountered a similar reception. Most of the contributions from these fields have, instead, polemically engaged with the Hegelian corpus, with the purpose of elucidating the crucial role played by Hegel's philosophy in the conceptualization of racial hierarchies and colonial Eurocentrism that underlie the master narrative of Western modernity. 4 Indeed, the challenge of recovering Hegel's conceptions of race, slavery, and colonialism-namely his hierarchical classification of races, justification of slavery, and endorsement of colonialism-seems to be a both hopeless and useless task. 5 Therefore, the present chapter will not embark on such a controversial undertaking. Rather, it will draw on contemporary feminist approaches to Hegel with the aim of examining the extent to which feminist interpretations of Hegelian philosophy may encourage thinking differently about the meanings and implications of the category of race-to paraphrase Hutchings-and supplement recent scholarly debates on racial relations and racial justice. 6 The purpose of the chapter is thus twofold. On the one hand, it seeks to shed light on Hegel's understanding of race(s) across his works