"How It Feels to Be Colored Me" by Zora Neale Hurston is an insightful essay that considers race and identity through personal experiences. In her story, readers are transported to her childhood home in Eatonville, Florida, an all-Black town where she knew only community. Entering a white-dominated society shifts her view of identity. She shares moments when she feels "colored," finding differences between her life and the lives of white people that highlight both struggles and the beauty of her heritage. Instead of dwelling on victimhood, Hurston shows her pride, arguing that cultural differences make life more interesting not more divided. She creates a message of strength, urging people to accept themselves and believe that what makes them who they are goes deeper than skin color.
How it feels to be colored me
By Zora Neale Hurston
A woman recounts her journey from a sheltered all-Black town to a world where her skin color defined her, and how she chose pride over pity.
Summary
About the AuthorZora Neale Hurston was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, an autobiography, ethnographies, and many essays.
Zora Neale Hurston was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, an autobiography, ethnographies, and many essays.
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