How It Feels To Be Colored Me by Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston is a writer of twentieth century African-American literature. She was a civil-rights activist and spent her life collecting folklore from the South, the Caribbean, and Latin America. She is looked up to among many other famous authors during the Harlem Renaissance. In her essay, How It Feels To Be Colored Me, she describes exactly what the title entails. She explains that before, when she lived in a town made up of only colored people, she didn't feel like she was colored. However, it was when she left to go to school at thirteen years old that those feelings changed. Surrounded by a primarily white community, she described that it felt a bit different. However, unlike how I expected, she didn't begin to speak of racism and hatred that was thrown towards her. Instead, she simply describes that everybody seemed to expect her to feel more colored than she did. She explained sometimes she didn't feel colored, and sometimes she did, but most of the time, she simply felt like herself. Hurston goes on to describe to her audience, who, I expect, are those who are white, that her race doesn't define her. She says "The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said 'On the line!' The Reconstruction said 'Get set!'; and the generation before said 'Go!' I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep," (Atwan 115). Later, she describes a scene where she is dancing to music of her cultural descent, enjoying every minute of it. When she looks to her white friend and sees that he isn't enjoying the music as passionately as she is, she realizes that his culture is far away from hers; it is elsewhere, on another continent. However, this doesn't bother her. She simply says that she is like a brown bag among white bags, but if you dump it out and look inside, every bag is just as different as the other. Hurston lured the unknowing audience in with the idea that this would be a story where she was laughed at, where people pointed fingers and called her names just because her skin was dark. We were expecting a story in which she would feel disgraced that she was colored. Instead, she says "'Sometimes I feel discriminated against... it merely astonishes me. How can anyone deny themselves to the pleasure of my company! It's beyond me," (Atwan 117). As a girl of half-African-American decent, this essay made me feel the opposite of what I was ready to feel. I was prepared to feel sorrow, apologetic, and disgust at how my people were treated in my history. However, now I feel enlightened, encouraged, and willing to share this essay so others of my skin color can feel just the same. As for those who may not share the cultural past, Hurston raises a glass to them and says 'Being colored does not mean that you're damaged or broken, it just means that there's something a little different in how we once were.'

Moving On: You still hold onto what you once where, but are becoming something new

Artist: Peter Jansen