How It Feels To Be Colored Me By Zora Neale Hurston

In her personal essay, “ How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Zora Neale Hurston describes how her image of herself changed as other people’s perceptions of color was imposed upon her throughout her life. Throughout the essay she states how she always respects her sole identity as an African American. Despite facing many times when racism came to the forefront, Hurston argues that people should be themselves and should not represent themselves by their colors. Hurston describes her own perception of life and being colored. She used to live in an exclusively coloured town in Florida and She did not realize her colour when she used to live in Eatonville, an exclusively colored town in Florida. She just liked the white tourists going through
They press the buzzer to unlock the doors only when the face at the door looks desirable to them. Otherwise the doors remain locked. In this case racial determination has become an issue to identify the undesirability (William 261). Sometimes people stereotype black men as dangerous individual to the society (Staples 267). Because of the historical fact that some black men have committed crimes and caused violence, now it look like all black men are dangerous which is not true. The way someone look or the color of the skin should not be way of judging people. Hurson argues that she does not feel any sorrow for being a colored person. She does not consider herself “tragically colored. She is too busy in her life to stop to think about the pain that discrimination may cause (Hurston 43). Her attitude toward her race suggests her self-pride. She is not ashamed to be a colored
Studies found that this kind of racial discrimination has a negative effect on mental health. Racism and stereotyping cause attributional ambiguity to the stereotyped individuals. Attributional ambiguity causes the members of stigmatized or negatively stereotyped groups to have difficulties in interpreting feedback. A recent study on effects of attributional ambiguity on stereotyped groups suggests that in some cases, it may allow them to attribute negative encounters to discrimination and thus have self-protective effect.However another study found that black men who perceived higher levels of racism in an attributionally ambiguous scenario involving unfair treatment showed increased cardiovascular reactivity in a subsequent stressful task (Okazaki 105). This studies show how racism can have a negative impact on the mental health of ethnic minorities. Racism is no longer a question of equality but rather one of the inclusion or exclusion, of belonging and acceptance (Jayasuriya 5). Hurston argues that when she feels discriminated against, it merely astonishes her instead of making her angry. She wonders how can someone deny themselves the pleasure of her company. She argues that it is beyond her (Hurston 44). Despite her position as a black woman, Hurston does not engage in self-pity, but takes racial difference and discrimination in stride. She argues that her identity is her