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Analysis Of How It Feels To Be Colored Me By Zora Neal Hurston

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The dismissal and relinquished adherence to racial epithets in a world that is socialized upon racial constructs can be extremely dangerous. It is dangerous because colorblindness doesn’t acknowledge the very real ways in which racism has existed and continues to exist, both in individuals and systemically. By professing not to see race, one is just ignoring racism, not solving it. Zora Neal Hurston, however, was fearless as ever in her essay, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” as she stated, “AT CERTAIN TIMES I have no race, I am me.” In contrast to colorblindness, Hurston offers a personal reframing of her blackness and its connection to her identity. I admire her tenacity because she transcends the idea that one’s identity capitulates

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