Subject: How it feels to be colored me, by Zora Neale Hurston When first reading the title “How it feels to be colored me”, by Zora Neale Hurston, I anticipate something harsh about racism discrimination and just sympathize with her, for her feelings must be hurt. However, having read once, and then twice, and then thrice, I see no such impression I have in the first place. Instead, a Zora open-minded, confident and optimistic appears before my eyes. Zora said, “At certain times I have no race, I am me.” It is the time when she isn’t treated as a colored. She is herself in a “no race” world, a world with the existence of equality. What does she feel when saying this? Does she feel negative about the problem of being considered colored? Take her previous saying “I do not always feel colored.” By saying this, she doesn’t by any means take the problem seriously, and she isn’t ashamed of being colored.
She does feel colored, but her attitude towards it is not negative at all. She doesn’t feel as if the world is going to collapse. This feeling is strengthened by her saying “I have no race, I am me.” To her, the problem isn’t anything big. She doesn’t care about her being colored “the cosmic Zora belonging to no race nor time”, though some one is always at her elbow reminding her of being the granddaughter of slaves. It doesn’t work on her, as the appearance is not the point. One can be colored or not, but every one is “a fragment of a Great Soul.” In other words, there is no reason to classify who is colored and who is not.
The Essay on Racial Intolerance Obscenities Race World
Melissa Serna Ms. Clovis 2 nd Period AP English III Journal Response Intolerance: There are several forms of intolerance but in this case I am referring to that of racial intolerance. Ideas on the subject: o Racial intolerance is an unfair act done by many in the present time. o It shows ignorance and arrogance in the person. o You would think that after so many years and so many advances that ...
The point is that every one belongs to the same country, or the same world, or the same species. Sometimes she feels discriminated against, but she says “it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me.” Is it what she has in mind? Or does she just deceive others and deceive herself? Reading on, we can be sure that this is what she is really thinking. Though being discriminated, she doesn’t feel any inferior to others, nor pessimistic about the problem. To her, everyone is equal, colored or not. She is just like others, having the rights to have some relationship in the society and to be accepted.
By saying “How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company?” , she feels that she is “well qualified” enough to be others’ “company.” Here, again parity is confirmed. Her thoughts are most clearly shown in the last paragraph. We can say that these are her philosophy, which is expressed by the use of metaphors. She feels like a brown bag of miscellany in company with other bags, white, red, and yellow, which, upon pouring out the contents, displays a jumble of small things priceless and worthless similar to other bags. The bags of different colors are meant the people of different colors of skin, or of different races; the contents of the bags are meant what are inside a human being; the things priceless are meant what are highly appreciated, contrary to the things worthless. Using these metaphors, she wants to say that now in front of each one’s eyes, there are merely humans, denying the so-called the colors of skin.
In other words, denying colored me and uncolored you, we are all human beings, sharing human things in common. Whether we are colored doesn’t have anything to do with these human features. We can be either Albert Einstein or Bin Laden, colored or not. To her, the answer to the question “How does it feel to be colored me?” is simply that “the colored me doesn’t exist, but the me only.” This is what she wants to tell the whole world..
