Zora Neale Hurston - "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"

In How It Feels to Be Colored Me, Zora Neale Hurston describes her experiences with race growing up in a black town in Eatonville, Florida. Her pride in her blackness is heavily emphasized, despite the challenges and prejudices Hurston realizes she faces because of it. The essay was published in 1928, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, a time where black visionaries freely expressed their talents and received tremendous recognition within their communities. The movement reinforced black pride and strengthened black communities. Hurston was friends with black literary icon Langston Hughes and spent several years collaborating with him on written works. 

Hurston's literary career spanned over thirty years, in which she published four novels, an autobiography, and numerous essays, short stories, and plays. The roots of her racial pride began as a child, growing up in a town where black men governed themselves and black women taught children in the local schoolhouses. She never felt inferior. This sense of self is very prominent in How It Feels to Be Colored Me, as Hurston recounts the day where she "became colored" (1). She reveals to her audience her own pride in her race, describing herself as "not tragically colored" (2). Hurston writes not only to other black people, hoping to instill this sense of pride in them, but also to white people, showing them that she is thriving and happy in her own skin despite the racial barriers they have constructed. 

Hurston alludes to historical events that white people often bring up in discussions of race, such as slavery. She brushes off these comments by saying "I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me... I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep" (2). These allusions contribute to her argument of black power by relating her life to historical issues most people know a great deal about. 

Additionally, Hurston's use of images like the ocean and the jungle connect to her feelings of loving her natural self despite what white society leads her to believe. In calling herself "a dark rock surged upon, overswept by a creamy sea...I remain myself" (3) she is able to show her comfort in knowing that she is sturdy, weathered, and put on the earth for a reason. In contrast, she uses the imagery of her "primitive fury...living in the jungle way" (3) to show her unadulterated pride in being black. These devices blend seamlessly together to help Hurston achieve her purpose. Through historical allusions and vivid imagery, Hurston paints a portrait of what it means to be proud of your race.

17-year-old Amandla Stenberg has given rise to a new generation of young black artists. She is outspoken about the Black Lives Matter movement and writes poetry uplifting and celebrating the achievements of young black girls around the world. Her work shows her pride in her blackness and sense of self.

"Amandla" by Peyton June Leatherman (2015)