How It Feels to Be Colored Me

Zora Neale Hurston

"How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928) is a personal essay by Zora Neale Hurston, first published in The World Tomorrow, a progressive journal known for its engagement with Harlem Renaissance writers. Written during a period of cultural flourishing for Black artists, the essay explores themes of identity, race, and individuality. Rather than presenting Blackness as a burden, Hurston affirms her identity with confidence and pride, challenging dominant narratives of victimhood and racial sorrow. Drawing on her experiences in both Black and white communities, she reflects on how race shapes—but does not solely define—her sense of self.

Historical Context

Before Zora Neale Hurston became a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance, her time at Howard University played a crucial role in shaping her intellectual and artistic identity. She arrived at Howard in 1918, during a time when the university was emerging as a center for Black cultural and political thought. There, Hurston began publishing her stories and participating in literary circles that promoted self-definition and cultural expression. This environment fostered her interest in African American folklore, performance, and individuality—recurring themes in her later essays and fiction. Her years at Howard helped her refine her literary voice and connected her with a generation of Black writers who would come to define the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance was significantly influenced by patterns of migration and the fragmentation of identity within Black communities, as Black Americans moved from the rural South to the urban North. This migration process played a central role in shaping the self-definition and artistic production of Harlem Renaissance figures like Hurston. Hurston's experience of mobility—from her time in Eatonville to Howard and later to Harlem—reflects this broader trend, where Black individuals sought to reconcile their personal and cultural identities amidst shifting geographies.

Hurston’s cultural and religious interests were also key in her intellectual development. Her immersion in Voodoo and African diaspora religious practices influenced her writing, particularly in works like Sweat and Jonah’s Gourd Vine. Jenkins argues that Hurston’s engagement with these religious traditions was deeply connected to the Harlem Renaissance’s broader efforts to reclaim African heritage and create a more complex understanding of Black identity that extended beyond mainstream religious or cultural frameworks. This religious and cultural exploration would later be reflected in Hurston’s fiction and essays, including her essays on race and identity, where she presents cultural symbols and spiritual beliefs as vital components of Black experience and self-definition.

Summary

Forsyth Street, Jacksonville in 1914

In the essay, Hurston recounts her early life in Eatonville, Florida, an all-Black town where she felt safe and able to express herself freely. She describes observing white visitors from her front porch and performing dances and songs for them in exchange for money, enjoying the comfort of her small town.

Eatonville, Florida: Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts

At thirteen, after her mother's passing, Hurston was sent to a boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida. There, she encountered a shift in how she was perceived, now being seen as "a little colored girl" rather than just Zora from Eatonville. In Jacksonville, Hurston became acutely aware of her race and the differences between herself and her friends. She writes that at times, "I have no race, I am just me." One example she gives is attending a jazz club with a white friend, where the music highlights the different ways they each experience the moment. Despite this, Hurston rejects the notion that these differences signify separation, asserting, "I have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored." She even imagines a scenario in which Black people held power over white people, suggesting that the emotional isolation caused by discrimination would feel the same in either case.

In the final paragraph, Hurston compares people to paper bags of different colors, each filled with a mix of items inside. She argues that while white people may appear different on the outside, what truly matters is what’s within. Hurston encourages readers to focus less on race and more on individual identity and shared humanity.

Themes

Defiance Against Racial Shame

In How It Feels to Be Colored Me, Zora Neale Hurston challenges the racial attitudes of the Jim Crow era by rejecting the notion of racial shame. Rather than internalizing the negative stereotypes often associated with Black identity at the time, Hurston embraces her sense of self with pride and confidence. This approach contrasts with contemporary narratives that emphasized African American suffering or victim-hood, as Hurston focuses instead on individuality and personal agency.

Her perspective aligns with the idea of affirming Black identity without apology, highlighting her joy in cultural expression and lived experience. By refusing to define herself by the limitations imposed by a racially segregated society, Hurston presents identity as something to be claimed rather than imposed. This theme reflects her broader message of self-acceptance and personal resilience in the face of social expectations.

Individuality

In How It Feels to Be Colored Me, one of the central themes is the celebration of individuality and the rejection of racial victim-hood. Zora Neale Hurston draws from her personal experiences to challenge the conventional narratives about Black identity during the Jim Crow era. Rather than portraying Black people solely as victims or defined by their race, Hurston emphasizes personal resilience and the importance of self-expression. As Stephen Spencer observes, Hurston's essay reflects her belief that racial identity is multifaceted, shaped by individual experiences rather than societal expectations of race and identity. This theme highlights Hurston’s focus on the value of lived experience, encouraging readers to embrace their unique identities and move beyond limiting racial labels.

Migration and Fragmentation of Identity

Hurston's experiences of migration, particularly her relocation from Eatonville to Jacksonville, Florida, contributed significantly to her complex sense of self. Her work often explores the fragmentation of identity, a result of navigating between different racial and cultural spaces. Hurston’s movement between these spaces reinforces the idea that identity is not fixed but fluid, shaped by one's experiences and interactions with the world. In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me", Hurston reflects this sense of fragmented identity by emphasizing the way racial perceptions shift depending on the context—whether in the predominantly Black community of Eatonville or the more racially segregated spaces of Jacksonville. This movement and the complexities that come with it challenge rigid racial categories and underscore Hurston's broader message of self-determination.

Cultural and Spiritual Autonomy

Hurston also explores the significance of cultural and spiritual autonomy in her work. She weaves African American folklore, spirituality, and diaspora religious traditions into her narratives. This cultural autonomy is reflected in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me", where Hurston's understanding of identity goes beyond race to include her cultural and spiritual experiences. Hurston’s embrace of spiritual and cultural practices emphasizes the role of heritage and personal beliefs in shaping identity. By grounding her identity in cultural and spiritual experiences, Hurston deepens her rejection of societal definitions based on race alone. Her work invites readers to consider identity as an intersection of race, culture, and spirituality, all of which must be embraced for a complete sense of self-realization.

Reception

Hurston published How It Feels to Be Colored Me in 1928, during the Harlem Renaissance—a cultural movement that celebrated the creativity and intellect of Black artists. The period saw a flourishing of literature, music, and political thought, with figures such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Alain Locke shaping national conversations about race and identity. While many Harlem Renaissance writers focused on themes of racial injustice and collective struggle, Hurston emphasized pride, resilience, and individuality in her work.

Unlike many of her contemporaries, Hurston did not frame her identity primarily through the lens of oppression. She placed an emphasis on personal expression and ambition, which set her apart from more politically driven voices of the era. In How It Feels to Be Colored Me, she expresses pride in her Blackness without presenting herself as a victim, downplaying racism in favor of celebrating personal strength and spirit.

Hurston’s individualistic stance has led many to describe her as politically unorthodox within the context of the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston's approach to racial identity, often shaped by her experiences of migration and Fragmentation, placed her in contrast with her contemporaries who focused on collective racial struggle. Hurston was often “out of step” with the racial politics of her time, resisting expectations that Black writers should foreground collective suffering or engage in overt protest. Instead, she embraced a form of cultural nationalism that celebrated Black life on its own terms—independent of white recognition or systemic critique. Hurston's work also reflects a deep sense of cultural and spiritual autonomy, a theme that emphasizes in her research on the role of African American folklore and spiritual practices in Hurston's writing. Her refusal to conform to protest literature and her optimism about the future of African Americans set her apart from peers such as Richard Wright, who criticized her work as apolitical or accommodating. As a result, Hurston occupied a complex position: admired for her literary talent yet critiqued for her perceived distance from racial solidarity movements.

Style and Narrative Approach

"How It Feels to Be Colored Me" is written in a first-person, conversational style that blends autobiography, metaphor, and social commentary. Zora Neale Hurston uses vivid imagery and shifts in tone to explore complex ideas about race and identity without presenting herself as a victim of racial oppression. Hurston writes from a “threshold” position, addressing both Black and white readers while refusing to be confined by either perspective. This layered approach allows her to express a sense of individuality that challenges fixed ideas of race. Rather than emphasizing conflict, the essay invites readers to consider identity as something fluid, personal, and shaped by context. Hurston’s narrative style is often centered on a personal journey toward self-realization, emphasizing individual experience over collective identity. This approach is evident in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me", where Hurston presents her racial identity as a source of personal strength and pride, rather than as a limitation. She also uses vernacular speech and rich imagery to convey complex emotional states and cultural experiences. In the essay, Hurston employs striking metaphors and a conversational tone to challenge prevailing narratives about race and to assert her unique perspective.

External links

• Complete text of "How It Feels To Be Colored Me" at HathiTrust Digital Library
• How It Feels to Be Colored Me at Project Gutenberg