“How it Feels to be Colored Me” is an essay based off of personal life stories of Zora Neale Hurston. Zora reflects on her life’s experiences with her colored identity. I believe that Zora does not ever feel out of place with who she is. Even though segregation is a huge part of her ancestry as well as her generation, she seems to rather blend in well with white people. It seems as though she almost feels obligated to feel discriminated because of her ethnic background due to the number of times she mentions her family being slaves. Also, Zora performs acts of dancing or singing that earn her the silver from the white people that pass by her village with whom she is friendly with. These characteristics make her, in a way, needed by her people, making her the ‘Zora.’ Her ethnicity does not define who she is. She continues to do whatever she wants to, despite what others may think of her or color differences. Zora believes that someone’s skin pigment is merely a color and does not describe who they are. In a way, I can relate to her. My entire family is Indian and I feel like that has not affected me in what I choose to do or try. I do not adhere to most of the stereotypes of Indians which makes me feel well blended in a society I was once new to. Zora has logical and emotional reasoning behind her thoughts and shows that even though there are different races, everyone has different talents to offer. From her essay, I can agree that the only differences are the ones blatantly pointed out. I’ve interpreted that we don’t notice any differences before we judge besides for whether the person is white or not. Zora is one of the few people who does not feel self conscious about who she is, instead she is very self confident and I think she is one to look up to for any colored people out there.
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