Zora Neale Hurston: An African American Identity

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There are sometimes instances in one’s life in which one feels he or she has two different identities. For example, a teenager may act silly and be talkative when he or she is with friends but isolate or become shy around his or her parents and other adults. In this situation, the teenager has two separate identities - an identity shown around friends and an identity shown around adults. In history, many African Americans experienced a similar feeling of having two different identities - an African identity and an American identity - known as double consciousness, a term coined by African American activist and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) co-founder W.E.B. Du Bois in his book The Souls of Black Folk. Throughout …show more content…

“How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is an essay exposing Hurston’s feelings about being an African American in a world of white people and her positive attitude despite being black. In the middle of her essay, Hurston reveals that she has times when she does not feel colored, but she also has times when she does feel colored, such as at Barnard. “Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, overswept by a creamy sea. I am surged upon and overswept, but through it all, I remain myself.” (Hurston, 65-66). In this quote, Hurston explains her feelings of being overwhelmingly outnumbered by white people, which make her feel colored - or African, speaking in terms of double consciousness. Despite these feelings of being alone in a crowd of white people, Hurston maintains her identity as Zora, not allowing herself to become caught in confusion over her race and identity. Although Hurston feels African around white people, she explicitly states that she does not experience double consciousness. “I have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored. I am merely a fragment of the Great Soul that surges within the boundaries. My country, right or wrong.” (Hurston, 99-101). From this quote it is evident that Hurston experiences the opposite of double consciousness - she feels that she can be colored and an American citizen at the same time. Hurston feels she is part of America, unlike many African Americans of the time who felt confused about their separate African and American identities. In addition, Hurston believes America is her place to live whether or not she is being faced with segregation and racism. In contrast to many African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston did not feel she had separate African and American identities, as shown by her confidence

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