Zora Neale Hurston's 'How It Feels To Be Colored Me'?

Since its founding, racial tensions have plagued the United States. Our history is one of racism and intolerance. From legal slavery in our first hundred years to fear mongering over Chinese immigrants, “No Irish Need Apply” to a presidential nominee threatening to deport 11 million illegal Latino immigrants, racism scourges our nation. How society sees a person’s race affects how they see themselves, how they see others of their own race, how they view other races, and their experiences growing up. In Zora Neale Hurston’s piece, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” she explains coming to know herself as “Zora” instead of “a little colored girl;” she explains how she is Zora of Orange County and it’s only in contrast to whites that she is colored. On the other hand, Anzaldúa’s piece “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” looks at life when no one recognizes your race, including those in it. While both Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” and Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” deal with the differences in race and racial tensions in the US, they detail vastly different struggles faced by minorities.

Growing up, race didn’t exist for Zora Neale Hurston.

She has no past to be proud of, no icons to identify with, no representation in media. Her culture and heritage wasn’t demonized; It was never recognized to begin with. On page 415 she says, “In childhood we are taught that our language is wrong. Repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self.” From childhood, Chicanos are taught their language, their defining trait, is wrong and so, by extension, are they. Anzaldúa recognizes this, allowing her to subjectively look at and comprehend her predicament. She steps back and understands that the only reason she is so discontented with her race is because both whites and Latinos are discontent with it and therefore Chicanos came to feel the same