Zora Neale Hursois Theory Of Identity

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Is My Identity My Race? ‘Double Consciousness’, a concept explored in The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, explains the notion that your identity is divided into several different subcategories, making it impractical to have one single identity. “How It Feels To Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston describes what separates her identity from her race - categorizing race as insignificant. Both W.E.B. Du Bois and Zora Neale Hurston show the unsettling reality that African Americans faced; however, Hurston 's concept of identity does not align with Du Bois’ idea that an individual is incapable of having a single harmonious identity. Du Bois’ theory of double-consciousness is aimed to refute the way African-Americans are perceived in America. …show more content…

When she was young, Hurston had no distinction between the two races. She labeled the day she realized the difference as the “the day [she] became colored”. Hurston recognizes the physical difference but she does not believe that this affects the content. Up until she was thirteen, she lived in a colored town and was incapable of making the distinction. Furthermore, she asserts, “I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother 's side was not an Indian chief.”This shows she was aware of the difference that came with being a African American woman, but she did not acknowledge it as a valid reason for being different. She strengthens this argument with a reference to a brown bag, filled with items. If the bag were to be dumped we would notice that the continents are not very different from one another. Exemplifying the fact that “a bit of colored glass more or less would not matter.” Her distinction between race and identity is important because it states that race and color is an insignificant factor in the formation of your upbringing—on a larger scale, it means

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