Title: How It Feels to Be Colored Me Themes | GradeSaver
Headings: How It Feels to Be Colored Me Themes
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
by Zora Neale Hurston
How It Feels to Be Colored Me Themes
Race as a Social Construct
Performance
Racialized Public Spaces
Rejection of Victimhood

Content: The same dynamic of being watched and judged arises later when Hurston speaks of the additional scrutiny she knows she faces as a Black woman pursuing her ambition as an artist, writing that "it is thrilling to think—to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame. It is quite exciting to hold the center of the national stage, with the spectators not knowing whether to laugh or to weep." Ultimately, Hurston views the pressures of performance as empowering, relishing the added attention. Racialized Public Spaces
From early in the essay, Hurston shares anecdotes set in racialized public spaces. She begins with the road that goes through her all-Black Eatonville community. In a setting where racial separation is stark, the Black residents sit on their porches or hide behind curtains while white Northern tourists drive past in cars. Hurston finds herself in another racialized public space when she is sent to boarding school in Jacksonville, and, once living among white people, begins to think of herself as "colored." Barnard College is another racialized public space: One of only a few Black people on the mostly white campus, Hurston feels like "a dark rock surged upon" in a white-water river. The New World Cabaret inverts the racial dynamic, but Hurston feels her race nonetheless when her white friend doesn't respond to the jazz music with the same emotional depth she does.