Title: How It Feels to Be Colored Me Summary & Analysis | LitCharts
Headings: How It Feels to Be Colored Me
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How It Feels to Be Colored Me Summary & Analysis

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How It Feels to Be Colored Me Summary & Analysis
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Themes
Themes and Colors Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in How it Feels to be Colored Me, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Race and Difference
Performance
History and Opportunity
Summary
Analysis
Zora Neale Hurston states that she is “colored” and does so without any apology or “extenuating circumstances.” She won’t claim any distant Native-American ancestry to complicate her race, as other African-Americans might. At the time Hurston was writing, African-Americans faced widespread racial discrimination from both individuals and educational, financial, and political institutions. Hurston describes a tendency for African-Americans to minimize or exoticize their racial identities to escape such discrimination or force others to treat them as individuals. The fact that claiming different ancestry is common and sometimes effective illustrates how vague and malleable racial identity can be. Nevertheless, Hurston chooses to run towards rather than away from her African-American identity. Active Themes
Related Quotes with Explanations
Hurston claims she remembers the first day she “became colored,” which occurred when she was thirteen. Popular thought holds that race is an essential or biological characteristic of an individual. By stating that she “became colored,” Hurston argues that race can be more a matter of social reinforcement and changing perspective.