Zora Neale Hurston

"How It Feels To Be Colored Me" was a very interesting and thought provoking piece. One quote that really stuck in my mind throughout the whole reading was when she was talking about how slavery was 60 years in the past. "Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operations was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you. The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potentila slave said 'on the line!' The Reconstruction said 'Get set!'; and the generation before said "Go!' I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep. Slavery is the price I paid for civilization, and the choice was not with me. It is a bully adventure and worth all that I have paid through my ancestors for it. No one on earth ever had a greater chance for glory. The world to be won and nothing to be lost. It is thiriling ot 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." (417)

This quote was amazing to me, that Hurston took a look at slavery and put some kind of a positive spin on it. Especially since today almost 200 years after slavery has been abolished there are still people blaming the hardships of thier lives on the fact that their ancestors were slaves. I do not intend to make light of the serious topic of slavery, nor do I intend to come across as saying that slavery hasn't in some ways impeded the African American population. I only mean to point out the fact, that sixty years after slavery was abolished, I can guarentee that it was harder then in the year 2007 for African Americans. If Hurston could feel this back then, I don't see why more people can't take this out look now days. Perhaps, I am reading too much into her writing, or I am being un-realistic. Surely, this wasn't the normal view for this time period, but I believe it is a good one. Today we see billionaires who are black in Oprah and Tiger Woods, we see Barack Obama (Presidental Candiate, hopefully), we see Colin Powell, and Condaleezah Rice. African Americans have a say, and are powerful in today's society. I think Hurston was ahead of her time in taking this attitude of "Im black and I'm proud."