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Hurston's Essay: How It Feels To Be Colored

787 Words4 Pages

In today’s world, the topic of race is evaded. It’s not talked about because we all assume that we have progressed from segregation. That now we do not focus on skin color as much as the early 1900’s.But those are false thoughts, or a thought that we have not accomplished to its entirety. The ones that suffer from this silent attack are the African Americans. Our society perceives African Americans negatively thus inflicting pressure on their daily lives. Anywhere in America, if you ask an African American if they feel pressured by society, most of them would say yes. They have everyone’s attention for everything they do. Some may take the attention they get as a good thing as Zara N. Hurtson does in her essay, “How It Feels to Be Colored.” She states that “it is quite exciting to hold the center of the national stage.” She finds it exciting because either she’ll get rewarded for succeeding or critized harshly for her actions. Unlike her white counterpart, who if successful is expected to but if failed they are expected to do …show more content…

Staples says that he feels that he has “the ability to alter public space in ugly ways.” He causes people to cross the street, to speed up and to feel uncomfortable but not because he’s a bad person, but just because of his skin color. He experiences being categorized as a suspicious being. He’s had to put aside comfort of jeans for work attire and began “whistling melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi” for pedestrians to feel less tense and scared of him. He’s had to make himself more approachable in order for others to feel safe around him. Staples states that “everybody seems to sense that a mugger wouldn’t be warbling bright, sunny selections from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.” That by him humming or whistling famous composer he is distinguished from criminals that are out at

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