Identity

"I remember the very day I became colored." (167) said Zora Neale Hurston in her autobiographical story "How It feels to Be Colored Me".  This quote says so much about a person and society at that.  What is she saying?  Well, she never used to think her color was strange.  Everyone around her in her hometown Eatonville, Florida was African American.  It was only when she went to Jacksonville, Florida that it sunk in that she was different.  However, was she really that different?  All it was, was that she had a different color skin.  In Eatonville, Zora was known for who she was as a person.  When she walked into the world of Jacksonville her identity change to being the little "colored girl."  What gave them the authority to do this to her?  Her identity was forced to be change because she was "different."  She was defined this way, yet she does not even define herself in this way.  How is it then fair?

Compared to From "The Black Notebooks" by Toi Derricotte who was a very fair skinned African American she did not know who to identify herself with.  She looked white and was treated like a white but she was African American.  She never knew when to confess this to people in fear they may disregard her.  She felt a sense of disconnect in a public situation, this forced her to constantly negotiate this border.  

Identity is always forced on each individual... you are always perceived one way instead of the other...