Racial Stereotypes And Stereotypes

During a time where African American literature was fueled with racial segregation and pride in ones race during the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston offers a different and controversial approach with her literary work “How it feels to be colored me”.(13) In the works Hurston uses several colloquialisms, anecdotes, imagery and figurative expression to invite the reader on an adventure filled with pleasure. The poem takes the reader from the beginning of the Hurston’s childhood back in Eatonville, Florida into adulthood in Orlando, Florida. Hurston proves that overcoming racism can be accomplished by uniting the public and ignoring the visual difference in a person’s outer appearance. Hurston’s strength, individuality and resilience scream

Although Racial Stereotype is something we experience daily, people should not be quick to judge or make conclusions based solely on skin color. Not every stereotype is true. Staples introduces himself by using the words “first Victim” by doing so he sets a picture in the mind of the reader that when he came up behind the lady on the street, something was going to do happen to her. He is faced with different stereotypes that he experiences daily from different races. Throughout the essay Staples makes the argument that racial stereotype is wrong .Staples explains his thesis through narratives of incidents in his life. He gives details of numerous accounts of people mistaking him for a thief or mugger.

Purpose- Hurston’s purpose is to demonstrate that she is proud of her color. She does not need the bragging rights of having Native American ancestry, nor does she ‘belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it.’

The first motif, identity, appears initially in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” where it says, “But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow damned up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all.” (p. 115) Here, it is obvious that the author holds no shame in her skin nor self. She is proud of who she is despite the prejudice some hold against her. Hurston identifies as colored and does not care what others think. Her identity is unwavering. Also applicable to this idea is

Hurston, on the other hand, lived in a town where only blacks lived until she was thirteen years old. Therefore, she only knew the “black” self. There was no second identity to contend with. She states that “white people differed from colored to me only in that they rode through town and never lived there.”2 She does not feel anger when she is discriminated against. She only wonders how anyone can not want to be in her company. She “has no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored” (Hurston 1712).

In the all black community of Eatonville, Zora felt like members of her town saw her for who she was. There were no racial barriers in the community because of everyone’s shared culture, and history. Growing up in her small community, she came to love it and she felt a strong tie to her hometown. She illustrates this by saying, “But I was their Zora nevertheless. I belonged to them, to the nearby hotels, to the county—everybody’s Zora” (Hurston 42). Zora argues that because everyone was of the same color, the community could see past racial labels. A “black Zora” could not exist in Eatonville, and it was not an indicator of who she was because describing Zora as “black” in Eatonville does not do her identity justice. Zora could be Zora, because she felt no race, because she was so comfortable in her skin she could be a part of a community of people. In Eatonville, she did not see people because of racial labels, she had no knowledge of the stereotypes associated with black people. Because of her ignorance, Zora looked deep into people’s character as a young girl.

The memoir “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston, was first published in 1928, and recounts the situation of racial discrimination and prejudice at the time in the United States. The author was born into an all-black community, but was later sent to a boarding school in Jacksonville, where she experienced “race” for the first time. Hurston not only informs the reader how she managed to stay true to herself and her race, but also inspires the reader to abandon any form of racism in their life. Especially by including Humor, Imagery, and Metaphors, the author makes her message very clear: Everyone is equal.

Instead, she portrays him as being racially whole and emotionally healthy. Hurston didn't want to change the world based on racial movements, she had her own ideas about things. Capturing the essence of Black womanhood was more important to her than social criticism.

One of Hurston’s stories, How it Feels to Be Colored Me, reflects the author’s perspective of the colored race (specifically herself). According to the story, when Hurston reached the age of thirteen, she truly “became colored” (1040). The protagonist was raised in Eatonville, Florida, which was mainly inhabited by the colored race. She noted no difference between herself and the white community except that they never lived in her hometown. Nevertheless, upon leaving Eatonville, the protagonist began losing her identity as “Zora,” instead, she was recognized as only being “a little colored girl” (1041). Hurston’s nickname “Zora” represents her individuality and significance; whereas, the name “a little colored girl” was created by a white society to belittle her race and gender (1041).

Hurston prides herself on who she is because of her background. Her identity of being a black woman in a world

Hurston’s characters have idealistic dialect for an African American in that time period; correctly depicting any stereotypes that might fall on the situation. The slang and slurs used throughout the characters dialogue makes the tale more

Perception is a key component of human interaction. According to Dictionary.com, the definition of perception is “an immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities of others.” In the business world, my co-workers would have perceptions about myself. These perceptions; however, could be impacted by stereotypes. Collins Dictionary defines stereotype as “a fixed general image or set of characteristics that a lot of people believe represent a particular type of person or thing.” Perceptions and stereotypes may blend together. Whatever the case, either one effect one’s reputation. In the business world, one’s reputation can create or destroy one’s image, therefore affecting how that person

Stereotypes are generalized, usually negative, but sometimes positive, beliefs about a group of people. Prejudice unjustifiably applies stereotypes to a singe member of the group based on their association with that group. Everyone has different amounts of prejudice, and though most people will not admit to being prejudiced, every single person is prejudiced to some degree. Prejudice can exist at two different levels, an implicit and an explicit level. Though most people will deny any explicit prejudices, everyone harbors implicit prejudices. Research has shown that people who deny racial prejudice often make negative associations known as implicit racial associations. One cause of negative racial associations is ingroup-bias. Since the beginning of time, people have felt the need to belong to certain groups, which lead to prejudice by splitting people into “us” and “them,” “us” being the ingroup, and “them” being the outgroup. The ingroup, or “us,” are people who share a common identity, and the outgroup, or “them,” is anyone who does not share this identity or belong to the same group. Ingroup-bias develops shortly after identifying ingroups and outgroups.

Stereotyping someone without knowing someone can bring unwanted conflicts and wrong impressions. The other college students talked about me, as they tended to, not knowing that I could hear what they were saying. “Look at her, she looks mean and rude.” The look on my face must be ugly, I suppose.

Historically, African Americans were restricted from appearing in films, instead they were portrayed by white actors and actresses who employed a technique known as blackface by painting their skin to appear darker (Brown, Horton and Price 1999). Documentaries like The 13th illustrate how the depiction African Americans as stupid, aggressive, lazy, and inferior (in species) led to increased racism in the United States for decades, making it difficult for African Americans to acquire civil rights benefits (DuVarney, Averick and Barish 2017). The Film Birth of a Nation (1915) was one of several films that used white actors (in blackface) to portray African Americans as dangerous criminals with animalistic features and led to the development of segregation and Jim Crow laws (DuVarney, Averick, Barish 2016). Times have changed since 1915, today African Americans and Latinos can be seen in television shows and movies. However, according to the documentary, 13th, representation is not the only thing that matters, it is the portrayal of racial groups that is particularly important. The documentary notes that certain portrayals of African Americans and Latinos in visual media insight fear and correlate with severe punishment for minor offenses and higher incarceration rates within those minority groups (DuVarney, Averick, and Barish 2017). That being said, although the presence of African Americans and Latinos in visual media has increased, it is sometimes followed by stereotypical