Race Relations

Though Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston were writing in similar time periods as black residents of the South, their accounts differed greatly. Wright wrote to advocate change. He detailed the horrific effects of the Jim Crow laws on the lives of African Americans. Not only were blacks often abused, but they were internalizing the laws and becoming submissive to whites. His style in The Ethics of Living Jim Crow is to include short reports of black mistreatment, each followed by the reaction of other blacks that the mistreated were “lucky” (552) because they were not raped or killed. Wright is trying to prod others to realize that the Jim Crow laws are wrong, should not be accepted, and instead should be fought.

His presentation of whites as abusers and the biting irony at the end of most of the short stories reveals that he resents most whites for their treatment of blacks. Hurston, on the contrary, does not show hostility towards blacks or a lack of black pride in How It Feels to Be Colored Me. I think this is because she has many identities and is not consumed by notions of race. She is “the eternal feminine” (418), “an American citizen” (418), “Zora of Eatoniville” (417), and “colored” (417), but she also says that sometimes she has “no race” (418) and is just her. I think the possession of a multitude of identities is a healthy way for Zora to look at herself. Also, the last paragraph of this piece reveals that she views all people as essentially the same inside through her bag analogy. Thus she does not look at blacks and whites as fully separate entities, although jazz certainly seems to affect her much more potently than it affects whites.

I think that the reason behind the disparity of Wright’s and Hurston’s feelings is because of their childhood. Wright grew up fearing whites because of an experience where white children threw broken bottles at him and some other black children. He began regarding “white folks” and their green, well-kempt neighborhoods as a “symbol of fear” (549). However, Hurston lived in town populated almost entirely by blacks, Eatonville, Florida. Whites would only occasionally pass through the town, and she would joyfully entertain them. She did not recognize the condescending nature with which the whites tossed “small silver” to her in order for her to “dance the parse-me-la” (416), and by the time she went to school in Jacksonville at age thirteen, much of her identity must have already been firmly planted. Although she then became “a little colored girl” for the first time (416), Hurston clearly retained a great spirit because this piece is uplifting and presents the issue of race open-mindedly. Though she addresses race, it is not to instigate change or point out racial problems, as Wright’s intention is. Her piece is not the work of someone beaten down. She must not have encountered such brutality as Wright or at least certainly did not let it affect her sense of self.

I thought it was interesting that some of Zora is reflected in Janie, the storyteller in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie, too, did not realize that she was black right away. It took her until she was only six, though, to see a picture of herself and make the connection. Also, Janie is frequently described as a beautiful female with long black hair, and Zora felt femininity was an important part of her identity.

I also found it interesting how many similar occurrences took place in the first fifty pages of this book about black characters as in other works that were about white characters that we have read. The town members gather to as Janie comes home and in the flashback where Joe is at the store in Eatonville. This gossiping took place in Faulkner’s works too. Also, the women disapprove of Janie wearing overalls, just as the women in Porter’s stories disapprove of Miranda wearing pants. Janie’s grandmother also tries to control her life by marrying her off to Logan, much like the grandmother presented by Porter tries to control each of her children and grandchildren’s lives. Finally, this story also deals with coming of age, like Faulkner’s Barn Burning, his An Odor of Verbena, and several of Porter’s short stories. Here Janie explores her sensuality through nature under a pear tree, watching bees pollinate flowers, much like Porter’s character Miranda learned something about sex by seeing the gutted, pregnant rabbit. Right after, Janie experiences her first kiss and is soon thereafter married. She is a woman. I am interested to see how many other similar events will occur as the story unfolds further.