Have you ever not realized something about yourself until other people point it out? Well, the story “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” presents the inside thought of Zora, an African American after realizing she might be more different than she thought. This story, it is an insight into how Zora feels about being black. It also brings up thoughts about the stereotypes of African Americans. Alice Walker brings up two very distinct stereotypes that this story covers.
The first stereotype portrayed in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is what Walker describes as “happy darky”. We see this played out in front of us as the white people roll through Zora’s town and gawk at the overwhelmingly black population, “The native whites rode dusty horses, the Northern tourists chugged down the sandy village road in automobiles.” The white people are described as people who come through their town but never stay. As readers we also see how they treat Zora by making
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Even though Zora is in the same school as her other classmates they don’t fail to remind her that she came from slavery. She is compared to her white peers which makes her realize how black she truly is, “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” It’s not always people comparing themselves to her but she realizes their differences when she realizes how her culture impacts her feeling towards music, “He is far away and I see him but dimly across the ocean and the continent that has fallen between us. He is so pale with his whiteness then and I am so colored.” Zora does not let this affect her though as she wants to be seen for herself rather than the color of her skin. She believes that her skin is one of the least interesting things about herself and doesn't need to focus on it, “At certain times I have no race, I am