Race as a Social Construct
One of the most prevalent themes in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" is that race is a social construct—i.e. a human-invented and perpetuated classification system not based in essential biological differences. For hundreds of years, white settlers in the United States tried to justify genocide of Indigenous peoples and the enslavement of African-descended people by arguing that biological differences meant non-white people were of a lower order of the human species, seeking to designate them as separate and inferior "races." The flawed and biased theory of biological racial difference has long been refuted by biologists, but we still live with the legacy of white supremacist hierarchical categorization. Hurston contributes to the idea of race being socially constructed by stating that she "became colored," only thinking of herself as "a little colored girl" when she was thirteen and lived among white people who projected their prejudices onto her. Rather than feeling her race as something essential encoded into her biology, Hurston notices her race in contexts where, for social reasons, her skin color sets her apart.
Performance
Performance is another of the essay's major themes. The theme first appears when Hurston details how her childhood involved sitting on her gatepost to watch "the show" of white tourists passing through her all-Black town. While she sees herself as a spectator of the exotic white tourists, she also becomes the entertainer, singing and dancing for them. The white tourists give her dimes, believing she must be performing for money, but in truth she is just being herself, happy to express the joy that so often prompts locals to "deplore" her. The same dynamic of being watched and judged arises later when Hurston speaks of the additional scrutiny she knows she faces as a Black woman pursuing her ambition as an artist, writing that "it is thrilling to think—to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame. It is quite exciting to hold the center of the national stage, with the spectators not knowing whether to laugh or to weep." Ultimately, Hurston views the pressures of performance as empowering, relishing the added attention.
Racialized Public Spaces
From early in the essay, Hurston shares anecdotes set in racialized public spaces. She begins with the road that goes through her all-Black Eatonville community. In a setting where racial separation is stark, the Black residents sit on their porches or hide behind curtains while white Northern tourists drive past in cars. Hurston finds herself in another racialized public space when she is sent to boarding school in Jacksonville, and, once living among white people, begins to think of herself as "colored." Barnard College is another racialized public space: One of only a few Black people on the mostly white campus, Hurston feels like "a dark rock surged upon" in a white-water river. The New World Cabaret inverts the racial dynamic, but Hurston feels her race nonetheless when her white friend doesn't respond to the jazz music with the same emotional depth she does. Ultimately, Hurston shows how certain physical spaces contribute to ideas of racial difference, further supporting her belief that racial difference arises out of social contexts and not biology.
Rejection of Victimhood
Even though Hurston acknowledges that she sometimes experiences discrimination for her race and that her grandparents were slaves, Hurston rejects the expectation that she should see herself as a victim of racism. Stating that she is "not tragically colored," Hurston seeks to set herself apart from "the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all but about it." Hurston prefers to identify with "the strong" who she sees as excelling in life. Adopting a confidence and optimism about her abilities to make her way in the world, Hurston encapsulates her rejection of victimhood and embrace of ambition in the statement: "I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife."
