"Don't judge a book by its cover."

Today you don't see as many people hiding behind their true colors, but there still are some who feel insecure about they way they look. People should not be ashamed of who they are, or what color skin they have, but some people are still effected by those things. In our history, those feelings were present with many individuals. Racism was a huge part of our history, as seen in our novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Rosaleen was discriminated because of the color of her skin, and it made her feel uncomfortable and insecure about who she was. I thought about many things while reading about the discrimination and racism presented in that novel, one of which being the thoughts going through Rosaleen's head through that whole time. If I were her, I would be so insecure about myself. To be discriminated upon because of the color of my skin,  I would feel so out of place. 


But then in class this week, we read a short story How It Feels to Be Colored Me, by Zora Neale Hurston. In this story, Hurston is proud of who she is, she doesn't let the color of her skin bring her down or make her feel any different than anyone else around her. She is much different than Rosaleen in a sense, that she has so fear of who she is, and she is not one bit insecure about her race. This some what surprised me. I went from reading a story about an African American woman who is so insecure in her skin, to reading a story about an African American woman who could wish nothing changed; not even the color of her skin. These thoughts I were presented with during my reading reminded me that people are insecure about plenty of things in the world. Most people that are insecure, truly are insecure because of what is on the outside. Whether it be the color of your skin, the clothes you wear, the color hair you have, or a gap in your teeth. People are insecure about plenty of things. But reading How It Feels to Be Colored Me, opened up my eyes to realizing that we shouldn't care so much about what is on the outside, but just be ourselves. We shouldn't let the way we look make us self conscious, or make us feel insecure about ourselves. Everyone is unique, and we most definitely should not judge one another on what is on the outside. We should not judge people by what is on the outside, but look past that on what is on the inside.





"Equality." Racism in America . Web. 10 Mar 2011. <http://thejosevilson.com/fotimages/hand-shake-black-and-white.jpg>.