“Race Champions”: Taking away the Morning Star

In Zora Neale Hurston’s essay Art and Such (1938), the author is able to use an extended metaphor to reinforce how the “Race Champions “of the time actually create barriers for black Americans to produce their own original and authentic art that comes from their creativity. In particularly on page 5, Hurston introduces the hypothetical thoughts or…

Prophets and Pets

Zora Neale Hurston uses a sarcastic authorial voice to mock contemporary convictions about race and race reform in her essay “The ‘Pet Negro’ System”. Specifically, she uses a biblical voice to inform readers of the “truth” about relations between blacks and whites in the American South as if she herself is a prophet. The introduction…