William Romero

Mr. Bayer
English 11B, Period 8
March/24/2015
The Unknown Side of the Black Community
Through the main character Janie Crawford, Zora Neale Hurston manifests the injustice
of racism. The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God narrates main character Janie Crawford's
"ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger
of her own destiny." Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, addresses many
concerns in the black community that would later be shamed on by the Harlem Renaissance.
Hurston illustrates the darker side of the black community, revealing jealousy, and the immoral
desire to tear down their more successful peers.
Hurston reveals that the black community can exhibit racism toward each other one of
her examples is Mrs. Turner a middle-aged woman of mixed (black and white) ethnicity, she
imposes herself upon Janie because of their similar heritage. Mrs. Turner worships all things
white and sees black representing evil and white represents goodness. Mrs. Turners racism
against black people is hypocritical and shows that the own black community degrades
themselves. We see that in the article that Hurston exemplify the detrimental efforts of racism
but she includes intracranial, as well as interracial conflicts showing that Hurston believes that
racism within the black community exist and is immoral.

Throughout the novel Zora Neale Hurston demonstrates the injustice of jealously among
the black community, mostly against Janie who 00is singled out for her light skin, but she's
singled out even more for her straight hair. Many of the characters in the novel react to her hair,
the black women are often jealous and/or hateful, and the black men are often strongly attracted.
The focus on straight hair and light skin is tied to white ideals of beauty, ideals that drove many
black women in the early part of the 20th century to attempt to bleach their skin and straighten
their hair through any number of cosmetic products. In the article it states that Janies challenge
comes from dominating men or an intolerant black women this show that Janies hardships is
being judged by her peers, who in their perspective they see Janie as someone better then
themselves because she is a mixed so that makes her more civilized which is Hurstons point,
that the black community degrade themselves and hold back their own community.
Zora Neale Hurston exposes how the black community have the immoral desire to tear
down their more successful peers by comparing how blacks treat Janie and how Whites do. We
see this in the Courtroom scene which is Janies final trial. Here, she faces racism from the same
community that nurtured her development and supported her during the hurricane. Hurston
shows the contrast with the judgment of the black peers who rejected Janie and is supported by
unfamiliar, white faces. In the article it shows that Hurston emphasizes the color prejudices
that some black hold against one another. Proving that the black community does not encourage
or support their peers but tear them down because Blacks cannot be successful because they will
be considered white and this is what Hurston thought was immoral.
In conclusion Zora Neale Hurston exposes Jealousy and the injustice of racism within the
black community and the desire to bring down their more successful black peers. Blacks are
discriminated by their own community because blacks cannot be successful because they will be

seen as white which is immoral, this injustice still happens in the world today where black
women compare themselves to white women because they think they are better and more
beautiful. Hurston illuminates the solution that black racism can only be stopped from where it
has started, and thats within the black community.