Zora Neale Hurston’s account of realizing her blackness, as well as her response to it and the historical burdens it bears differs exponentially from that of Du Bois. In Hurston’s “How it Feels to be Colored me”, she recounts her earliest encounters with white people, as they pass through her town. Because Eatonville, Florida was primarily occupied by a black community, seeing white people was a spectacle for Hurston. She was also aware of the spectacle her black community was on the white tourists, but instead of cautiously hiding away from their view, she embraced it and encouraged their peering with performance. Hurston, aware of her blackness, innocently gave into the stereotypes of her race and entertained the brief guests with performative blackness–dancing and singing on command. As she matured, she reveled in the differences between herself and her white peers, stating “[…]to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame”. She took the attention that her skin color brought her in amusement and found excitement in it. In doing so, she disconnected her identity from the slavery that had only ended sixty years prior, referring to it as a price that her ancestors paid for her, but denying ownership of their struggles.

W.E.B. Du Bois recounts an opposing experience and perspective in his “The Souls of Black Folk”. The precursor to his recollection of the moment he became aware of his blackness is his feelings of what it is like to be a problem. This description of negative experience follow him throughout his realization of being a spectacle (as Hurston would have stated it), as well as throughout his growing up. Unlike Hurston, Du Bois was made aware of his societally perceived differences by being shunned for them, as opposed to others’ entertainment by them. He describes it as a veil which includes the suffering of his slave ancestors, tying into his current identity– a clear opposition to Zora Neale Hurston’s experience. Instead of reveling in it, he used it to work harder as a child, aiming to be better than his white counterparts. Du Bois describes seeing himself constantly through the eyes of others and does not enjoy the idea of others looking on in amusement. Hurston expressed her enjoyment of this idea, whilst Du Bois aimed to separate from it.