Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston had an essentalism view. She takes an essential post to both black and white. She believes that due to biology, you are what  you are independent to cultural influences. She believes in what is called cultural construction. Cultural Construction means that you are what you are just due to assimilation or upbringing or condition. You do not have any nautral tendencies.  There is a good article where cultural construction is applied to twin studies at http://tinyurl.com/dxvsmy7.

One of the things that I found interesting in the reading on Hurston is the way that African-Americans have affected standard english. Hurston says, "In this respect the American Negro has done wonders to the English language. It has often been stated by etymologists that the Negro has introduced no African words to the language. This is true, but it is equally true that he has made over a great part of the tongue to his liking ans has had his revision accecpted by the ruling class." Hurston is saying that black speech has affected standard English. Black Americans at a time where they were not fully free made these contributions and it should be recognized.