The Sanctified Church [Paperback]

Zora Neale Hurston (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 137 pages
• Publisher: Marlowe & Co (February 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569247307
• ISBN-13: 978-1569247303
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #786,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyed and Can Relate, January 30, 2008

By 

Big Sistah Patty (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sanctified Church (Paperback)

The Sanctified Church by Zora Neale Hurston

I enjoyed this book. I say Ms. Zora spoke truth to power. I personally believe the sanctified church is the keeper of black traditions. One excerpt that really spoke truth to me is the following:

"In the mouth of the Negro the English language loses it stiffness. Yet conveys its meaning accurately. "

This is absolutely the truth. We adorn the language. It I like having a soup with just meat and potatoes. We are the onions, celery, salt, pepper, etc. We eliminate the boredom, the blandness.

It also sounds so fake when others try to use the language the way we do. It comes of there mouths so awkwardly and unnatural. They actually sound retarded.

"The average Negro glories in his ways. The highly educated the same. The self-despisement lies in the middle class who scorns to do or be anything Negro. "That just like a nigger" is the most terrible rebuke one can lay on his kind. He wears drab clothing, sits through a boresome church service, pretends to have no interest in the community, holds beauty contest, and apes all of the mediocrities of the white brother. The truly cultured Negro scorns him and the Negro "farthest down" is too busy "spreading his junk" in his own way to see or care. Even the groups, who are not Negroes, buy such records as "Shake dat thing" and "Tight lak dat." They really enjoy hearing a good bible-beating preacher, but wild horse could drive no such admission from them. Their ready made expression is: "We done got away from all of that now."Some refuse to countenance Negro music on the grounds that is niggerism, and for that reason should be done away with. Ronald Hayes was thoroughly denounced for singing spirituals until he was accepted by white audiences. Langton Hughes is not considered a poet by this group because he writer of the man in the ditch, who is more numerous and real among us than any other."

Mama Zora hit the nail on the head. I get this from a lot of black folks. These are the same folks still exist. They hate their own culture, which without; America and planet Earth would be a bore. Yet these same folks are quick to brag about other folk's cultures and ways. God they do make you sick.