Racial Segregations and Hope for More Equal Life in McBride's Autobiography, Color of Water

James McBride has faced many obstacles in his life and that consisted of facing discrimination throughout the majority of his youth, having an overall sense of being lost, being embarrassed by his mother’s appearance (being white), and questioning life in general. As the novel progresses, James begins to overcome the obstacles he has faced by embracing God and Jazz. He turned to Jazz in order to escape his drug use and drinking. James’ life has proven to be highly inspiring because he grew up during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. There were many conflicts surrounding interracial marriages and anything against Black Culture.

In the book The Color of Water. Racism plays a big part through the whole book. James Mcbride, one of the characters in the book has a mother named Ruth. Ruth's past was not good at all dealing with race throughout the book. In the book James tries to open up and see what his mothers past was about.

In The Color of Water by James McBride there are many conflicts that can be found involving Man vs Society. Throughout the book there is a lot of discrimination between the main characters and society that, Ruth and James both struggled with. Ruth grew up in a small town in Virginia learning the ways of an Orthodox Jew. She was not accepted by the society that she lived in, in her early life because she was Jewish. Ruth also had a lot of family problems that she escaped from when she moved to New York and converted to Christianity. Ruth ended up married to a black man named Dennis but once he died she remarried Hunter Jordan. Ruth was also not accepted by her society because she lived in Brooklyn raising 12 children of the opposite race as her. James is one of her sons and at one point in his life rebels against his society because he is upset about his stepfather’s death and doesn’t care about being successful. Throughout the book the conflict, Man vs. Society deals with a lot of racial discrimination. The society that James and Ruth are living in discriminate against their race, religion and decisions.

In order to escape the racism he experienced, and any other struggles in his life, James turned to music and books. These two things helped

The middle of the book takes more of a look of some of the prejudices that both Ruth and James went through during their upbringing. Ruth begins to talk about the difficulties that came with being Jewish and living in the South during that time period. She was always the target for mockery by her peers, but fortunately met a girl named Frances who truly accepted her for who she was. They would spend a lot of time together, most of the time at Frances’ house due Tateh’s discern for gentiles. James also faced similar prejudices at school. Since his mother put so much of an emphasis on schoolwork, James and all of his siblings would have to go to predominantly Jewish schools and were the objects of ridicule for the other students. There was one instance in particular in which James was asked by his classmates to dance because of a predisposed idea that because he was black he could dance. He danced for the class, but conflicting thoughts were rushing through his mind. He felt accepted by his peers, but also ashamed that he stooped so low to gain that acceptance. This example as well as other instances that occurred with his siblings showed the racial tensions that were filling the air at that time.

For example, James creates a persona in the mirror believing that his reflection lives a happy life, causing James much jealousy. He says of the boy in the mirror that he, “was free. He was never hungry, he has his own bed probably and his mother wasn’t white” (91). Since the boy in the mirror represents the life which James wishes to have, it is clear here that James resents not having consistent meals everyday and having to share with his siblings, but he also dislikes having a white mother. This information was deliberately written in this way to reveal that even though at this moment, James is a child, he has a seasoned understanding of the odd looks he receives because of his mother. He blames his mother for his problems, believing her race subtracts from him since they are related. Therefore, McBride must believe that conformity begins at even a young age because once one is able to recognize differences between themselves and others, they will begin to begrudge the differences leading to a hatred of their own lives in comparison to another, weakening their self identity. Moreover, through diction, McBride shows his desire to conform and embarrassment of his mother, who makes him different. After an incident at a store over spoiled milk, James thinks to himself, “I thought it would be easier if we were just one color, black or white… I would have preferred that Mommy were black” (103). The purpose of using the word color as opposed to race is done to portray James’s desire for simplicity in the situation, which he believes can be achieved through conforming wholly to either being black or white. James blames his mother for marrying a black man and causing his racial identity crisis, leading to pent up animosity. McBride consequently must regard being biracial as a complication, since it prevents individuals

The author of the novel, James McBride, shows how being biracial affected him throughout his life. When James was younger his racial identity caused many situations that made him favor the black side and feel ashamed of his mother. An example of James’ racial encounter is when he says “I could see it in the faces of the white people who stared at me and Mommy and my siblings when we rode the subway, sometimes laughing at us, pointing, muttering things like, ‘look at her with those little niggers’” (31). This is important because it shows how it made him realize that people were being cruel to them because his mom was a different skin color than them. James then states “I thought it would be easier if we were just one color, black or white. I didn’t want to be white… I

Ruth, James's mom, couldn’t have cared less that she had mixed children. As far as she was concerned, they were her children; the color of their skin didn’t matter to her. All Ruth cared about was the education her children were receiving in school. James saw it completely different than his mom did, though. James was confused about all of it.

abusing drugs and robbing people. Later on in the story, we discover that James is angry but does not know his reason for being angry. This only seems to perplex him even more. Soon, James accepts his family’s strategy for getting beyond racial identity by focusing on religion and education. He tells his friends that racism will be just be a thing in the past by the time they graduate, but later comes to this the realization that it will not be as he states, “instead it smashed me across the face like a bottle when I walked into the real world” (p. 204). It is only when he takes a journey into his mother’s past that he is able to balance his background and learn to love it, as proven when he says, “privileged to have from two worlds…a black man with something of a Jewish soul” (p. 103).

Her purpose of hiding was to protect them from colorism being that she continuously identifies herself as everything but a “white” women. She always told them that, “God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color” (McBride 51). In spite the fact that he talks about his success, I believe that this tribute is to his mom because throughout the book he talks about her values she instilled in them. By using logical, ethical, and emotional appeal James McBride honors his mother’s ethics of values of education, Christianity, and emotions of intense, tenderness, and honesty. He honors the downfalls and uplifting moments that he and his family faced. I think that this book is a great book that will make readers smile once they reach the end of the book, I would strongly recommend a friend to read this book it is very interesting and a attention

He writes about his life trying to figure out his heritage on his mother’s side of the family. He tells us his rough times and incredible experiences in his life. We find out through James’s and his mother’s eyes that because he was black but had a white mother (because he is mixed) his life was confusing and hard at times. For example we find out that people always asked and made fun of the fact that his mother is white. He is stereotyped as a kid because he is black and grows up in the “bad side of town” and that he is a bad kid and has no respect. As we see him grow up he becomes a determined and respectful young man becoming an author, journalist, jazz musician and composer. So he is stereotyped by where he grows up and his race when in fact he is a complete opposite of the

The Color of Water is a book about a black man’s tribute to his white mother. In this book we journey through James McBride’s life while he figures out who he is. As we go through the book we learn more about james and his family past. Ruth james mother was a jew her father was abusive did not care for the children the way a father should. Ruth’s mother was disabled but loved the kids and took care of them as best as she could. As James gets older he wants to know more about where he came from. He did not know much of his past as a result of his mother not wanting her children knowing about the rough past she came from. As well as wanting to learn about the secretive past his mother had he wanted to find himself and in doing so he had to find where he fit in and felt comfort.

Ruth McBride grew up in the South, right in between two towns - one was prominently white, and the other was prominently black. Her father, Fishel Shilskly, owned a convenience store that was often visited by poor black folks. Rachel talks of how her father loved to overprice goods to scam blacks and even says, "Tateh hated black people. He'd call the little children bad names in Yiddish and make fun of their parents, too" (48).

James McBride was one of twelve children that grew up in a chaotic household ran primarily by his odd white mother Ruth McBride. During the period of childhood, James struggled in trying to better understand his mix

In the book, The Color of Water, chapter 22, by James McBride, James meets Aubrey Rubinstein. James finally found for what he was searching for, which was a long search for the Shilsky family. James found out that his grandmother Hudis was buried in a Long Island graveyard. James saw Dee Dee but he did not want to approach her because he knows she had been through so much. James stated that “ I could only imagine how painful that must have been…” (McBride 221). James felt his aunt sorrow and did not want to approach her because he didn’t want to bring more pain into her. While walking through the river, James thought of his grandmother past. James had no more tears and didn’t expect his mother's family to go through this much because his mother