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The Color Of Water And Night

Good Essays

In Race and Ethnicity Class we read two books. We read The Color of Water and Night. I really liked both books. They are informative on two different races. They are interesting and emotional. Color of Water is about a black Jewish man (James) and his relationship with his white Jewish mother (Ruth). In the story the man did not realize growing up that he and his mother are different races. He is mix, both black and white, and his mother is white. This causes him to spend much of his life questioning his identity. This hit home with me, because it is completely different than how I raised my children. As soon as I thought they were old enough to understand I explained to them that their daddy is part black and part white and that’s why some people on daddy’s side of the family are black and some are white. I also explained that I am all white and that this means that even though they look all white that they have a little bit of black in them. This makes me wonder if I had blew off their questions on why some of their family has a different skin color than them the way the mother in the story did if they would question their identity. My children no longer have questions why people have different skin colors. We taught them that it is wrong to judge people by their skin color and that everyone is equal and beautiful. After their father explain racism and told them stories about being picked on in school they agreed that it wasn’t fair. However after my experience with

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