Book Review of The Color of Water

*Realized the color of your skin, race, has nothing to do

*God is the color of water

*Identity, society

The Color of Water

In the memoir, The Color of Water, we experience James McBride’s life, problems and victories, as, throughout the whole story, he pays tribute to his white mother, Ruth. James and his eleven siblings never really knew who their mother was or where she came from, they only knew that she was different from the rest of the people that surrounded their lives. We see how his mother’s experiences and race affect James in good and bad ways. The memoir is written and organized in the most interesting way. One chapter is italicized, written from Ruth’s point of view based on her experiences; the way she told her life and the things that make her who she is. And the next chapter, in between the story of his mom’s life, is James’ point of view of his life, always relating somehow to his mom’s story, and so on, alternating.

James had always seen a difference in his mother, other than the fact that she was white and he was black, but he didn’t know what it was. When he asked her where she came from she said “God made me,” and when he asked her if she was white she’d say, “I’m light skinned.” When James asked her what color he was she said “You are a human being.” It never really mattered to her the color of her skin or her race; she only cared about her children’s safety, Christianity and education. But to James it did matter because he was black, as were his eleven siblings, and his mother was noticeably white, even if she didn’t feel that way. Ruth McBride raised twelve black kids, not even worrying to be seen with them throughout the streets, and put them all through college. Her kids never knew the story of her past, but after many struggles with society, James realized that in order to understand himself he had to understand his mother first. 

When James was a little kid, he loved it when his mother paid attention to him, since there were so many kids that it was difficult for him to be the center of attention. But as he started growing up he was ashamed to be seen with a white woman around his African-American neighborhood in New York, the Red Hook Housing Projects in Brooklyn. He realized that it wasn’t normal for a black child to have a white mother like his. He was afraid that his friends would see him because it was so unusual. Mommy, who always demanded respect and good grades and was a source of confusion and worry due to her race, had had a past that none of her twelve children ever imagined.

Ruth McBride Jordan is dead to her family. First known as Rachel Deborah Shilsky, she was born in Poland in 1921 an Orthodox Jew. She was the daughter of a Jewish rabbi, Fishel Shilsky, Tateh as she called him in her narrations. She called her mother, Hudis Hilsky, Mameh, and she had polio and was crippled on the left side of her body, but was always a good mother no matter what. Mameh’s family didn’t really care for her, because of her disabilities. On the contrary, when Ruth got married later, her husband’s family always took care of her and cared like if she was their own daughter. This made me realize that some families are connected because of blood but not because of heart and love, and Mameh’s part of the family didn’t have a nice heart; but other families do care about everybody. Ruth had an older brother called Sam and a younger sister called Dee-Dee. When Ruth was 2, they moved to the South of the U.S and lived in Suffolk, Virginia. Her family established a kosher store in the black section of town. Tateh overcharged his costumers, only cared about the money earned, and was racially demeaning to blacks. He sexually abused Ruth many times, when she was a little girl, and forced her to do harsh work for the store. He was also a very bad husband and ignored his wife.

During those harsh years when Ruth lived with her Jewish family, she also had hard times at school because of her religion. She used to have only one friend called Frances; many good moments from Ruth’s past involved her. Her brother, Sam, also ran away some years after having his bar mitzvah, and then died in World War II. Dee-Dee was always shy and following Tateh’s rules. Ruth then realized that Dee-Dee had suffered sorrow and desperation throughout the years, and her shyness was only a way to hide her pain.

Peter was Ruth’s first boyfriend, he was black and extremely nice to her, but society obligated them to see each other secretly. He got Ruth pregnant and she had to go to New York and ask her Aunt to help her with the abortion of the baby. I think that Ruth did want to have that baby, she had never really wanted the abortion but that was the only option she had because otherwise Tateh would have killed Peter and maybe her, too. I think that when Ruth had her kids with Dennis she didn’t apply for abortion, even though she was still young, because now she was free and not under Tateh’s law.   

The day after graduation, Ruth decides to leave Suffolk and head to New York, where her mom’s part of the family lived. She loved New York because she always saw blacks and whites integrated; there wasn’t too much racial separation. She had a really big affection for Bubeh, Mameh’s mom, so she stayed with Bubeh in her apartment in the Bronx. A connection I made was that Ruth went to New York to live with Bubeh because she gave her support, and in James’ case he went to Kentucky to live with Jack because she gave him support while he was doing drugs.

She also worked on her Aunt Mary’s leather factory, and there she met Andrew Dennis McBride. There she fell in love with Dennis and they lived together in an apartment in Harlem, before getting married in 1942. It was hard for them to get married because no preacher wanted to do it, but they found Rev Brown who offered. This made me see that love is more powerful than the racial differences Ruth, a black woman, and Dennis, a black man, had. Many blacks around the neighborhood didn’t accept Ruth, but they stayed together. Ruth recalls those years of her life being the happiest she ever had. She also retired from being Jewish, and started believing and praying to God.

            They had their first baby in 1943, and continued having more kids until they had seven. They had moved to Red Hook Housing Projects by then. Dennis had wanted to start a church and be a preacher. So he initiated by having meetings at his house with the neighbors. Then he found an empty building near Red Hook and called it New Brown Memorial, he became the reverend. Dennis was the best husband Ruth could ever have, but at an early age he died of lung cancer, when James McBride, his eighth son wasn’t yet born.

           

Music and writing was what brought James back to life after he had been in the bottom and in Ruth’s life Dennis revived her and later Hunter Jordan. Months later, Ruth’s grief ended when she met Hunter Jordan, another black man. They got married and he became James’ role model. Since he had never known his biological father, he called Hunter Daddy. He was a mechanic for the New York City Housing Authority. Ruth and Hunter had four children together. He gave Ruth the support not any man would have given her, and raised the rest of the kids like if they were his. He spent all his money buying a new house for the twelve kids, and moved them all to St. Albans, Queens.

            James was 14 when Hunter Jordan died from a stroke, and he began rebelling against his mother doing drugs and drinking. He started having failing grades because his only role model was gone, and he knew a part of his mother was gone too. He began plummeting in every single thing he had done correctly once, and mommy decided to send him to Louisville, Kentucky with Jack, his older sister for three summers. She warns him of doing drugs and crimes, and eventually he follows her advice. Her husband, Big Richard introduces him to the corner, a tavern, and she meets Chicken Man who teaches him that if he’s smart he has to prove it because anybody can be smart but not anybody can actually make a smart act. James moves back with his family, and they all go live in Delaware.

            As a grown man, James decides to go to Suffolk and talk to people there to find out more about his white mother. He finds a man who gives him more information about his mother. Then James also decides to go find Frances, Ruth’s only friend in Suffolk, and they are both delighted to see each other after so many years. Much later, in 1994 it’s the fortieth-anniversary of the New Brown Memorial Baptist Church. James and his family are there, and Ruth, and many other family members of Reverend McBride the founder. Mommy is called up to talk about the beginnings of the church, and gives her first speech ever about her first great husband.

            James studies at Oberlin College and graduate from Columbia University, he becomes a famous writer, composer, and saxophonist. He could find his identity and who he really was, after finding out his determined mother’s back round. He realizes that the color of the sin has nothing to do with the size of your heart or your determination.   

     

The title, The Color of Water, is extremely important in this book. One afternoon on the way home from church, James asks “Mommy” if God is black or white.

“Oh boy… God’s not black. He’s not white. He’s a spirit.”

“Does he like black or white people better?”

“He loves all people. He’s a spirit.”

“What’s a spirit?”

“A spirit’s a spirit.”

“What color is God’s spirit?”

“It doesn’t have a color,” she said. “God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color.”

This means that God loves everybody, it doesn’t matter the color of the skin. Also that He, Himself is the color of water, which I think means He is black and white and any way you want to picture Him; but His spirit is always there when you truly need Him. I think it also means that like water, He is pure, but most importantly He has no color. This was the line I loved the most throughout the book: God is the color of water.

I liked this book very much because it showed me how determination can make you reach your dreams. Twelve children who used to be in the poor rank went all through college and graduated to be what they are now. It also showed me that love is greater than the differences in race, and that the color of your skin only makes you different on the outside, but inside we are all equal and have an equal value.