The color of water : a Black man's tribute to his white mother

by James McBride

Paper Book, 2006

Status

Available

Barcode

10289

Publication

New York : Riverhead Books, 2006.

Description

Biography & Autobiography. Nonfiction. HTML: Who was Ruth McBride Jordan? Not even her son knew the answer to that question until he embarked on a twelve-year journey that changed himself and his family forever. Born Rachel Deborah Shilsky, she began life as the daughter of an angry, failed orthodox Jewish rabbi in the South. To escape her unhappy childhood, Ruth ran away to Harlem, married a black man, became Baptist and started an all-black church. Her son James tells of growing up with inner confusions, chaos, and financial hardships; of his own flirtation with drugs and violence; of the love and faith his mother gave her twelve children; and of his belated coming to terms with her Jewish heritage. The result is a powerful portrait of growing up, a meditation on race and identity, and a poignant, beautifully crafted hymn from a son to his mother..… (more)

Original publication date

1995

Physical description

xix, 328 p.; 21 cm

Media reviews

Wie fatal die entschlossene Weigerung dieser Frau, irgend etwas anderes zu sein als sie selbst, sich auf die nächste Generation überträgt, macht den Leser schier atemlos. Wie erfolgreich sie und ihre Kinder andererseits Teil des amerikanischen Traumes werden, nicht minder. James McBride liefert
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mit seinem Debut nicht nur eine Familiengeschichte ab, sondern ebenso ein Sittenbild des amerikanischen Südens der 40er Jahre und New Yorks in der Mitte dieses Jahrhunderts. Und dieses Bild ist alles andere als schwarzweiß.
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User reviews

LibraryThing member nbmars
The Color of Water is an absorbing and moving memoir about the author’s coming of age as a mixed race man with a black father and a Jewish mother who admitted only to having “light” skin. The book is also “A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother.” Ruth Shilsky McBride converted to
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Christianity after she married her first husband and father of the author. But she probably stopped being a Jew when being molested at night by her Orthodox Rabbi father, or when her father finally abandoned her crippled mother for a gentile neighbor, or when richer aunts shunned her (going so far as to declare her dead for marrying a black man). Or, when she found the love, acceptance, and salvation she was seeking all her life among black people.

With Ruth’s first husband, Andrew McBride, she had eight children. Following his death of lung cancer, she remarried Hunter Jordan, Sr. and had four more children. The author and his siblings were raised in Brooklyn’s Red Hook housing projects in cramped quarters with no television but lots of pressure from his mother to use their minds. And use them they did, growing up to become doctors, professors, chemists, teachers, and in the author’s case, a writer and award-winning musician and composer. Once James asked his mother, “Am I black or white?” She snapped back at him: “You’re a human being. Educate yourself or you’ll be a nobody!” When the kids were growing up, “Mommy,” as they called her, would lead her long rag-tag group of kids wearing hand-me-downs and hand-outs to the city to every free cultural event offered: festivals, libraries, concerts, exhibits.

But the author’s growing up years were marred by his struggles over his mixed identity. And Mommy always seemed oblivious to the fact that she was a white woman inhabiting a totally black world. He asked his mother whether God was black or white. “Oh boy,” she responded, “God’s not black. He’s not white. He’s a spirit.” …God’s spirit doesn’t have a color. “God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color.”

I loved this heart-warming book. It is more than a memoir; it is also a revealing look into the two worlds that come together so fruitfully in this touching tribute to a life well-spent.
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LibraryThing member tututhefirst
James McBride tells us the story of growing up black, in Harlem, then in projects in the Bronx. Raised by his white mother (his black father died before he was born) and black step-father, he was one of 12 children. He describes a loving family life, where children were expected to be successful,
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respectful, and STAY IN SCHOOL. Children were due in the house by 5:00 in the evening, and slept 5 to a bed. Dinner might often be a jar of peanut butter or several spoons of sugar. He never met his mother's family and did not discover until he had completed his master's in Journalism at Columbia U, and decided to write a tribute to his mother, that she was jewish, that her family had disowned her, that her father was an orthodox Jewish rabbi who abused her, and just how hard her life had been.

The story is told both in the son's and the mother's voices. It is very well-written, and gives us an incredible insight into each mind. James' father was a preacher, and his mother converted to Christianity and insisted on church attendance and prayer from all her children. As he begins to realize that his mother is different from other mothers, he asks her "Is God Black?" "NO" she answers. "Well is he white?" Mom replies in the negative. Still the young boy persists. "Well what color is he?" "The color of water." I just loved that image, and fell in love with this family.

As he lovingly recounts his search for his mother's family, and helps her confront a past she has repressed, he comes to an acceptance of his Jewishness, his multi-cultural roots, and gives us a picture of an exceptional family. In the epilogue he gives us a breakdown of the incredible achievements of them all. Every one of the 12 graduated from college. There are two doctors, school teachers, musicians, journalists, nurses, artists, and the mother completes her degree in her late 60's.

It's a tribute any mother would be proud to have her son write.
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LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Author James McBride's mother, Ruth, rarely spoke of her past during McBride's childhood in Queens. McBride knew his mother as a hard-working devout church-going Christian who was determined that all twelve of her children receive a college education. Her past was nothing like her present. Ruth
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McBride Jordan had been Rachel Shilsky in Suffolk, Virginia, the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. Her family had emigrated from Poland to the US in the 1920s when Rachel/Ruth was two. By the time McBride was born, Ruth and her first husband, Andrew McBride, had founded the Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Brooklyn. Ruth eventually opened up her past to her son. He writes his mother's life story in chapters that alternate between McBride's childhood memory of his mother and her recollections of her early life and her transformation from Rachel Shilsky to Ruth McBride Jordan.

This book is as much about McBride's coming to terms with his mixed race heritage as it is about his mother's life. The title comes from a childhood conversation between McBride and his mother. McBride and his siblings were conscious of the fact that their mother didn't look like them. When he pressed his mother about his race – was he black or white – she responded that he was “a human being.” And what about God, he asked? God is “the color of water.”

Ruth McBride Jordan left the world a better place than she found it. The world needs more people like her.
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LibraryThing member homeschoolmimzi
This was another book I came across while browsing at Barnes & Noble. The story was so inspiring, difficult and humorous at times too. James McBride is a fabulous story teller. In The Color of Water, McBride goes back and forth between two stories, telling his story growing up as one of eleven
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children, born to a white mother and black minister father, and his mother's story, growing up as a daughter of an orthodox Jewish rabbi.

I loved the title, The Color of Water. It was the phrase his mother used when McBride asked her what color God was: 'God is no color, he's the color of water.'

Fascinating read and highly recommended!
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LibraryThing member DrFuriosa
An intriguing glimpse at a biracial man's coming-of-age and discovery of his Jewish heritage. I'd read this 11 years ago for a class, but am re-reafing for my book club.
LibraryThing member EmScape
A very interesting look into the life of a woman who chose to enter a mixed-race marriage at a time when doing so could be dangerous. It was also clear that the author was uncovering mysteries of his own childhood and putting things into perspective of his lived experience. A fascinating book!
LibraryThing member MarthaJeanne
The parallel accounts of James McBride and his mother's lives are haunting. His matches the cliche of 'growing up poor and black in New York city' just as poorly as hers does 'growing up the daughter of an orthodox Jewish rabbi'.

We learn a lot less about James than about his mother, but I think
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that is intentional. Even the autobiographical chapters are really about how she affected him, and how her upbringing affected the way she brought her children up.
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LibraryThing member BookConcierge
McBride and his eleven siblings knew their mother was a free-thinking, intensely private, strong-willed woman, who demanded excellence from her brood. She was disorganized and overwhelmed, but they knew she loved them. She believed firmly in Jesus Christ and insisted they all attend church each
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Sunday. She also insisted that they attend the best possible public schools … which meant the Jewish public schools where they were frequently the only Blacks in attendance. They lived for most of their youth in Brooklyn’s Red Hook projects. Certainly they knew their mother wasn’t like the other kids’s mothers; but when they asked, she would simply say, “I’m light-skinned.” When James asked if he was black or white his mother’s curt response was, “You’re a human being. Educate yourself or you’ll be a nobody!” When he asked what color God was, his mother answered, “He’s the color of water.”

But eventually, and after repeated pleas, James convinced his mother to tell the story that he and his siblings never knew – or even suspected. She was not only white, but Jewish – the daughter of an Orthodox rabbi.

The book is told in alternating chapters – Ruth’s story, and James’s story. McBride doesn’t hold back in this memoir of “A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother.” He clearly outlines the missteps and tragedies, as well as the joy and success of his extended family.

It is emotional and heartfelt, tender and raw, full of the personal issues of race, religion and identity, as well as the societal issues of race and religion.
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LibraryThing member labfs39
Ruth McBride Jordan underwent several name changes in her life, each indicative of a major life event. She was born Ruchel Zylska on a shtetl in Eastern Europe. When she emigrated to the US with her family, her name was changed to Rachel, and then Ruth, Shilsky. Orthodox Jews, her father ran a
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small grocery store with the help of her disabled mother. Despite depending on the local Black population for their livelihood, her father hated Blacks, and when Ruth moves to New York and falls in love with a Black man, her family sits shiva. She is dead to them.

A white woman living with a Black man in 1941 would have been dangerous in the South, but they found acceptance in Harlem, eventually marrying and having seven children. Dennis McBride was religious and Ruth finds solace and joy in the Baptist Church. When Ruth was pregnant with James, their eighth child, Dennis becomes sick and dies of cancer. Ruth overcomes her profound grief and goes on to marry again and have another four children. When her second husband dies when James is 14, Ruth raises her twelve children on her own. All of them go to college and become successful professionals. Her story is one of perseverance and determination.

The book is written in alternating chapters with first James and then Ruth narrating. James writes of his struggles with his mixed heritage and identity and the lure of life on the street as a teen. He knew little of his mother's background, not even that she was Jewish, until he was an adult. This book is both a tribute to his mother and an uncovering of her past. Clearly she was a tremendous force in the lives of her children, although not always a gentle one.

The audio version is wonderful. The narrators do a fantastic job of bringing the words to life with subtle accent and cadence changes. I highly recommend it.
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LibraryThing member PAUlibrary
The story of an immigrant mother, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised; it delves into feelings of isolation, but is ultimately a success story of a mother who battled no only racism but also poverty to raise her children. The Color of Water addresses racial identity
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with compassion, insight, and realism.
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LibraryThing member missesK
James McBride creates a not-very-flattering portrait of race in America in this outstanding story of his white Jewish mother and black father and stepfather. Ruth McBride was born an Orthodox Jew who came to America at the age of two. The product of a traditional, arranged, loveless marriage, her
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family lived in the South, and from a young age she found warmth and love only in the black community. As a teenager she left home for New York, married a black man, raised 8 children, founded a church in Brooklyn, and married again as a widow and raised another 4.
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LibraryThing member ilovemycat1
Wonderful story of the author's upbringing by his very unorthodox mother who herself was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family. Due to the narrowness of her family's views and the abusiveness of her father, she leaves home at a young age. She winds up in New York City, falls in love with a black man,
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marries, has 8 children with her husband and they start a church in Brooklyn. When he dies at a young age, right when the author was born, she marries again to another black man and has 4 more children. The children mostly grow up in the Red Hook Housing Project in Brooklyn and due to their mother's emphasis on education, and the love in the home they all graduate college, with most obtaining advanced degrees and become professionals in various fields. The author's mother never talks about her past, the author did not know her maiden name until college, or even that she was white, instead she says she is light skinned or the color of water, meaning that there is no color and color is not important. Their story is fascinating and the book is very easy to read. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member mayinkzoo94
Wow! This was such an interesting book. James McBride weaves an incredible account of growing up in a blended family in the 1950's . It touched me with his relationship with his mother and her real life. Thanks, James!
LibraryThing member Sandydog1
What a refreshing book. This is an inspirational story of a mother's tenacity, stubborness and total devotion to her children.
LibraryThing member BoundTogetherForGood
This is a wonderful book that helps one to understand what it was like for a black child to be raised by a white, Jewish woman in Harlem. Wow. GREAT book
LibraryThing member carmarie
This was a great memoir. Amazing writing! I remember when reading this that his writing flowed so easily, though the story he told was not. It was a great memoir of a man trying to connect us to his mother. Great.
LibraryThing member DSlongwhite
Very well written book written by a black man as a tribute to his white mother. Every other chapter is about the mother and then the inbetween chapers are about the son growing up.

The mother was born in Poland of Jewish parents. Her mother had polio and was paralyzed on one side. Her father was a
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rigid, controlling, abusive rabbi.

The day after she graduated from high school, she got on a bus and headed for NYC. She ended up marrying a black man who was a devout Christian. She converted and they founded a church in Harlem. They had seven children. When she was pregnant with the author, the father died of cancer. She was devastated. Eventually she married another black man and had five more children. All children graduated from college and many had advanced degrees.
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LibraryThing member gingerzing
I really enjoyed this book. A biography of the author's mother and her family. The whole read was fascinating.
LibraryThing member silverwing2332
The Color of Water juxtaposes the story of a half white, half black man growing up and learning his place and identity in the world, with the story of his mother (a white jewish woman) growing up and finding her place and identity. The style of the book is very interesting, the way that it is
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written keeps the story moving along and it does not get boring.
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LibraryThing member jenzbookshelf
Although I love the title, The Color of Water, I struggle to say I liked the book. It has some wonderful merits, but I just can't say I loved it either.

The author James McBride obviously loves and respects his mother. I think that is heartwarming in itself. Mrs. Ruth McBride (the mother) did an
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amazing job instilling the value of education in the minds and hearts of her children seeing them all to college. Any mother who raised 12 children to become responsible adults deserves a tribute.

The book also includes many fabulous themes for discussion: heritage, identity, religion, faith, parenting, marriage relationships, family hierarchy, race, forgiveness, love, history, etc. There is worth in reading this book particularly along side some other classics like Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, or Martin Luther King Jr's I Have a Dream speech.

But somehow this book just didn't reach straight to my heart. I'm not sure why, because I do see so much that is of worth in this book.

Perhaps it's because I want more information about Ruth. I want to know more about her relationships with her husbands. I want to know more about her faith. I want to know how her faith changed her. And the book never quite lets me see how that change happened.

I see many issues in Ruth's life where she needed the healing influence of Jesus: her molesting and abusive father, her first boyfriend, her abortion, her family abandoning her, etc. But I never get to the heart of how her conversion to Christianity healed the years of hurt. Obviously the woman had great faith that saw her through the years and helped her raise 12 kids. And I began to see a glimpse of it when she told Dennis that she wanted to get married and refused to "live in sin" any longer. But it never went beyond that.

I suppose the reason could be that this book was written by her son James McBride, and I really want to hear the story from Ruth's own lips. James McBride is successful in portraying his personal love for his mother, but he's lacking when it comes to expressing his mother's testimony. That's what I really wanted to see.
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LibraryThing member peleluna
This is one of those few books that I felt touched a corner of my soul. Every time I have conversations about race, ethnicity, and idenitity I always find myself drawing on this little gem and passing it along.
LibraryThing member jbigham0114
I loved this book. It was very insightful and moving. Since my children are bi-racial, I could identify with the author. It is also something I would recommend my children read when they are older so that they can see how much time changes things. One of my favorites!
LibraryThing member Vampirate_queen
The Color of Water is not my favorite book. I had to read it for school and do all sorts of work on it. That doesn't help me like it at all. Despite all the work I did on it, I still thought it was an okay book. It was sad, and it could be confusing at times. The ending was not satisfying enough
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for me. It could have been better.
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LibraryThing member Britt1075
A heart warming tale of an inter racial family and the ups and downs that come with being an inter racial family growing up in New York City in 1950's and 60's. James McBride tells the story of his Jewish mothers' up bringing in the south and her life after moving to New York City and marrying a
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black man, converting to Christianity and raising inter racial children in a prejudice world. While I thoroughly enjoyed this book it seems like there could have been a whole lot more said about this families struggles. All together a great book though.
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LibraryThing member moonstruckeuphoria
This is a fascinating book; I'll tell you why.

I don't only love this 'cause I'm mesmerized by cultural oriented literature, but also because of the wholesome spirit added in. Sometimes I get bored with straight forward memoirs or biographies, but James Mcbride adds in not only his mother's
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biography – but also his intricate childhood recollections! I don't know if it'd be the same without that personalized detail added in every other chapter or so – and I know that really helped in keeping my attention growing with each passing page.

One of my favorite quotes from it is (the one the book is obviously named after):

“A deep sigh. '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.'”

Lastly, this is my other favorite quote:

“'You don't need money. What's money if your mind is empty! Educate your mind! Is this world crazy or am I the crazy one? It's probably me.'”
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Pages

xix; 328

Rating

½ (1299 ratings; 4)
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