“The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother” (1996) by James McBride was the number one book in America and spent two years on the New York Times’s bestseller list. It is now required reading at many high schools and universities.
It tells the story of his mother, who became an outcast from white society for marrying a black man in the 1940s, bringing up 12 children in Red Hook, a poor black part of New York, sending them all to get university degrees. And it is about James McBride himself, about his search for who he is as a mixed-race person.
Growing up, McBride did not make all that much of being mixed. He looked black, thought of himself as black. It was not like he could pass for white or something. He avoided the issue, but by the time he reached 30 he found he could not go on like that.
When he was growing up his mother was the only white person in the neighbourhood, at church, at the bus stop. And yet her past was a mystery. She never talked about where she came from or how she got there. But McBride found he could not understand himself unless he understood the mystery of her past.
She would not even say she was white. She said she was “light-skinned”. It turned out to be truer than McBride knew. She had a white body, got the diseases that white people get, but because whites would not accept her while black people did (more or less), she became in effect black. McBride calls her a black woman inside a white woman’s body.
Bit by bit the truth came out. She was a rabbi’s daughter who grew up in the South. Being Jewish in the South and living on the black side of town where her family’s shop was, she had only one good white friend growing up. After high school she left home for New York. There she fell in love and got married.
But because her husband was black, her family cut her off. Completely. They would not even let her see her mother on her deathbed. When her husband died and she needed help, they slammed the door in her face. Only years later, after the book became a bestseller, did they speak to her again.
Cut off, she did not know what the future held, she did not know what she was doing half the time, but, becoming a Christian, she trusted utterly in God.
One time he saw his mother crying in church. He thought it was because she wanted to be black like everyone else. He asked her what colour God was. She said, “the colour of water”.
When she saw him off to Oberlin College she gave an absent-minded wave as the Greyhound bus pulled out. But when the bus turned the corner and he could see her again, she had broken down, leaning against the wall crying.
See also:
- James McBride
- biracial
- Jews
- New York
- black ghetto
- The Wigger Fallacy
- Barack Obama
- There is absolutely nothing wrong with being black
I read this book quite a while ago and have forgotten quite a bit about it. I remember being touched by it, not so much because of the narrative of her life as by the fact that he would go to such an extraordinary length to piece together the narrative.
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i’ve heard of this book, btw abagond i love your blog.
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I firmly believe that racism makes people stupid. She was not allowed to see her dying mother because she married someone who had a tad more melanin in their skin than she did? Seriously? For the last time- THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING BLACK!!!
Abagond, I really do appreciate this blog.
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this is a book I plan to read – i have not heard of it before. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
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I read this book back when it was first released. Matter of fact, McBride himself, spoke at a local college back where I lived to promote the release.
I think it was an interesting love letter from a son to a mother. However, the racial spin didn’t resonate with me, similar to Rebecca Walker’s memoir. Everything that he said in the book regarding race came from a distinctly black perspective, not a “mixed race” one.
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Those days, people were stupid and they were evil. Even though that we have come a long way, still in other parts of the world, in Dabur for black people are still treated harshly. I really think those we have a lot of problens now, with self esteem issues of young black women and young men. This constant bombing of the wrong images of young black people now, which is so important, we need solutions for now.
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how sad! what a devoted mother!
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mynameismyname said:
I think it was an interesting love letter from a son to a mother. However, the racial spin didn’t resonate with me, similar to Rebecca Walker’s memoir. Everything that he said in the book regarding race came from a distinctly black perspective, not a “mixed race” one.
So which books take a mixed-race point of view as opposed to a black one?
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perhaps it taks a black mans view because the world perceives him as black man. It would be a black mans view of his white mother.
Technically my bro in law is half black and half hispanic. He thinks of himself as black.
My niece and nephew is 1/4 black, 1/4 hispanic and 1/2 white. She was 3 years old when I over heard her tell a fellow mixed race preschooler – my daddy is like your daddy, not like my mommy and me. My niece looks pretty mixed, but my nephew looks like a blonde surfer boy. If my nephew were to write a book about his father – it might be as a person who is white and what it was like to have a black father in society. Espeically since my nephew will look to his father as a role model – and growing up he might ask question about who he is, where he blongs etc. Its the issue a mixed race child deals with all over the world.
I remember in the movie “Rising Sun” with Sean Connary, Wesley Snipes and Tia Carrere – Tia played a half asian and half black women. She was shunned in Japanese society. I the dialog between her and Wesley has stayed with me even though I saw the movie maybe 10 years ago. And when I think of people dealing with issues associate with mixed race – this quote always comes to mind
Wesley – How do you feel about working with us? I mean the police. – Especially since you’re…
Tia – You mean… because I’m Japanese. Yeah. Here I’m Japanese. But in Japan, I was ainoku. My father was a kokujin. You knowthat word, kokujin? – Negro? –
Wesley – Negro. Oh, yes. I know that word.
Tia – Yes, a Black man. He was with the American Air Force. My mother worked in a noodle shop. Do you know the term… ..”he’s a bit burakumin”? It’s like uh… Untouchable. I was even lower than burakumin… ..because I was deformed. To the Japanese, deformity is shameful.
Her father was untouchable because he was black in their society. She there for would already have been “un touchable” – add to that a deformed hand and she was less than human in that society. It makes me sad – I know its just a fictional story, but its based on real prejudice.
Also – Law and Order SVU had an episode where a half chinese half black man was so devalued and shunned by his community – so hated as a “black devil” that he turned this rage toward asian women – and became a serial rapist and murderer. Instead of celebrating the diversity they hated what was different from themselves. It makes me sick.
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As I’ve said before, I really like this book and feel that it is a wonderful tribute from a son to his mother.
P.S. I chose you for a blog award!
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i would NEVER go against my own damn family just to marry someone from another race. most black women feel this way.
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mynameismyname,
James McBride was born & grew up at a time when whites who married blacks were shunned from the white community so they usually ended up living among their spouse’s community. I think segregation kept racially mixed people from having the mixed experience. Maybe the book would have been different if he’d been born later.
Abagond, I read this book, but have none of your recall of it. I enjoyed your critique/summarization.
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Well, the five books that I’ve read by authors who were American products of black and white marriages- Barack Obama’s Dreams of My Father, Danzy Senna’s Caucasia, Angela Nissel’s Mixed (very funny- check it out; I’ve plugged before on here) and the aforementioned autobiographies by Walker and McBride- all came from a distinctly black perspective. The typical black American (who does not have a white parent) could have easily wrote what they wrote, in terms of how they saw the world.
One autobiography that also has a perspective that steers more towards a traditionally black American viewpoint but still may capture a geniunely “mixed” one is David Matthews’ “Ace Of Spades”.
Matthews is the son of a white Israeli Jewish woman and a fair-skinned black man from Baltimore. He’s raised in a lower-middle-income neighborhood in B-More by his single dad in a strongly black cultural context.
However, Matthews looks white. As a teen, he decides that he will pass for white in his racially divided city. It’s hard at first but he gets the gist of it, all while hiding his double life from his racially militant black father. In time, he comes to gripes with his fractured past (he never met his mentally insane white Jewish mother; his white stepmother abused him mentally and physically), embraces his cultures and proudly proclaims himself as a black man.
The book is very interesting. Matthews has a sharp, intellectual (yet dark) sense of humour. And his take on the madness of race is very new. Not the same ol’ same ol’ that we usually gets peddled with. Everyone should check it out.
To note, Matthews has said that he is not a fan of either of Walker’s and McBride’s releases.
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Also:
Dedabets,
“Hispanic” isn’t a race. So, your bro-in-law is a black man, any way you slice it.
Temple,
Although Matthews’ view of race steers more towards a black American viewpoint, his life experiences of being straddled in the middle of America’s racial line is far more credible than the five other authors I listed above. Aside from Senna, the other four look black. They were seen as black and treated as such. So they will never be “on the brink”, if you will, of being on the other side of “blackness” like Matthews, who is commonly persumed as white, is.
He got full access to the REAL racial thoughts of both black America and white America because of how he looked. The other four could never say that. It has nothing to do with when they were born; they have clear Negroid influenced facial features and hence will never truly live a truly “mixed race” experience. Same for anyone who looks “black” in America.
Also, Aba, there’s a couple anthologies and books on the “Hapa” experience. They give a far more interesting and enlightned view of being “mixed race” but folks don’t seem to have much interest in interracial offspring who don’t come from black/white parents.
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I am aware that “hispanics” are a designate given to people who are of spanish / indigenous people that come from latin america and are technically classified as caucasin. But if I told this to my “hispanic friends” they would be upset to be classified as such. Their is a certain amount of pride these days to being a POC…and most people attempt to claim any thing other than white it seems. If you told my bro in laws mother she was white she would be pissed. My coworker has said things like “us brown people” meaning not me – meaning her and other minorities..and she is half english decent and half peruvian decent…tell her shes white and she would be offended…
Not sure what it all means – just my observation. But i do know most people of latin american decent that I know do not consider themselves caucasin.
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mynameismyname,
I read “Ace of Spades” by David Matthews, I could not put it down. Loved It!!
Dedabets,
Hispanic technically just means origins in a spanish speaking country. Anyone who is any race can be hispanic.
The hispanic folks you are describing are called mestizos (euro/indian) who are the majority in several latin countries. Your friends are correct in saying they are not technically caucasian because they aren’t. They’re most likely mixed mestizos.
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but they refer to themselves as hispanic or latin…i have a sneaking suspicion that if I corrected them I would be told a thing or two.
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They can refer to themselves as a hispanic or latin (culturally) but if they start thinking of hispanic as a “race”, then that’s just incorrect.
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Exactly, Kat.
The U.S. doesn’t acknowledge racial mixture. So, instead of acknowleding mestizos, they’d rather just lump them into the “Latino/Hispanic” box. That’s what that whole term is about. Just another box to make it easier to caterogize folks. Don’t get me started with the whole “African American” tag …
I couldn’t put down Ace of Spades either. I’m so glad that people have heard of it! Mr. Matthews is from my home state and is a freelance writer. He’s a very interesting guy. I think we’ll hear more from him in the future.
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mynameismyname:
I never heard of “Ace of Spades”. Thanks! And thanks Kat for your thumbs up. I added it to my Amazon wish list. I do remember you bringing up Nissel’s book before.
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mynameismyname said:
“The typical black American (who does not have a white parent) could have easily wrote what they wrote, in terms of how they saw the world.”
All the authors you listed could not pass for white, so it is not surprising. Well, except maybe for Danzy Senna. She looks like she could pass for white and her main character in “Caucasia” certainly did.
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I understand now – my fathers german heritage is very different from my mothers scott heritage. Yet both check the caucasin box..And if you lump some one from Mexico in with some one from El Salvador you got a fight on your hands. If we use the government labels we will almost always be generalizing to a point where it becomes meaningless. I actually find ones culture to be more interesting than their race. You are right – americans are hung up on race – which actually tells you less about a person than their culture and where they grew up.
I never forget my friend Joy (a very lovely dark skinned sister) was asked by a coworker of ours (very blonde girl from australia) about some hip hop rap reference. And joy looked at her and said in her thickest texas accent – dont ask me – I am from texas, I listen to country music – I am a southern girl…
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Right, that is a stereotype that all blacks know hip hop.
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The ironic thing is that the vast majority of hip hop fans and supporters have always been white.
It was white Jewish NYC hipsters who took a chance on rap music in the beginning and helped shape it into the worldwide, money-making phenomenon that it is today.
Go to any rap concert. Most of the attendees will be white. That’s a guaranteed.
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Good point.
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I was reading the reviews on Mcbride’s book the good Lord Bird, and I remember this book “The Color of Water” I have picked it up and put down in books stores many times, maybe I will give it a try. I like his website, I think I read he won the Nobel prize for “The Good Lord Bird”.
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Correction: He won the national book award. Well at least he is successful.
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