They didnt have to run for their lives like we did. It took years before I began to accept the fact that the nebulous white mans world wasnt as free as it looked; that class, luck, religion all factored in as well; that many white individuals problems surpassed my own, often by a lot;, kneydlach, gefilte fish, kugl, chopped liver, and, in fact thats what I liked about black folks all my life: They never judged me. See, a marriage needs love. Via James's quest for his mother's heritage as a struggling biracial kid, McBride portrays the strength of Ruth who endures social and economic hardships raising . It was always so hot, and everyone was so polite, and everything was all surface but underneath it was like a bomb waiting to go off., Mommys contradictions crashed and slammed against one another like bumper cars at Coney Island. She saw none of it. I would have preferred that Mommy were black. Yet conflict was a part of our lives, written into our very faces, hands, and arms, and to see how contradiction lived and survived in its essence, we had to look no farther than our own mother. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Water doesnt have a color., Finally one afternoon he came by where she was selling church dinners and asked Ma, Do you go to the movies? I was always grateful to Aunt Betts for that. Welcome back. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. She embraced Christianity because she discovered it on her own. I felt like a Tinkertoy kid building my own self out of one of those toy building sets; for as she laid her life before me, I reassembled the tableau of her words like a picture puzzle, and as I did, so my own life was rebuilt. We talk about other times, other places, other persons, and lose our living hold on the present. All Quotes On open school nights, the question most often asked by my schoolteachers was: Is James adopted? which always prompted an outraged response from Mommy. I didnt want to be white. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. Then after a while, my period was late. I would turn to leave, but when I wheeled around he was always there, waiting for me. James explains how her mother bore her tragic past, the loss of her family, and the constant insults to herself and her children because of the racial issue. On Jan. 9, her son said, she died at her home in Ewing, N.J., at the age of 88. | Sam Ruth's brother, he is two years older than Ruth. (one code per order). The way the content is organized, LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in, Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme, The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Religion appears in each chapter of. He has gone onto a new and different life, and in thinking longingly of the past, he has been giving thought and interest to something that no longer really exists., My parents were nonmaterialistic. James McBride typifies this notion when he weaves his mother Ruth's old times and his new world in his memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. 10, p. 104)James explains what it was like as a mixed race child. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. Unlike my siblings, he had no opinions. He's not white. Novelguide.com is continually in the process of adding more books to the website each week. You werent accepted to be with a black man and that was that. character, Sometimes we think if we could just go back in time we would be happy. Rachel Shilsky is dead as far as Im concerned. And they looked nothing like the other heroes I saw, the guys in the movies, white men like Steve McQueen and Paul Newman who beat the bad guys and in the end got the pretty girlwho, incidentally, was always white., I felt like a Tinkertoy kid building my own self out of one of those toy building sets; for as she laid her life before me, I reassembled the tableau of her words like a picture puzzle, and as I did, so my own life was rebuilt., In running from her past, Mommy has created her own nation, a rainbow coalition., You know death was always around Suffolk, always around. God is the color of water. When I asked she'd say, "God made me." If Im here and youre me, how can you be there at the same time? Id ask. To the very end, Mommy is a flying compilation of competing interests and conflicts, a black woman in white skin, with black children and a white womans physical problem. Hes a spirit.Whats a spirit? A spirits a spirit. What color is Gods spirit?It doesnt have a color, she said. Ruths conversion to Christianity coincides with her reinvention of herself from Rachel Shilsky to Ruth McBride. So I didnt have a lot of Jewish friends either. That started to worry me a little but I didnt worry much. When her husband died and left her poor, she had only her trust in God to help her raise her eight children. These encounters enrage Ruth, and convince her children that with the exception of their mother, white people are at best unreliable and at worst actively dangerous. I told him I didnt want to see him anymore and walked back through the black neighborhood, into the store, and went upstairs and cried my heart out, because I still loved him. to start your free trial of SparkNotes Plus. Race and Racism Quotes in The Color of Water Below you will find the important quotes in The Color of Water related to the theme of Race and Racism. She sent them to Jewish schools, and often, like James, they were the only black student in class. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. You were different from everyone and liked by very few. He has gone onto a new and different life, and in thinking longingly of the past, he has been giving thought and interest to something that no longer really exists. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. I tried to explain to them that I couldnt dance. For James, however, Judaism is a way for him to connect with his mother, and with the half of his family he never knew he had. Explore our collection of motivational and famous quotes by authors you know and love. As I walked home, holding Mommys hand while she fumed, I thought it would be easier if we were just one color, black or white. Please come home, Helen. The door had a peephole in it. A deep sigh. A deep sigh. Dee-Dee was a shy, pretty girl, less strong-willed than Ruth. Ruths relationship with her first husband is then so offensive to her family that they entirely cut her out of their lives. Are you crazy? I have always been one of the worst dancers that God has ever put upon this earth., I asked her who he was and she said, He was a man ahead of his time. She actually liked Malcolm X. Please wait while we process your payment. Anyone who has ever revisited the place of his birth after years of absence is shocked by the differences between the way the place actually is, and the way he has remembered it. She is reborn through Christianity, and finds that this religion provides her with everything shes always wanted: love and community, a sense of belonging, and a reason to live. Religious communities allow disparate people to come together, as Ruth discovers after her conversion, and as James discovers when he investigates Ruths Jewish past. PDF downloads of all 1725 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. One morning a couple of years later when I was at Oberlin College, I went to my mailbox and found a letter from her telling me that her husband had died suddenly of cancer. There was no turning back after my mother died. The Jews in Suffolk did stick together, but even among Jews my family was low because we dealt with shvartses. It was in my blood, you might say, and however the notion got there, it bothered me greatly. As a Jew, Ruth found herself excluded from the white world of the South, and felt she could partially identify with the hardships of her black neighbors. One afternoon on the way home from church I asked her whether God was black or white. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. My siblings had already instilled the notion of black pride in me. I stayed on the black side because that was the only place I could stay. All of them have toted more mental baggage and dealt with more hardship than they care to remember, yet they carry themselves with a giant measure of dignity, humility, and humor. A nigger and you? . There was music playing on a stereo inside, and the voice of someone on the phone. To this day I dont know. This place is so lonely. In a world where everyones playing, love trumps us all. My view of the world is not merely that of a black man but that of a black man with something of a Jewish soul. PDFs of modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem. The peephole slid back. God is the color of water. And the greatest sin a person can do is to take away that life. While Ruth always envied her, later in life she realized that Dee-Dee had suffered sorrow and desperation. Active Themes One day, Ruth misses her mother and decides to call home. Water doesn't have a color., I asked her if I was black or white. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1725 titles we cover. . I found it odd and amazing when white people treated me that way, as if there were no barriers between us. Contact us It was a dilapidated housing project near St. Nicholas Avenue, with junkies and winos standing out front. She helped me through college and helped me get into graduate school as well; she didnt pay my way, but if I had an emergency, she would help. The Color of Water: Top Ten Quotes "You want me to talk about my family and here I been dead to them for fifty years" (Chpt. They will surely hang me., I know youre gonna marry a shvartse. If the world were fair, I suppose I would have married him, but there was no way that could happen in Virginia. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. Chapter 1 Quotes The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. The New Brown Memorial Church then also allows James and his siblings to connect to each other, to God, to their mother, and to their deceased father. Owens tries to tell James and his siblings that that Jesus is all colors, which confuses Jamess little brother, who has noticed that Jesus is always painted as white. for a customized plan. Its not about black or white., I myself had no idea who I was. And God. She was always sending me off on a bus someplace, to elementary school, to camp, to relatives in Kentucky, to college. Id lock myself in the bathroom and spend long hours playing with him. The first is Ruth's apparent obliviousness to racesomething that causes James so much psychic distress throughout his youth and much of his adulthood. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Why she did so was not clear, but even my teachers seemed to know she was white and I wasnt. $18.74/subscription + tax, Save 25% Love is unstoppable. creating and saving your own notes as you read. She had to die in order for me, the rest of me, to live., Mamehs sisters were more about money than anything else, and any hurts that popped up along the way, they just swept them under the rug. After her separation from her family, Ruth needed some source of relief from the guilt she felt, and she found that relief in Christianity's emphasis on the power of forgiveness. She sighs and then states that the times are different. They constantly badgered me to do the James Brown for them, a squiggling of the feet made famous by the Godfather of Soul himself, who back in the sixties was bigger than life. Those leaders are no better than their Jewish counterparts who spin statistics in marvelous ways to make African-Americans look like savages, criminals, drags on society, and animals (a word quite popular when used to describe blacks these days). The flaw in the world is that blacks have often been represented as bad or dangerous. Jungle fever they call it, flapping their jaws and making the whole thing sound stupid. and theme. Well, I didnt feel number one with nobody but him, and I didnt give a hoot that he was black. on 2-49 accounts, Save 30% Crucially, religion also provides a framework for the characters to understand complex issues, and as James and his siblings try to understand where they fit in the world, they use the language of God and Jesus to determine what color they are. The few problems I had with black folks were nothing compared to the grief white folks dished out. Since Ruth is Jewish and James is black, they both faced difficulty with racial discrimination and prejudice. It said a lot about this religionJudaismthat some of its followers, old southern crackers who talked with southern twangs and wore straw hats, seemed to believe that its covenants went beyond the color of ones skin. I believed my true self was a boy who lived in the mirror. Does he like black or white people better? She found love and forgiveness in her husbands church and helped him to found a Baptist church. Thats how I felt as a child. Novelguide.com is the premier free source for literary analysis on the web. Helen. She was gone. Wed love to have you back! Rachel Deborah Shilsky could drive a car and pull a trailer behind it, but Ruth McBride Jordan had never touched a steering wheel before that day in 1973, and you can make book on it. The books title references a central thematic question of the work: what color are the McBride-Jordan children, what color is a spirit, and what color is God? I dont consider myself Jewish, but when I look at Holocaust photographs of Jewish women whose children have been wrenched from them by Nazi soldiers, the women look like my own mother and I think to myself, There but for the grace of God goes my own motherand by extension, myself. This quote, from near the end of the book, comes from James's description of the gap between how he imagined it would be to write this memoir, and how it actually felt to write the memoir. Ruth's adult life differed greatly from her life with her family in Suffolk. Ruth associates Judaism with her unhappy upbringing, and the discrimination she faced as a child in her small Southern town. By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy. She replied "You are a human being. They just said, Come as you are. Blacks have always been peaceful and trusting., back, Daddy said. 16, p. 163). Error rating book. Silence. Education gives us tools to help us better navigate the world. for a group? All of them have toted more mental baggage and dealt with more hardship than they care to remember, yet they carry themselves with a giant measure of dignity, humility, and humor. Give me an answer! Id snarl. The second is her need to keep moving so her traumatic past never catches up to her. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Unlike my siblings, he had no opinions. But as a kid, I preferred the black side, and often wished that Mommy had sent me to black schools like my friends (Chpt. To deny someones right to have a fruitful life can be likened to the act of killing. Thats what counts., since I was a little boy, she had always wanted me to go. Ruth's chaotic household also reflects this need for motion. That was a big thing in the South. I loved my mother yet looked nothing like her. You'll also receive an email with the link. Quotes By James McBride. But their visible blackness also makes them targets at school, where their white teachers round down their scores, and in the streets, where they are arrested at astounding rates. You know a Jew living in Suffolk when I was coming up could be lonely even if there were fifteen of them standing in the room, I dont know why; its that feeling that nobody likes you; thats how I felt, living in the South. White folks, she felt, were implicitly evil toward blacks, yet she forced us to go to white schools to get the best education. Blacks could be trusted more, but anything involving blacks was probably slightly substandard. One afternoon on the way home from church I asked her whether God was black or white. James, confused about race in general and specifically where he falls on the spectrum, asks his mother if God is black or white, and Does he like black or white people better? His mother explains that God is colorless, and loves people of all colors equally. Ruth explains her first ideal marriage to her son James. The Sheffers, Helen Weintraub, the Jaffes, they talked to me in person and by letter in a manner and tone that, in essence, said Dont forget us. She went to the apartment door and listened. As she revealed the facts of her life I felt helpless, like I was watching her die and be reborn again (yet there was a cleansing element, too), because after years of hiding, she opened up and began to talk about the past, and as she did so, I was the one who wanted to run for coverImagine, if you will, five thousand years of Jewish history landing in your lap in the space of months. I stayed on the black side because that was the only place I could stay. Its what made the river flow, the ocean swell, and the tide rise, but it was a silent power, intractable, indomitable, indisputable, and thus completely ignorable. Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. Ruth came to America when she was a young girl in a family of Polish Jewish immigrants. 1. He was free. A penetrating loneliness covered me, lay on me so heavily I had to sit down and cover my face. I dont consider myself Jewish, but when I look at Holocaust photographs of Jewish women whose children have been wrenched from them by Nazi soldiers, the women look like my own mother and I think to myself, There but for the grace of God goes my own motherand by extension, myself. Powered by EnkiQuotes.com. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely ,if even death separates you and me." 24, p. 251).James describes the legacy his father left to his eight children after he died at the age of forty-five. She drove her fathers 1936 Ford back in Suffolk, Virginia. Marrying a white woman was a life-threatening act for an African American man in the 1940s. Struggling with distance learning? In The Color of Water, author James McBride writes both his autobiography and a tribute to the life of his mother, Ruth McBride. He was never hungry, he had his own bed probably, and his mother wasnt white. Not in 1937.I made up my mind then that I was going to leave Suffolk for good. We were all clearly black, of various shades of brown, some light brown, some medium brown, some very light-skinned, and all of us had curly hair. Thus, James was not able to pry out her Jewish history from her until she was an old woman. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. Mommy, after all, did not really look like me. He looked just like me. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Get books for your students and raise funds for your classroom. God is the color of water. They called you white trash. Mommys contradictions crashed and slammed against one another like bumper cars at Coney Island. Oh boyGods not black. Researching for his book, he feels a kinship with many of the Jewish people he encounters in Suffolk. SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. Ruth McBride-Jordan Quotes in The Color of Water The The Color of Water quotes below are all either spoken by Ruth McBride-Jordan or refer to Ruth McBride-Jordan . I told him I didnt want to see him anymore and walked back through the black neighborhood, into the store, and went upstairs and cried my heart out, because I still loved him. Unfortunately, her mixed-race marriage garners negative attention from people of all races.