Describe James Mcbride's community in The Color of Water.
In our contemporary American society, interracial marriages or children resulting .
from them really don't get looked down upon, however during the 40's our societies .
standards were more downgrading towards such matters. James and the rest of his 11 .
siblings, resulting from an interracial marriage, grew up in a community where they would .
associate with majority of black kids. Many times James and his siblings pondered about .
the thought of their mother being white and her children dark skinned. This affected the .
Mcbride children because they would have to put up with the interrogations and .
perplexing stares by the other black members of their community. The Mcbride children .
seemed to be the only one's who came from an interracial marriage in their community. .
This partially made them feel as if they were outcasts, even though their mother reinforced .
the complete opposite in her children's head. Living in a low income black housing .
projects and having a white mother raised many questions for the Mcbride children. These .
questions eventually brought about the issue of identity. Ruth Mcbride always avoided the .
question of why she was white and her children black. James and his siblings were brought .
up as any other black child would be raised. However, as the Mcbride children came to .
age they began to hunt for answers to their mother's culture which essentially was their .
culture as well. Eventually, realizing her children should better understand where they .
came from, Ruth decided to answer all the unanswered questions about her and her .
children's identity. .
How does fear impact community? Give specific examples from class readings, film, .
lectures etc.
.
Fear is such a strong emotion that it manipulates and blocks out the rational aspect .
of our thinking process. Fear empowers and encompasses our actions which we would .
never consider acting out.
