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Although race was ignorable in James' family, it was not necessarily ignorable in the outside world. For the McBride family, the issue was not that the children were African American, it was that eleven African American children were being raised by their white mother. "After a while it was clear the man was not going to return her money, so she grabbed my hand and was heading toward the door, when he made another remark, somethingI couldn't hear, but it made the crowd murmur 'Ooohhhh'. Ma stiffened" (McBride 103). This incident shows how race was a problem because the color of James' and his sibling's skin did not match the color of their mother's skin. This differentiation between the races in the McBride family causes many issues in their daily lives. From the milk incident, although not specifically stated, it can be inferred that the man who sold the milk to James said something about the color of Ruth's skin compared to that of her sons, which then resulted in Ruth throwing the milk back at the man. Incidents such as these show the hardships that the McBride family had to live through because the family was bi-racial. Although race was ignorable within the family, it was not ignorable in the world. As stated previously, McBride compares the power of the moon to the power of race in his family, but also makes a connection between his family and the ocean and tides. McBride uses the ocean as an analogy to his family. The same way that the moon controls the ocean, which is unruly; race controls McBride and his bi-racial family, which is viewed as unruly by the larger society. .
In our everyday lives we are all influenced by other people on how we see race, racial issues, and on how we identify with our own race and heritage. One of these influences comes from our own family. From a young age we take on the opinions of our parents with regard to our own identity and with regard to racial issues.
