The color of water
Review of "The Color of Water" by James McBride
Presented at AACI library review 15/12/05
I am giving two reviews of this book for the price of one. The first one is the
straightforward liberal "civil rights" review. The second review is the "Jewish"
review, looking at it from the Jewish perspective.
At face value this book is a civil rights masterpiece. It is written by a Black
man about his "white" Jewish mother who ignored color, married two black men
and had 12 children, and it's about how this whole family succeeded in living the
American dream, by working hard and getting degrees. His mother taught her
children what she practiced, namely that people are neither white nor black,
they are the "color of water." This is a civil rights dream, an ideal world
in which color not only doesn't matter, but it really doesn't exist. But, we all know better, that is far from reality.
Overall this is a moving and well written account of his mother's revelations
about her background, how she came to live in Harlem, how she spent all her life
on "the black side." Her reluctantly recorded reminiscences and her son's (the
author's) story complement each other, and make a remarkable slice of
American life. But we can't take it all at face value.
Now for the Jewish review: this story starts out as another example of the
anti-Semitic stereotype of the ugly, money-obsessed old Jewish father, and his
virtuous yet passionate daughter (this is based on the analysis of Livia Bitton-
Jackson). The Jewish father is also a Rabbi who is a racist who hates blacks and
cheats them ("an unbending nature, a stridency, a focus on money, a deep
distrust of all outsiders, not to mention her father's tyranny.." p. 29)
As a 14 year old "white" girl she had a sexual affair with a black youth in
1950's South Carolina, which was taking a terrible risk. The fact that she became
pregnant at age 14, had an abortion at age 15, and then ran away from home,
lived in Harlem with a pimp at the age of 19, worked as a prostitute ("I needed
to move into Harlem completely and make enough money to stay there and be cool and wear the fancy dresses and the clothes. So one day I asked Rocky 'when do
I get to make money like your other girls?' I knew what I was saying." p. 175). Then she lived with a black preacher and finally married him, and when he died married another black man, and bore 12 children to them altogether. It's not in itself a pretty story.
How she overcame her self-imposed isolation from her family and brought
up the 12 children in poverty, yet gave them solid values, including the need to
get a good education, is in itself a minor miracle. But, we all know that the
educational success of these 12 children derives almost entirely from the genes
and the culture of their Jewish mother.
The Jewish significance of this story is the self-abnegation of the Jewess, her
total alienation from her family and her people, her rejection of all that her
people stood for in place of first total immorality and then total acceptance of
Christianity, the easy way out. Because adhering to Judaism as a minority among
a large majority was the only way that our people survived, even with the death
and destruction. In her case, because the whites where she lived in the South
also rejected Jews, she went over to the Black majority, she identified with them,
rather than with her own heritage and culture. So from the Jewish point of view
this is a tragedy, another example of Jewish self-hatred leading to alienation and
cultural suicide.
It doesn't have to be so negative, remember the former Black activist Julius
Lester, who discovered in later life that he had a Jewish grandfather, who is
buried in the South. This led him on a search for his Jewish roots, described in
his book "Love Song: on becoming a Jew," and led to his conversion to Orthodox
Judaism. He is now the only Jew left in his family since all the white
descendents of the family have married out.
At the end there is a more positive picture of Jews, seen from the point of view
of the author, an educated and successful journalist. In the final analysis, what
we celebrate in this book is the unpredictable story of the individual human
struggle for survival.
Presented at AACI library review 15/12/05
I am giving two reviews of this book for the price of one. The first one is the
straightforward liberal "civil rights" review. The second review is the "Jewish"
review, looking at it from the Jewish perspective.
At face value this book is a civil rights masterpiece. It is written by a Black
man about his "white" Jewish mother who ignored color, married two black men
and had 12 children, and it's about how this whole family succeeded in living the
American dream, by working hard and getting degrees. His mother taught her
children what she practiced, namely that people are neither white nor black,
they are the "color of water." This is a civil rights dream, an ideal world
in which color not only doesn't matter, but it really doesn't exist. But, we all know better, that is far from reality.
Overall this is a moving and well written account of his mother's revelations
about her background, how she came to live in Harlem, how she spent all her life
on "the black side." Her reluctantly recorded reminiscences and her son's (the
author's) story complement each other, and make a remarkable slice of
American life. But we can't take it all at face value.
Now for the Jewish review: this story starts out as another example of the
anti-Semitic stereotype of the ugly, money-obsessed old Jewish father, and his
virtuous yet passionate daughter (this is based on the analysis of Livia Bitton-
Jackson). The Jewish father is also a Rabbi who is a racist who hates blacks and
cheats them ("an unbending nature, a stridency, a focus on money, a deep
distrust of all outsiders, not to mention her father's tyranny.." p. 29)
As a 14 year old "white" girl she had a sexual affair with a black youth in
1950's South Carolina, which was taking a terrible risk. The fact that she became
pregnant at age 14, had an abortion at age 15, and then ran away from home,
lived in Harlem with a pimp at the age of 19, worked as a prostitute ("I needed
to move into Harlem completely and make enough money to stay there and be cool and wear the fancy dresses and the clothes. So one day I asked Rocky 'when do
I get to make money like your other girls?' I knew what I was saying." p. 175). Then she lived with a black preacher and finally married him, and when he died married another black man, and bore 12 children to them altogether. It's not in itself a pretty story.
How she overcame her self-imposed isolation from her family and brought
up the 12 children in poverty, yet gave them solid values, including the need to
get a good education, is in itself a minor miracle. But, we all know that the
educational success of these 12 children derives almost entirely from the genes
and the culture of their Jewish mother.
The Jewish significance of this story is the self-abnegation of the Jewess, her
total alienation from her family and her people, her rejection of all that her
people stood for in place of first total immorality and then total acceptance of
Christianity, the easy way out. Because adhering to Judaism as a minority among
a large majority was the only way that our people survived, even with the death
and destruction. In her case, because the whites where she lived in the South
also rejected Jews, she went over to the Black majority, she identified with them,
rather than with her own heritage and culture. So from the Jewish point of view
this is a tragedy, another example of Jewish self-hatred leading to alienation and
cultural suicide.
It doesn't have to be so negative, remember the former Black activist Julius
Lester, who discovered in later life that he had a Jewish grandfather, who is
buried in the South. This led him on a search for his Jewish roots, described in
his book "Love Song: on becoming a Jew," and led to his conversion to Orthodox
Judaism. He is now the only Jew left in his family since all the white
descendents of the family have married out.
At the end there is a more positive picture of Jews, seen from the point of view
of the author, an educated and successful journalist. In the final analysis, what
we celebrate in this book is the unpredictable story of the individual human
struggle for survival.
posted by Jack Cohen at 2:23 PM
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