The Intersectionality of Race, Gender, & Poverty in "The Color of Water"

Being a mixed-race person in the U.S. can be a complicated experience. Human nature compels people to place individuals in distinct categories, and yet for those who are mixed-race it is often difficult to find a sense of belonging in this context. 

This tension between being mixed-race as it relates to the search for identity and belonging is one of the central themes in James McBride's The Color of Water, where he explores his own upbringing as a half black, half white child as it parallels his white Jewish mother's own life experiences.

McBride, who grew up in a family of 12 children, did not even realize he was mixed-race for much of his childhood, and had to grapple with this on his own as a young man. His mother, Ruth, who was a white Jewish woman, did not match the stereotypical image of most women in her demographic, and often found herself finding refugee in the African American community, something that was largely unheard of at the time.

Rather than seeing his mother as an anomaly however, McBride simply saw her for the person that she was: a hardworking and loving woman who put her children above all else in her life. No matter the stares that she got from outsiders or the long hours she spent working in the city, McBride's mother Ruth would come home and do her best to instruct her children to work hard and remain focused on their future goals and ambitions. 

While race is certainly at the forefront of The Color of Water, one also comes to have renewed appreciation for motherhood and the many complexities of that experience. Ruth McBride sacrificed so much time, energy, and resources for her family, and was the matriarch of an extraordinary clan of children. Like many mothers, Ruth labored day and night for the well-being of her family, something that McBride and his siblings never seemed to take for granted. 

In reading The Color of Water one comes to realize that there is much intersectionality between issues of race, poverty, and gender, and in many ways the life of Ruth McBride's embodied these many tensions. The economic and social systems of the U.S. actively worked against her, and yet nonetheless she found a way to persevere, as so many other women in similar positions have and continue to do to this day. Ruth McBride's story speaks to the resilience of the human spirit, and the power of sacrificial love in bridging divides and enduring hardship.