How long would you withhold your heritage from your children? That is the dilemma Ruchel Dwajra Zylska, or better known as Ruth McBride-Jordan had to come to grips with. In James McBride's book The Color of Water, McBride chronicles his life, and finally learns of his mother's history. Although the book is an uplifting family story, Ruth McBride did a disservice to her children by not informing them of their Jewish heritage. I have come to believe this by how James McBride had racial identity crisis for a period of his childhood years, how James never really knew whom his mother was.
             James McBride always had questions about his ethnicity, but his mother always turned the question into something else. Even though the whole world around Ruth McBride-Jordan focused on race, she was satisfied not talking about it, "Matters involving race and identity she ignored."(pg.9) However, not talking about ethnicity left James in a crisis, he didn't know what he was. He would constantly ask his mother about identity, but his mother would change the question around,
             'I asked Mommy why she didn't look like the other mothers.'
             ' Because I'm not them,' she said.
             ' Who are you?' I asked.
             ' I'm your mother.'
             ' Then why don't you look like Rodney's mother, or Pete's mother?
             How come you don't look like me...'
             'I do look like you. I'm your mother. You ask too many questions.
             Educate your mind. School is important...'(pg.13)
             Ruth's continuous ducking of race and identity issues left James in an awkward position. In not knowing what ethnicity he belonged to, James didn't know whom James McBride was. James was on a continuous search for an answer, but neither his mother nor his siblings gave him the answer he was looking for. Until James was able to mak...