The Color of Water: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

As a child, James wonders about his mother’s family history. Because Ruth won’t answer many of his questions, James turns to his siblings with questions. When James asks his brother Richie about his mother’s light skin, Richie tells James it doesn’t matter, because he, James, is adopted. James considers that none of his siblings really look like their light-skinned mother—the children are all shades of brown and are clearly Black—and becomes convinced that he really is adopted.

James already feels that something is not right in his family. He describes feeling “something inside me, an ache I had, like a constant itch that got bigger and bigger as I grew….” James has also noticed teachers continually ask his mother if he’s adopted. He starts to believe Ruth isn’t his real mother.

One night James stays up until 2 A.M. to confront Ruth about his origins. She just laughs and tells him he isn’t adopted. When he asks about his grandparents, she tells him about his father Andrew Dennis McBride’s family, but not her own parents. When James presses Ruth about her family, assuming that they must not have loved her because they are not currently in her life, she counters that they did love her. She then cuts off James’s questioning and offers him some coffee cake, which is a huge treat in a poor household with twelve hungry children.

In 1966, at age nine, James becomes more aware of the black power movement. His home and neighborhood are transformed as afros come into style, his siblings memorize protest poetry, and local statues are repainted in the red, black, and green of the black liberation movement. Although James supports the movement, he has internalized white fears about empowered black Americans. He worries that “black power [will] be the end of my mother.”

Ruth, meanwhile, is only interested in church and her children’s academics. She encourages her children to socialize only with each other, and teaches them not to share details of their home life with strangers. She has many rules, preferring her children to play indoors, and to be home before dark if they insist on going outside. However, Ruth is also busy working as a typist, which means she’s away from home from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. each day. Because of her busy schedule, she has little time for her children’s questions about race and identity.

James describes his upbringing as being defined by “a curious blend of Jewish-European and African-American distrust and paranoia.” Andrew Dennis McBride knew that not everyone would accept his mixed-race family, and so he taught his children to keep to themselves. Ruth used her own (imperfect) childhood as a model for her parenting, and together with both of her husbands taught her children the value of thrift, hard work, and education—which could help raise them out of poverty.

Ruth passes on complicated ideas about race and class to her children. Although she understands that many white people are racist, she sends her children to white schools because the education there is better. She also dislikes black people who she feel that she is trying to “emulate rich whites by putting on airs.” She is always in financial need, but refuses to apply for welfare. Ruth loves the Red Hook neighborhood and the New Brown Memorial Baptist Church (which she founded with Andrew McBride), both of which are predominantly black, and which she continues to visit even in her old age.

James understands from reading the newspaper and watching television that many white people are uncomfortable around black people. Notably, though, his mother is comfortable around black people, and only responds to offensive comments on the street about her mixed-race family if she is worried about the safety of her children. Ruth feels that Malcolm X’s comments about “the white devil” don’t include her, sees civil rights fight as her own, and refers to “white people” as though they are a group she is not in.

James worries about his mother’s safety, and as a child is confused by her comfort in dangerous neighborhoods. As an adult he understands that Ruth’s faith in God kept her calm, but as a child every incident—like a man stealing her purse on the corner—makes James more afraid for her life. James feels it is his duty to protect his mother. Once, as he is sitting on a bus to go to a summer camp for poor inner city kids, he sees a Black Panther drop his son off for camp. James only knows about the Black Panthers from the news, where they’re depicted as violent and white hating. James panics, worried that the Black Panther will want to kill his mother, and so James punches the Panther’s son.