Color of Water is an autobiographical account of the lives of the author, James McBride and his white mother Ruth, and explores issues of racial prejudice and religious discrimination. While the author's journey as an African-American is important, it cannot be read in the same context as other commonly known stories of suffering and prejudice in the South. This is because James McBride's story was influenced and defined by the perpetual presence of a white person in his life, his mother. In other words James' mother Ruth McBride played an extremely important role in the way her children perceived racism and related problems.

While white people have always been severely criticized for their mistreatment of other races, this book gives us a different image of whites. The book explains that not all white people are racist and that for some such folks, forces of love and affection are superior to...
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