1. The Color of Water Genre and Historical Context

2. Memoir
Memoir: (noun) a historical account or biography written from personal knowledge or special sources.
Word origin: French, meaning memory.
As humans, our memories often reflect the complexities of human nature and contain multiple layers of meaning and significance of symbolic proportions.

3. James McBride (1957-present)
The son of an African-American father and a Jewish mother
The Color of Water is a unique memoir in which each chapter alternates between McBride’s own accounts of his childhood with his mother’s accounts of hers
Author’s purpose for multiple narrators = capturing his biracial culture

4. Bi-Racial Struggle for Identity
Bi-racial: concerning or containing members of two racial groups
What are some struggles?
What are some benefits?
Above: James McBride with his mother Ruth
At Right: Ruth McBride Jordan

5. 1960s-1970s Civil Rights
Black Panther Party of Self-Defense – originally an armed citizens patrol to end police brutality
Started in 1966, peaked in 1970, ended by 1980
Typically viewed as the defiant counterpart to sit-ins and strikes
While Martin Luther King, a Christian, preached “civil disobedience” Malcolm X, a Muslim, claimed equality “by any means necessary”
Malcolm X was equally intelligent and charismatic
Bi-racial son of a African-American man and a woman with mixed ancestry from the Caribbean
Established The Nation of Islam, a freedom fighting group

6. Anti-Semitism
A woman sits on a park bench marked “Only for Jews.” Austria, ca. March 1938. US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Anti=against
Semitic=a member or descendent of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs
Anti-Semitic has come to mean against Jews
Began over 2,000 years ago
Early Christians blamed Jews for crucifying Jesus
Religious hatred  racial prejudice
Anti-Semitism culminated in WWII when Hitler and the Nazi’s exploited social stigmas to commit genocide against Jews

7. Anti-Semitism in America
Henry Ford blamed WWI on profiteering Jews and spoke openly against them
The KKK persecuted Jews and other minorities in addition to African- American terrorism
Many Americans believed that Jews controlled the banking system and were profiteers
Jews suffered racial slurs, hate crimes, prejudice, and segregation
America’s anti-Semitism was partly responsible for the nation’s hesitancy to join WWII
Many Jews joined the African-American Civil Rights Movement but saw little return in aid

8. Why study racism? Ignorance of a threat  Empowerment of the threat
Social stigmas and ignorance enables leaders of genocide
Confronting all forms of hatred is critical.
Historical texts, fictional texts, and non-fiction texts develop understanding and compassion

9. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana: Life of Reason, 1905

10. Anti-Semitism Today
Currently, many in the Islamic world deny the Holocaust’s occurrence
Former president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:
Middle Eastern countries promote anti-Semitism in state-controlled media and educational systems
Hamas, a Middle-Eastern militant group, uses genocidal language regarding Jews and the State of Israel.
In Europe and America, Jews still face racial prejudice, stereotyping, and harassment