Download or read book The Color of Water written by James McBride and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Deacon King Kong and The Good Lord Bird, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction: The modern classic that Oprah.com calls one of the best memoirs of a generation and that launched James McBride's literary career. More than two years on The New York Times bestseller list. As a boy in Brooklyn's Red Hook projects, James McBride knew his mother was different. But when he asked her about it, she'd simply say 'I'm light-skinned.' Later he wondered if he was different too, and asked his mother if he was black or white. 'You're a human being! Educate yourself or you'll be a nobody!' she snapped back. And when James asked about God, she told him 'God is the color of water.' This is the remarkable story of an eccentric and determined woman: a rabbi's daughter, born in Poland and raised in the Deep South who fled to Harlem, married a black preacher, founded a Baptist church and put twelve children through college. A celebration of resilience, faith and forgiveness, The Color of Water is an eloquent exploration of what family really means.
Download or read book The Color of Water written by James McBride and published by Turtleback Books. This book was released on 1997-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of a Rabbi's daughter, born in Poland and raised in the south, who fled to Harlem, married a black man, founded a Baptist Church, and put twelve children through college.
Download or read book The Color of Water written by James McBride and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-02-07 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird: The modern classic that spent more than two years on The New York Times bestseller list and that Oprah.com calls one of the best memoirs of a generation. Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion—and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain. In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned. At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all- black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. "God is the color of water," Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life's blessings and life's values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth's determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college—and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University. Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.
Download or read book The Color of Water Reading Guide written by James McBride and published by . This book was released on 1998-04-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book CLASSICS The Color of Water written by James McBride and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Color of Water written by Booksource, The and published by . This book was released on 2009-08-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The African American Male written by Jacob U. Gordon and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1999-07-30 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The plight of the Black male in American society has been well-documented by scholars and practitioners. Although Black males represent only 6 percent of the American population, they represent about 40 percent of the prison population; the number of Black males in prison and jail exceeds the number of Black males in higher education. The homicide rates for Black males were 72.5 percent per 100,000, nearly eight times higher than for White males. This bibliographic volume explores the extent to which American academia has addressed these problems. It will be an invaluable resource for researchers as well as practitioners in social service programs. In addition to more than 400 annotated publications, the book includes a selected list of works on the African American male and a compilation of doctoral dissertations. This publication will serve as a reference in public as well as academic libraries, human service agencies, government policymaking agencies, and in academic courses in gender and ethnic studies, criminal justice, and social psychology.
Download or read book The Future Without a Past written by John Paul Russo and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Argues that technological imperatives like rationalization, universalism, monism, and autonomy have transformed the humanities and altered the relation between humans and nature. Examines technology and its impact on education, historical memory, and technological and literary values in criticism and theory, concluding with an analysis of the fiction of Don DeLillo"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book African American Autobiographers written by Emmanuel S. Nelson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2002-03-30 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is growing popular and scholarly interest in autobiography, along with increasing regard for the achievements of African American writers. The first reference of its kind, this volume chronicles the autobiographical tradition in African American literature. Included are alphabetically arranged entries for 66 African American authors who present autobiographical material in their works. The volume profiles major figures, such as Frederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Malcolm X, along with many lesser known autobiographers who deserve greater attention. While some are known primarily for their literary accomplishments, others have gained acclaim for their diverse contributions to society. The entries are written by expert contributors and provide authoritative information about their subjects. Each begins with a concise biography, which summarizes the life and achievements of the autobiographer. This is followed by a discussion of major autobiographical works and themes, along with an overview of the autobiographer's critical reception. The entries close with primary and secondary bibliographies, and a selected, general bibliography concludes the volume. Together, the entries provide a detailed portrait of the African American autobiographical tradition from the 18th century to the present.
Download or read book The Tragic Black Buck written by Carlyle Van Thompson and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2004 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The new edition of The Tragic Black Buck: Racial Masquerading in the American Literary Imagination offers a fresh perspective on this trail blazing scholarship, and the singular importance of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby as a challenge to the racial hegemony of biological white supremacy. Fitzgerald convincingly and boldly shows how racial passing by light-skinned Black individuals becomes the most fascinating literary trope associated with democracy and the enduring desire for the American Dream"--
Download or read book Adoption written by P. Conn and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-01-28 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining advocacy and memoir with social and cultural history, this book offers a comparative, cross-cultural survey of the whole history of adoption that is grounded in the author's personal experience.
Download or read book Postcolonial Literature and the United States Race Ethnicity and Literature written by and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Probing essays that examine critical issues surrounding the United States's ever-expanding international cultural identity in the postcolonial era Download Plain Text version At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we may be in a "transnational" moment, increasingly aware of the ways in which local and national narratives, in literature and elsewhere, cannot be conceived apart from a radically new sense of shared human histories and global interdependence. To think transnationally about literature, history, and culture requires a study of the evolution of hybrid identities within nation-states and diasporic identities across national boundaries. Studies addressing issues of race, ethnicity, and empire in U.S. culture have provided some of the most innova-tive and controversial contributions to recent scholarship. Postcolonial Theory and the United States: Race, Ethnicity, and Literature represents a new chapter in the emerging dialogues about the importance of borders on a global scale. This book collects nineteen essays written in the 1990s in this emergent field by both well established and up-and-coming scholars. Almost all the essays have been either especially written for this volume or revised for inclusion here. These essays are accessible, well-focused resources for college and university students and their teachers, displaying both historical depth and theoretical finesse as they attempt close and lively readings. The anthology includes more than one discussion of each literary tradition associated with major racial or ethnic communities. Such a gathering of diverse, complementary, and often competing viewpoints provides a good introduction to the cultural differences and commonalities that comprise the United States today. The volume opens with two essays by the editors: first, a survey of the ideas in the individual pieces, and, second, a long essay that places current debates in U.S. ethnicity and race studies within both the history of American studies as a whole and recent developments in postcolonial theory. Amritjit Singh, a professor of English and African American studies at Rhode Island College, is coeditor of Conversations with Ralph Ellison and Conversations with Ishmael Reed (both from University Press of Mississippi). Peter Schmidt, a professor of English at Swarthmore College, is the author of The Heart of the Story: Eudora Welty's Short Fiction (University Press of Mississippi).
Download or read book Postcolonial Theory and the United States written by Amritjit Singh and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2009-11-12 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we may be in a “transnational” moment, increasingly aware of the ways in which local and national narratives, in literature and elsewhere, cannot be conceived apart from a radically new sense of shared human histories and global interdependence. To think transnationally about literature, history, and culture requires a study of the evolution of hybrid identities within nation-states and diasporic identities across national boundaries. Studies addressing issues of race, ethnicity, and empire in US culture have provided some of the most innovative and controversial contributions to recent scholarship. Postcolonial Theory and the United States: Race, Ethnicity, and Literature represents a new chapter in the emerging dialogues about the importance of borders on a global scale. This book collects nineteen essays written in the 1990s in this emergent field by both well established and up-and-coming scholars. Almost all the essays have been either especially written for this volume or revised for inclusion here. These essays are accessible, well-focused resources for college and university students and their teachers, displaying both historical depth and theoretical finesse as they attempt close and lively readings. The anthology includes more than one discussion of each literary tradition associated with major racial or ethnic communities. Such a gathering of diverse, complementary, and often competing viewpoints provides a good introduction to the cultural differences and commonalities that comprise the United States today. The volume opens with two essays by the editors: first, a survey of the ideas in the individual pieces, and, second, a long essay that places current debates in US ethnicity and race studies within both the history of American studies as a whole and recent developments in postcolonial theory.
Download or read book Interpreting the Self written by Diane Bjorklund and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2000-04-15 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this ambitious study, Diane Bjorklund explores the historical nature of self-narrative. Examining over 100 American autobiographers published in the last two centuries, she discusses not only well-known autobiographies such as Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie but also many obscure ones such as a traveling book peddler, a minstrel, a hotel proprietress, an itinerant preacher, a West Point cadet, and a hoopskirt wire manufacturer. Bjorklund draws on the colorful stories of these autobiographers to show how their historical epoch shapes their understandings of self. "A refreshingly welcome approach to this intriguing topic. . . . [Bjorklund's] extensive and systematic approach to her source material is impressive and enriches our understanding of this essential subject."—Virginia Quarterly Review "Bjorklund studies both famous and obscure writers, and her clear prose style and copious quotations provide insight into the many aspects of the changing American self." —Library Journal
Download or read book Shades of Gray written by Molly Littlewood McKibbin and published by University of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2018-12-01 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Shades of Gray Molly Littlewood McKibbin offers a social and literary history of multiracialism in the twentieth-century United States. She examines the African American and white racial binary in contemporary multiracial literature to reveal the tensions and struggles of multiracialism in American life through individual consciousness, social perceptions, societal expectations, and subjective struggles with multiracial identity. McKibbin weaves a rich sociohistorical tapestry around the critically acclaimed works of Danzy Senna, Caucasia (1998); Rebecca Walker, Black White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self (2001); Emily Raboteau, The Professor’s Daughter (2005); Rachel M. Harper, Brass Ankle Blues (2006); and Heidi Durrow, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky (2010). Taking into account the social history of racial classification and the literary history of depicting mixed race, she argues that these writers are producing new representations of multiracial identity. Shades of Gray examines the current opportunity to define racial identity after the civil rights, black power, and multiracial movements of the late twentieth century changed the sociopolitical climate of the United States and helped revolutionize the racial consciousness of the nation. McKibbin makes the case that twenty-first-century literature is able to represent multiracial identities for the first time in ways that do not adhere to the dichotomous conceptions of race that have, until now, determined how racial identities could be expressed in the United States.
Download or read book Race Mixing written by Renee Christine Romano and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marriage between blacks and whites is a longstanding and deeply ingrained taboo in American culture. On the eve of World War II, mixed-race marriage was illegal in most states. Yet, sixty years later, black-white marriage is no longer illegal or a divisive political issue, and the number of such couples and their mixed-race children has risen dramatically. Renee Romano explains how and why such marriages have gained acceptance, and what this tells us about race relations in contemporary America. The history of interracial marriage helps us understand the extent to which America has overcome its racist past, and how much further we must go to achieve meaningful racial equality.
Download or read book New Visions of Collective Achievement written by Darrell Cleveland Hucks and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-11-26 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New Visions of Collective Achievement: The Cross-Generational Schooling Experiences of African American Males takes you on a journey into the lives of three families of African American males, each with an elementary aged boy. Bear witness to each boy’s observations and insights on his current schooling experiences, also hear what older males in his family have to say regarding their schooling experiences. Employing qualitative methodology to include their frequently unheard voices in educational research, this book endeavors to move toward correcting this oversight. New Visions of Collective Achievement graciously offers each of us, as stakeholders, a most precious gift: a theoretical and practical framework to effect real, meaningful, and long-lasting change if we are courageous enough to take heed. “This refreshingly clear and focused book presents a comprehensive discussion on the schooling experiences of African American males across generations. This invaluable resource should be required reading for all educators who work with this population to show the value of education in the African American community.” – Chance W. Lewis, Ph.D. Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Urban Education, UNC Charlotte “New Visions of Collective Achievement provides educators with an important insight into the ways Black males experience their education across time. Through groundbreaking research presented in the voices of three generations of Black males, this book commands attention and calls for multiple stakeholders in our schools and communities to work together to cultivate and advance the social and academic well-being of Black males.” – Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of English Education, Teachers College, Columbia University “New Visions encapsulates the spirit of African American males who are separated by generations, yet bound by a collective struggle against social injustice and a desire for success. Dr. Hucks invokes a reverence for historical oppression, an awareness of present day opportunities and barriers, and a visionary path for future generations of Black men.” – Ivory A. Toldson, Ph.D. Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Negro Education; Associate Professor, Counseling Psychology Program, Howard University
