The color of water

" The community put such a premium on succeed. And you had no excuse to blame racism or discrimination as a reason why you couldnt succeed." Ed Smith


This quote is great for the color of water because over coming the diversity of race is the main point of the book. Since Ruth is white and Jewish she had to over come a huge hurtle when she fell in love with her children’s father. “My family mourned me when I married your father.” He was black and not Jewish and her family acted like she was dead by covering their mirrors and doing everything they would have if someone actually died. Ruth so far has not told her children she is white, and that she is Jewish. Every time they ask she just says she is light skinned and changes the subject. She never tells her children why she is so protective and why she sends then to white schools, but she wants them to have a bright future and to prove that black people can make something out of there lives. I’m not racist but the stereo typical school you think of when you hear “black school” is a run down neighborhood with criminals and drug deals and gangs everywhere, Ruth didn’t want that life for her children so she didn’t let them go to those schools or hang out with many people.
In the color of water when James looks back on his life he says” I feel privileged to have some from two worlds. My view of the world is not merely that of a black man but that of a black man with something of a Jewish soul.” (103) When he was young he didn’t not appreciate that his mom made him go to the white schools, “I preferred the black side, and often wished that mommy had sent me to black schools like my friends.” (104). But now looking back at his life I think he is happy about the effort his mother made to incorporate her culture in his life but without letting him in on her secret.
What Ed Smith is saying is that racist shouldn’t be they biggest hurtle or biggest reason that you don’t succeed is what you want. If race is the only thing that is holding you back in society today then it is your own fault you’re not where you want to be today. Back then a person could push you around a little more than today but if you got a good education and the drive to achieve something, than nothing will stop you and I think that is what Ed Smith is saying when he says “The community put such a premium on success. And you had no excuse to blame racism or discrimination as a reason why you couldn’t succeed.”