![]() ![]() In fact, she didn’t look like Richie, or David-or any of her children for that matter. Mommy, after all, did not really look like me. In his twenties a Mother’s Day profile he wrote spun out into a full-length book project, which allowed him to interview his mother and discover her colorful past and his own mixed heritage. Always a thoughtful, intelligent, and inquisitive child, James went to college at Oberlin and then received a journalism degree from Colombia University. Like his mother, James’s instinct in times of emotional turmoil is to ignore or run from the problem. Although James was a straight-A student for much of his childhood, after the death of his father he began to act out, doing drugs, drinking, and committing petty theft during a three-year rebellious period. He understood that his father was black, but for a long time only knew that his mother was different from the black mothers of his friends, not understanding her racial and cultural background. As a mixed-race child put alternately into all-black or all-white environments, James struggled with his racial identity. ![]() ![]() James was born and raised in New York City with his eleven siblings, spending his early years in Red Hook, Brooklyn and Queens. James is a writer, as well as musician, and values his family, God, and music above all else. James is Ruth McBride-Jordan’s eighth child, son of Andrew Dennis McBride Sr., and stepson of Hunter Jordan Sr. The author and one of the narrators of The Color of Water. ![]()
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