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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