The story of Ruth starts with her life being born in Poland to a strict Orthodox Jewish family. Her father was a rabbi and a stern and strong man. When Ruth was seven they moved in with her grandparents in the United States. Her family religiously followed the Jewish faith. They ate kosher, which was different meals and place settings, and every Friday at sundown they had to light candles and pray to Sabbath (McBride, 17).

Ruth's family traveled a lot when she was a child. When she was eight, they moved to Suffolk, Virginia. This is where her family settled and her father ran a store. The people in the neighborhood seemed to enjoy new things except for Jewish people. In school children would call Ruth "Christ killer", or "Jew Baby" (McBride, p. 40). This was just the beginning of the resentment towards Ruth and her family.

Many of the concepts that were presented in "Ethnicity and Race" and "Race and Ethnicity in the United States" were noticed throughout "The Color of Water". The constructionist approach is clearly demonstrated throughout the book. The essence of constructionist approach is that a "person's ethnic identity changes over time as the forces that impinge on them change, and as the claims made by both group members and others change as well" (Cornell & Hartmann, p. 74).

One way suggested to eliminate prejudice is by creating statutes against prejudice. There are historical statutes up to date such as the Civil Rights Movement in 1964. Much has been done to have equality between whites and blacks. There is still a fine line between those rights. Laws have been made such as Affirmative Action that is to help blacks have equal treatment.

The constructionist approach was demonstrated starting with Ruth being born as an Orthodox Jew. As she got older, she realized she did not like that religion. She married two Black men, even though she knew her father despised them. She integrated their faith as her own. Ruth lived with her family in Black neighborhoods and had Black friends. She left the life of Orthodox behind her.

An example of the normative approach is when James was in elementary school in Queens. He had to take a bus to attend a Jewish school, where he was the only Black child in the class. James was a well - mannered boy despite " the racist attitudes of many of the teachers, who were happy to knock his 95 test scores down to 85's and 80's over the most trivial mistakes" (McBride p. 89). This was the same for his brothers and sisters who attended the school as well.

Race became an important aspect of life, because society put importance to it. This is the social construction of race. When people such as Hitler put importance on the "Jewish race", this concerned to Nazi camps killing million of Jewish people (Shaefer, p.12). There is a belief that certain races are superior to others. "Race is significant only because people have given it significance" (Shaefer, p.12).

I feel that a lot of the concepts that we discussed in our textbooks were relevant to our discussion of the Color of Water. I truly felt that Ruth transformed herself from one identity to another because of everything around her. She did not accept her fate of being an Orthodox Jew. She did not feel loved or cared for by her

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jewish Throughout, Orthodox Jew, Orthodox Race, African American, Baby McBride, Color Water, God Black, Black Power, James McBride, Nigger McBride, color water, normative approach, black people, social construction, constructionist approach, god black white, construction race, society importance, jewish family, mcbride 89, shaefer p12, constructionist approach demonstrated, normative approach james, social construction race,
Approximate Word count = 1631
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)