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 a

The second example of this is when James did not feel like he fit in anywhere. His skin color was light, so some Black people commented on that. When he went to he White school he was discriminated against because he was Black. If a person had one-drop” of black blood then you were considered to be black. To both of the races he did not fit in. This was all part of the social construction.

The normative approach is one theory of prejudice that is displayed in the Color of water. The normative approach is “the view that prejudice is influenced by societal norms and situations that serve to encourage or discourage the tolerance of minorities” (Schaefer, p. 50).

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.

Another incident demonstrating the normative approach was when James was in class and they were learning about African-American history. One of his classmates yelled out, “James is a Nigger” (McBride p. 89). The teacher merely hushed the child. She did not correct or discipline them in any way. This illustrates that society accepts any form of prejudice.

Some topics in this essay:
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