What experiences do you share with the characters?

As a Mexican American it is hard to gain respect by others. growing up developing a certain style with my skin color people see me as ratchet, a trouble maker, dumb or dirty. those are all names i have been called before because i am Mexican.

• In what ways is your family similar or different from those in the book?

  my family was not still not religious and i wonder how it is to have a family that enforces it

• What did you learn about a character or group of people that you have not personally experienced?

my mom was never in harms way by any other race ever i think i would be terrified if i ever saw my mom in the days like they were back then.

• Race/Ethnicity

  James McBride's ethnicity was a mix of Jewish and Black. his skin was black and the rest of his siblings were also black but his mom was Jewish/white in the projects thriving with black people. during this time white people were targeted or were posed as a threat to black communities. The mother of James would take insults by others for who she had kids with and got called names like "Ni**er lover" and in the streets she was not safe either for the color of her skin. James saw the social issue between whites and black and knew they did not get along. James discovered a power organization called :"THE BLACK PANTHERS" and saw them as a threat to his mother making him more worried and scared for his mother.

• Page 38 Chapter "THE OLD TESTAMENT"/" I was ashamed of my mother, but see, love didn't come natural to me until i became a Christian." Being a Orthodox Jew meant taking the religion very serious. sharing love as an orthodox Jew was hard to get from parents enforcing it.

• Why did this quote stand out to you?

• growing up my family did not go to church or make me learn about religion but i would hear how strict Muslims would be on their own family and it sounds like hard time to show affection around them even based on your gender roles.

Question#1 In the book the name "Ni**er" made for black colored people was frequently used when normally talking about them. The name is very hateful towards blacks and forbidden amongst everyone.

Question#2 The writers word choice is vey common as if you were talking to anyone telling a story making it easier to understand.

Question#3 On page 58 chapter "Sam" James said "Our black customers slipped up. The Klan would ride right up Main Street in broad daylight and no one did a thing about it" During these days the KKK could get away with murder and struck fear into Black, Jewish and white Civil rights workers.

"“Wait!” She charged past the court
officers, shouting to the judge that it was a mistake, that none of her kids
had ever been in trouble with the law before, that her son was a college
student, and so forth. The white judge, who had noticed Mommy sitting in
the largely black courtroom, released Richie to her custody and the charges
were later dropped."

This scene was confusing to me at first because the thought of the character being black at that time, it was most certain that he would end up in jail, But since his mother was a white women claiming him as one her own, all charges were dropped.

Page 98 Chapter (School)

"“Wait!” She charged past the court
officers, shouting to the judge that it was a mistake, that none of her kids
had ever been in trouble with the law before, that her son was a college
student, and so forth. The white judge, who had noticed Mommy sitting in
the largely black courtroom, released Richie to her custody and the charges
were later dropped."

If the mother's skin color was black they would have had her out the building in a snap and thrown the book at Richie.

It is wrong for the way the judges mind set was for changing his mind just because she was white it should have been an honest trial from the start.

Growing up was not that great because just how like James life was, moving a lot because the rent was lower in a certain area was hard for me. before middle school me, my mom, and step dad moved to 4 different places and went to 4 different schools.

"watching Mommy suffer. She, in turn,
suffered more, having no one to help her keep the younger ones in line. In
addition she had no money to pay heating bills, and light bills, and phone
bills, sending every dime she had from my stepfather’s pension and her
small work salary and social security to my siblings in college and grad
school."

"To earn dough, I sold reefer, keeping a stash of it at the railroad
tracks. When I ran out, I talked my friend Joe into robbing a dealer who we
knew had a big stash. Joe had a .22 caliber pistol and I carried a straight-
edge shaving razor I’d found among my stepfather’s things."

My answer:

The economic state drove James into making money for himself and for his mother the wrong way later on causing him to rob a elderly women and did not feel bad because he felt he was getting back at the world for experiencing the same thing.

"Dennis almost starved to death fooling around with that music"

Dennis had to make a tough choice between staying with his mom who has a tight relationship with or his music career which he starved and almost killed him self for he choose to go to New York to pursue his music career and since back in the day they would not hire a black man as a Orchestras he later had a friend who was a "superintendent" at a apartment in Manhattan. Dennis lived rent free with them.

What i learned about my self and the world over all is that from this book is that since the dawn of time people have been discriminated for how they look and in some way have been put in a box by the dominate race, but most importantly Anyone can make it out the mud. These people listed truly inspire me because they have came from the bottom and made it to the top with the support from their mothers privilege's and hard work ethic.

Pages 275-276

ANDREW DENNIS MCBRIDE, B.A., Lincoln University; M.D., University

ROSETTA MCBRIDE, B.A., Howard University;

WILLIAM MCBRIDE, B.A., Lincoln University; M.D., Yale University

HELEN MCBRIDE-RICHTER, R.N., Hospital of the University of
Pennsylvania

RICHARD MCBRIDE, U.S. Army veteran, B.A., Cheney University

DOROTHY MCBRIDE-WESLEY, A.A., Pierce Junior College; B.A., La Salle
University

JAMES MCBRIDE, B.A., Oberlin College; M.S.J., Journalism, Columbia
University

JUDY JORDAN, B.A., Adelphi University

HUNTER JORDAN, B.S., Computer Engineering, Syracuse University

HENRY JORDAN, junior at North Carolina A&T University

RUTH JORDAN, B.A., Temple University, 1986.

Ever since Ruth's upbringing from when she used to live with her parents they were very hard on her about hard work so she wanted to pass that on to her kids, but she wanted them to be more free with the value of hard work.