Journalist and musician JAMES MCBRIDE. His recent book, is "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother" (Riverhead) about his mother who was white and Jewish, but refused to admit her race. MCBRIDE's father was black. For years, MCBRIDE knew nothing about his mother's early life. It wasn't until he started work on the book, that she opened up to tell him that her father was a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi in rural Virginia, a racist, and he sexually abused her. MCBRIDE has written for "The Washington Post," "The Boston Globe," and "People" magazine
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