Back to Ask the Experts Page Back to NYSCCC Home PageAn adoptive parent writes:
My wife and I are working with an agency that encourages transracial adoption but our preference is to adopt within our own race. We are both Caucasian and are interested in adopting a Caucasian baby. Our primary reasons for wanting to adopt in our own race are that first, we would like our baby to look like us; second, that although we have friends of other races and could seek out and make new friends in our child's race, this may be contrived; and third that we truly believe that a child is best raised within his/her own race. At first we were told this was not a problem. Later, we were told that it would be o.k. to adopt through the foster system (foster/adopt) but that they did not think we should work with any birthmothers. This is because they were afraid that it the mother were white and told them that the father was also white, then the child was born mixed race, we would back out. Our feeling was that if the mother was not truthful, our relationship would be difficult ongoing.
My question is this. Do you think our desire to adopt within our own race is an indication of prejudice, ignorance and shortsightedness or do you think this is how most of the world would react? Would it be normal, desirable or socially acceptable within black, Asian, or Hispanic families to adopt Caucasian children? Or would it be normal for this to occur in Asia, Africa or South America? We understand that any child would be better off adopted than living in foster homes but shouldn't agencies make an extraordinary effort to find adoptive parents within their race first? Finally, do you see this as a bigger issue with black/white adoption vs. white/Hispanic or white/Asian? Our perception is that it would be much more difficult for a black child in a white home than a Hispanic or Asian child in a white home but we're not sure. This may seem even more prejudicial if one were willing to accept a Hispanic or Asian child but not a black one but it seems like the social issues would be much bigger for the black child/white parent?
John Raible answers:
You have raised many intriguing questions, all of which are important to consider while making the decision to adopt a child. Some of your questions are almost rhetorical, and I suspect that you already know the answers to them. Only you yourselves know your hearts and minds, and your hidden prejudices and feelings about race and culture. In terms of your last question, it is my opinion that there are significant differences between black-white transracial adoptions and other transracial adoptions, e.g., Asian-white, Latino-white, Native-white. The history of slavery and the ongoing domination of impoverished black communities by regulatory institutions (such as the police, social welfare agencies, school systems, and so on) follow a distinct pattern of paternalism and surveillance that continues to impact black communities to this day. This is not to say that racism has not affected other communities of color as well. But the racism visited upon African Americans, including the historic lynchings, the rape of enslaved women, the selling of slave babies away from their parents, legal Jim Crow, the KKK, the assassinations of black leaders, the government's COINTELPRO program and the decimation of the black movement in the late 1960s, all point to the fact that black-white relations have been fraught with difficulty. As a result, the adoption of black children by white parents will necessarily be problematic, if for the only reason that such adoptions take place in this larger sociopolitical context.
One could argue that the history of colonialism and imperialism in other countries is just as atrocious and paternalistic as the history of black-white relations in the U.S., and that the adoption of children from overseas is therefore potentially just as problematic. But most of us, as adoptive parents, are woefully undereducated-- some would say blissfully ignorant-- of what the United States has done abroad, and how it has interfered in the affairs of other nations. Since we are so ignorant, it is much easier for adopting parents to go into "rescue" mode. That is, without a large and vocal community of activists and professionals to offer another interpretation of international adoptions (as has happened with both African Americans and Native Americans here, in the case of the transracial adoption of black and Indian children), it is easier for white American parents to believe that they are innocently "helping" unfortunate children, rather than perpetuating or benefiting from a system of colonialism/imperialism.
As an aside, Marie Adams has written a poignant book from the point of view of a formerly idealistic (and admittedly naive) white parent who adopted transracially from a Canadian Indian reservation, and who now champions the right of Native communities to keep their children within their own communities. Her book," Our Son, a Stranger: The Effects of Adoption Disruption on Parents" is a must-read.
In closing, I am not opposed to transracial adoption, as the author Marie Adams seems to be. I do think it needs to be entered into with eyes wide open, and that parents need to become educated about the political ramifications of the wholesale removal of children from families and communities. After all, all children have parents, and all come from a community somewhere. Even orphans-- if adoptees truly are orphans (there are more and more stories of international adoptees finding their birth families after years of thinking they had no parents or families)-- have extended families with whom adoptive families can maintain connections. Yes, all children deserve safe and loving families, and at the same time, all children deserve to be treated with the same love, care, and respect we want for ourselves and our "own" children. Such loving care includes access to information about family history and medical information, and lasting connections with kin who look like them.
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6/14/04