{"id":31414,"date":"2013-05-31T03:35:38","date_gmt":"2013-05-31T03:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=31414"},"modified":"2013-05-31T03:35:38","modified_gmt":"2013-05-31T03:35:38","slug":"why-we-need-to-talk-about-race-in-adoption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=31414","title":{"rendered":"Why We Need to Talk About Race in Adoption"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/bitchmagazine.org\/post\/why-we-need-to-talk-about-race-in-adoption\" target=\"_blank\">Why We Need to Talk About Race in Adoption<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bitchmagazine.org\" target=\"_blank\">Bitch Magazine<\/a><br \/>\n2013-05-29<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/nicolecallahan\" target=\"_blank\">Nicole Callahan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Two years ago, on vacation in the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Great_Smoky_Mountains\" target=\"_blank\">Great Smoky Mountains<\/a>, I saw a white couple at a restaurant with their Asian daughter. Though her father told her to quit staring, I felt the girl\u2019s eyes on me all through the meal. I smiled at her, feeling a strong sense of kinship, a pang of sympathy. \u00a0As a child, whenever I saw another Asian person\u2014which I hardly ever did\u2014I used to stare, too, hungry for the sight of someone, anyone, who looked like me.<\/p>\n<p>Adoption has changed in the 32 years since a social worker told my parents \u201cnot to worry\u201d about my ethnicity. Thanks to many transracial adoptees who have shared their experiences, there is a greater emphasis on the importance of racial and cultural identity. Numerous books have been written on the subject, and <a href=\"http:\/\/harlowmonkey.typepad.com\/harlows_monkey\/2008\/08\/windows-and-mir.html\" target=\"_blank\">excellent<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/loveisntenough.com\/2011\/03\/02\/white-dad-black-son-and-raising-kids-in-a-colorblind-world\">blog<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/harlowmonkey.typepad.com\/harlows_monkey\/2006\/05\/in_the_shadow_o.html\">posts<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelostdaughters.com\/2013\/04\/why-my-race-matters-to-me-its-all-that.html\" target=\"_blank\">abound<\/a>. Transnational adoption has inspired documentary films such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mufilms.org\/films\/firstpersonplural\/\"><em>First Person Plural<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mufilms.org\/films\/matter-of-cha-jung-hee\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.woainimommy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Wo Ai Ni Mommy<\/em><\/a>, and<em> <\/em><a title=\"Somewhere Between\" href=\"http:\/\/www.somewherebetweenmovie.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Somewhere Between<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While \u201ccolorblindness\u201d in adoption has been widely challenged, however, not everyone is convinced\u2014like the adoptive mother who recently told me, \u201cI don\u2019t see my son\u2019s color. Race is just not an issue for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some people maintain that any cultural loss is unimportant compared to what children gain through adoption. But in both mainstream media and personal conversations about adoption, cultural and racial identity need not be pitted against a child\u2019s right to love, safety, and security&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;We cannot have an honest discussion about transracial adoption if we aren\u2019t willing to discuss race, prejudice, and privilege. Adoptees need to feel safe when we talk about the instances of racism we encounter. This may not sound easy\u2014because it <em>isn\u2019t<\/em> easy for white parents to raise children of color. But as the mother of two multiracial children, I can say that it\u2019s not easy for parents of color, either&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/bitchmagazine.org\/post\/why-we-need-to-talk-about-race-in-adoption\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why We Need to Talk About Race in Adoption Bitch Magazine 2013-05-29 Nicole Callahan Two years ago, on vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains, I saw a white couple at a restaurant with their Asian daughter. Though her father told her to quit staring, I felt the girl\u2019s eyes on me all through the meal. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8,4481,20],"tags":[687,2537,14809,14811,14810],"class_list":["post-31414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-media-archive","category-social-work","category-usa","tag-adoption","tag-bitch-magazine","tag-nicole-callahan","tag-nicole-s-callahan","tag-nicole-soojung-callahan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}