Trans-Racial Adoptions

The subject of trans-racial adoptions has been a hot one in the local news lately, what with a local family accusing Chester County of denying their request to adopt a boy for whom they had been foster care parents for two years, because they are white and he is black (the boy was taken from their home and placed for adoption with a black family).  While the National Association of Black Social Workers' stance on trans-racial adoptions has softened since the 1970's, when they referred to such cases as "cultural genocide," still for many it is a touchy subject.  An article on the front page of the local section in today's Philadelphia Inquirer explored the topic, and made me think anew of my own parenting responsibilities. 

I disagree with those who pooh-pooh the issue of race and think that the only thing that is important about placing a child for adoption is to find a family that wants to love him.  But I also disagree with those who think adoptive parents are incapable to correctly raising a child of a different race in a way that will enable that child to respect and own his racial identity. 

One of the great opportunities and challenges of race in the US is that we are a country in which what it means to be American is so vast and fluid.  Too often, when we say, "American," we mean white.  But Americans are also black, brown, yellow, red, and hybrids thereof.  We can take pride in George Washington AND Sojourner Truth AND Maya Lin AND Cesar Chavez.  We can glory in hot dogs and soul food and stir fry and burritos.  We all ought to celebrate, in some small way, the fullness of all things American.  And for those of us who have adopted into our families a child of a different family origin, much more so ought we cherish that flavor and take it for our own. 

In this country, it is, again, a great opportunity AND challenge, to raise a child of a different race as you are, to be American – to be a unique mixture of the cherished values of the parents, the racial origins of the children, and the cultural diversity of the moment.  Let's give parents the chance to love and care for children in this way.  And let's remind those parents that when they are adopting a child, they're not just assimilating him into their worldview but expanding their own worldview to include his.