If a person is raised in a household opposite of his or her race can he or she still have a strong racial identity or is all that lost because of his or her parents? This is a question that many people have been asking about transracial adoption over the past century. Transracial adoption is when parent(s) of one race adopt a child(ren) of another race. The biggest argument however is centered around white parents adopting black children. While criticism of transracial adoption exists, it ignores the needs of the children currently in foster care, current research on transracial adoption is incomplete and contradictory, and it has positive impacts past providing a child with a home.
Currently, black children already overwhelm the foster care system. Eliminating transracial adoption would accentuate these numbers. One reason for the large number of black children in the system is African American children are more likely to be put in and stay in foster care. A 2021 child welfare report compiled by the award-winning non-profit Child League of America found that “They [African Americans] are also the most likely racial/ethnic group to be referred to protective services. Allegations of abuse and neglect are more likely to be substantiated for African American children and black children are less likely to leave foster care and be reunified with their birth families than those from other racial/ethnic groups. ” (Lee et al.). Black children are more likely to stay in the foster care system. Black children can wait at least 5 times longer in the foster care system than white or Asian children. (Butler-Sweet). Black, mixed race, and Asian children wait an extra three years for adoption than white children (McRoy and Griffin).
There are more white people adopting in America than black people generally. Therefore, there are times when white children may not be as accessible. A 2012 article on transracial adoption policies reported, “there continued to be more white prospective adopters than white children available for adoption.”(McRoy and Griffin). Another paper from the US Census and Carolton Collage found that “16 percent of adopted children are black, just 13 percent of adopted children live with a black householder. In other words, there are more Black children in adoptive families than there are black adoptive parents…. 78 percent of adopted children have a white parent (Bureau)”
Another reason transracial adoption can be good other than getting children out of the foster care system is that some studies have found that transracial children are better prepared to handle racism. This is because transracial and biracial children face racism more often. In an interview with a scholarly journal on “The Complexities of Mixed Families” a sibling in a transracial family said, “When people find out that [my siblings] are all adopted, people always say, ‘Oh your parents are such saints!’ I think they just thought it was so good to be the kind of family that would do this. But I hated the implication. So, if they are saints, does it take a miracle to want to have my siblings as a child? Is that what that means? I know it hurt my siblings’ feelings, too.” (Goss). Another interviewee said “I really wanted to learn more about my Blackness, so I chose to go to [a Historically Black University]. It was my chance to kind of reclaim that part of me, instead of just the white bubble I grew up in that viewed me as a charity foster kid.” (Goss). Children coming from trans or biracial families are already expecting racism, so when it came to dealing with it they were prepared. However, Children coming from monoracial families struggled further with racism coming from both black and white peers. A study on middle-class African Americans states “ However, they had more difficulty explaining these experiences. While informants from monoracial, biracial, and transracial families faced many of the same struggles, biracial and transracially adopted informants could attribute their troubles to their family circumstances, whether biological or adopted. Racialized family structure offered them an explanation for their problems. In some ways, having a logical explanation was a benefit to these informants, in that it allowed them to wrap their minds around their situation. They had a reason, even an excuse, that was outside of themselves that accounted for their difficulties, but informants from monoracial families did not. As a result, accusations of “acting white” and alienation from black peers were particularly enigmatic to informants raised by two black parents.” (Butler-Sweet). The same study furthered“Informants raised in Black middle-class homes on the other hand were surprised and confused by their inability to fit in with other black kids at school because they’re black and middle class they are different the findings presented here suggests that black parents in the study may have underestimated the extent to which being middle class contradicts social perceptions of authentic black as a result middle-class black youths are trapped by the contradiction with few tools to manage and understand it.” (Butler-Sweet))
Current research on racial identity does not account for general identity issues stemming from adoption, class, and other issues. Class has an impact on identity that is overlooked in most studies. “Most studies of trans racial adoption including those cited in the recent Donaldson report also Overlook the importance of class and shaping identity similar to the understanding that family is critical to racial identity formation socioeconomic class also has a tremendous impact on how parents socialize their children the small but important literature that does exist on middle-class black identity suggest that the experience of being black and middle class is different from that of being black working class and poor” (Butler-Sweet). “Moreover the majority of research on transracial families focuses on middle-class informants while research and black families typically focuses on the working class and poor to fully understand and fairly compare racial identity development for black youths from different racial family backgrounds it is necessary to understand how class impacts their racial identity development” (“A Healthy Black Identity” Transracial Adoption, Middle-Class Families, and Racial Socialization – ProQuest”). Being adopted transracially or otherwise impacts identity as a whole. Studies of transracial adoption measures adopted transracial families with nonadopted black families. A 2022, study on the effects of foster care explains “Children adopted from foster care are at heightened risk for emotional and behavioral challenges, potentially due to early trauma exposure and related risk factors” (Blake et al.). “Adopted children show better outcomes than those who remain in foster care. However, when taken as a group, adoptees exhibit higher rates of emotional and behavioral problems than their non-adopted peers across childhood and into adulthood” (Blake et al.)
Overall, transracial adoption is good for the children who are trapped in the foster care system, socially trans and bi-racial children are more equipped to deal with racism. Current research that has been done doesn’t take the effects of class, adoption, and other issues into account. In addition, biracial children face many of the same issues that transracial children face. To be against transracial families is also to be against biracial families.
Works Cited
“Adoption – Document – Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints.” Nclive.org, 2022, go-gale-com.proxy033.nclive.org/ps/retrieve.do?resultListType=RELATED_DOCUMENT&searchType=ts&userGroupName=nclivececc&inPS=true&contentSegment=&prodId=OVIC&docId=GALE|PC3010999169&it=r. Accessed 10 Oct. 2022.
Blake, Austin J., et al. “Long-Term Effects of Pre-Adoptive Risk on Emotional and Behavioral Functioning in Children Adopted from Foster Care.” Child Abuse & Neglect, vol. 130, Aug. 2022, p. 105031, www-sciencedirect-com.proxy033.nclive.org/science/article/pii/S0145213421001046, 10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105031. Accessed 11 Nov. 2022.
Butler-Sweet, Colleen. ““A Healthy Black Identity” Transracial Adoption, Middle-Class Families, and Racial Socialization – ProQuest.” Proquest.com, vol. 42, no. 2, 2022. Proquest, www.proquest.com/docview/943455445/fulltextPDF/D0FC36D107DB4E84PQ/1?accountid=9994, “,. Accessed 12 Oct. 2022.
Goss, Devon. “The Complexities of Mixed Families: Transracial Adoption as a Humanitarian Project.” Genealogy, vol. 6, no. 2, 29 Apr. 2022, p. 33, www.proquest.com/docview/2679722162?search-proquest-com.proxy033.nclive.org/central&parentSessionId=Yy4P8DYWqX1TOvZ3BcU7IDewpUifjLPinsTC934QwKE%3D&pq-origsite=summon&accountid=9994, 10.3390/genealogy6020033. Accessed 11 Nov. 2022.
Lee, Jaegoo, et al. “Attitudes toward Transracial Adoption among African American MSW Students.” Child Welfare, vol. 99, no. 2, Mar. 2021, pp. 21–54, go-gale-com.proxy033.nclive.org/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=nclivececc&id=GALE%7CA675461425&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon. Accessed 31 Oct. 2022.
McRoy, Ruth, and Amy Griffin. “Transracial Adoption Policies and Practices: The US Experience.” Adoption & Fostering, vol. 36, no. 3, 22 Sept. 2012, pp. 38–50, go-gale-com.proxy033.nclive.org/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=nclivececc&id=GALE|A310516757&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon. Accessed 12 Oct. 2022.
