Desirable Difference: The Shadow of Racial Stereotypes in Creating Transracial Families through Transnational Adoption

Abstract

The article analyzes how parents decide to adopt a child transnationally by detailing how the meaning of race is articulated in the formation of family. Drawing from my interviews with adoptive parents, I examine how they internalize ideas about different racial groups. For example, I investigate how what they have learned from the adoption agencies, their own perceptions of racial stereotypes, and their perceptions of the communities in which they reside influence their understanding of race. The article suggests that adoptive parents, when considering whether to adopt children from the U.S. or overseas, use a criteria dictated by racial stereotypes in understanding Asian Americans as the model minority, African-Americans as a deficient group, and Latinos occupying an intermediary position.

White Australian Adoptive Mothers' Understandings of Birth Cultures and Families

“…Yet instead of challenging discrimination and the terms on which it occurs, Mary appears to accept as fait accompli not only that discrimination will happen, but that it is natural for people to see cultural difference as worthy of comment. Indeed, the phrase "at a glance" signals how cultural difference is reduced down to initial perceptions attained from a "glance", a reading of culture that epitomised many of the participant"s responses in terms of culture being simply about visual appearance (see also Kubo, 2010). This reduction of culture to appearance is exemplified in Mary"s account when she speaks about the injunction placed upon her and her partner to "keep [the child"s] culture with them".…”

“…that a real transnational feminist solidarity be created, one that leads women to fight for each others" most basic human rights to parent their own children and that rejects transactions that pit (birth) mother against (adoptive) mother (p. 13) Finally, and to re-emphasize our points throughout this paper in regards to culture, it is vital that training and assessment undertaken with potential adoptive parents focuses on how "culture" is understood, and the implications of this for undertaking intercountry adoption. International (e.g., Kubo, 2010) and Australian (e.g., Willing & Fronek, 2013) research continues to suggest that what currently occurs in the name of "culture" as part of training is much closer to cultural tourism than it is cultural keeping. Furthermore, and as Dorow And Swiffen (2009) suggest, dominant understandings of culture amongst white adoptive parents function within a logic where cultural difference is seen as assimilable, which reduces the threat that birth families and cultures potentially represent to adoptive parents.…”

“…Furthermore, and as Dorow And Swiffen (2009) suggest, dominant understandings of culture amongst white adoptive parents function within a logic where cultural difference is seen as assimilable, which reduces the threat that birth families and cultures potentially represent to adoptive parents. Here threat refers both to what some of our participants explicitly spoke about in terms of concerns that children might be reunified with their birth parents, but also implicit threats relating to how racial differences within families can be experienced as destabilizing or marginalizing for white adoptive parents who are anxious to retain their location within the privilege confines of whiteness (see Anagost, 2000;Kubo, 2010).…”

“…5 discourses about the appropriate treatment of "culture" within intercountry adoptions (Kubo, 2010), and to look at how specifically this plays out in our interview data.…”

Korean transracial adoptee identity formation

“…Studies find that although parents engage in colorblind practices with their transracially adopted children, they relied upon racist stereotypes to guide their adoption choices and the (un)desirability of certain adoptable children (Brian, ; Shiao, Tuan, & Rienzi, ). For example, white adoptive parents use racially coded language to describe Asian children as a “better fit” into their family than black children; they also frame Asian children as “baggage free” in comparison to black children (Kubo, ). The effects of colorblind beliefs can be seen in Korean adoptees' racial identity.…”