Female Chinese transracial adoptees’ racial awakening amid dual racial pandemics.

Abstract

Objectives: 2020 was marked by two racial pandemics-COVID-19-related attacks against Asians and the police brutality against Blacks that spurred the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement-calling attention to racial privilege and oppression in American society. The present study explores female Chinese transracial adoptees' unique lived experiences during this racially salient moment. Method: A phenomenological approach captured how 20 female Chinese transracial adoptees navigated and made sense of the dual racial pandemics and the subsequent impact on their racial awareness, identity development, and advocacy. Data were collected using semistructured individual Zoom interviews and coded using phenomenological analysis. Results: Findings suggest the dual pandemics acted as catalysts for female Chinese transracial adoptees' racial consciousness and reevaluation of their positionality within the racial hierarchy. Three core themes emerged: female transracial adoptees' new self-understanding as racial beings; their perspective on their place within the White-Black dichotomy; and their role in promoting racial justice. Conclusions: Our findings contribute to the literature by highlighting the complexities of female Chinese transracial adoptees' racialized selves as children of color who have been raised in White families; their motivations to foster racial justice; and their ability to facilitate race talk. Public Significance StatementWe find ourselves in a unique time in history, when anti-Asian racism associated with the COVID-19 health crisis is intersecting with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. These dual pandemics have served to awaken female Chinese transracial adoptees to their racial reality straddling two racial worlds, propelling them to explore their identities and their ability to enact social change. Chinese transracial adoptees must make sense of conflicted feelings about their proximity to Whiteness, their position within the racial hierarchy, and their role in the BLM movement.