Transracial Adoption
- Mafalda Oliveira
- Jan 23, 2021
- 2 min read
When planning to adopt, many people state that the child’s race or ethnicity does not matter the tiniest bit, parents usually say this in a positive way, and in order to demonstrate that they are capable of raising and loving a child ,regardless of whether they look like them or share their cultural heritage and traditions. However, it is crucial to not forget that culture and race do, in fact matter, and a lot.
If foster children are adopted and raised in a household where it's cultural and racial heritage aren't acknowledged or even seen as a not very important subject, it can seriously affect them throughout their lives. Many transracial adoptees are victims of racial isolation, which will, most certainly, lead to a fractured identity, racial confusion, internal bias, and lets not forget the discrimination that the majority of them suffer on the daily.
Parenting in a “color-blind” surely isn't the right move, parents who are raising an adopted child of a different race must be prepared and comfortable addressing physical differences and talking about racial issues, in order to ensure that situations like the ones I mentioned above do not occur.
I would also like to add that exposing the negative aspects of transracial adoption is not, by any means an attack on healthier adoptions, but doing so creates an awareness that the current system produces high rates of abuse and suicide.
If you are keeping up with all of our uploads, you probably have already noticed that we believe that it is vital to have knowledge about your history and connect with your culture.
There’s power in knowing who we are and owning it , without feeling any shame, nonetheless respecting our culture does not imply neglecting the others. No culture should be superimposed on another, instead they must go hand in hand, only then will we be able to live in a more tolerant world, in which we can all learn from our differences.
I strongly advise to watch the video that is linked below if you wanna hear an inspiring story of a transracial adoptee.
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