RESOURCE FILES
Chapter 4
Building Order: Culture and History
Transracial Adoption
Loyalty and pride in
one's culture are likely to be felt most powerfully in the face of a perceived threat
to the integrity of the culture. Consider the issue of transracial adoption, the practice
of adopting children from a different racial group.
Most transracial adoptions
involve white parents and a minority childóAfrican American, Hispanic, or Asian. Many
transracial adoptions involve children from developing countries.
The assumption in
transracial adoptions is that race and ethnic background are irrelevant and ought to be
minimized or ignored in the interests of finding a loving home for the child. In addition,
the child, who likely comes from a financially depressed and deprived background, will
have better opportunities in a more "advantaged" environment. Advocates also
argue that transracial adoption has the potential to transform a racially divided society
into a racially integrated one.
Transracial adoption has
had strong support in American society. In the late 1960s, when transracial adoptions
started to become more common, adoption agencies strongly encouraged white families to
adopt children from other races. Today, organizations like the National Committee for
Adoption have formally stated that, because so many minority children are waiting for
adoption, permanency rather than racial matching should be of paramount consideration.1 The Multi-Ethnic Placement Act of 1994 forbids federally funded
agencies from considering race, culture, and ethnicity in their placement decisions,
making it easier for couples to adopt children of a different racial background.
Transracial adoption has
not been without its critics, however. In 1972 the National Association of Black Social
Workers passed a resolution, still in effect today, against the adoption of black children
by white parents.2 The group argued that transracial
adoptions are harmful to black heritage and that to maintain the integrity of their
culture, blacks must be loyal to its uniqueness.
They also pointed out that
a black child growing up in a white family will never learn about his or her own culture
and will therefore never develop a positive self-image. White parents can never provide a
black child with sufficient information about what it is like to be black in a
predominantly white society.
In the larger historical
and political context, the fear that transracial adoption weakens racial identity and
culture makes sense. In the 1960s and 1970s, for example, nearly 30% of all Native
American children were removed from their families and put up for adoption. Social workers
had deemed thousands of parents unfit because of poverty, alcoholism, and other problems.
So devastating to the Native American culture was the removal of these children that the
Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978, giving tribes special preference in adopting
children of Native American heritage.3
Recently, however, this
law has come under attack. Cases have been reported in which tribes have contested the
adoption by white parents of children who have only a minute trace of Indian ancestry. In
the 1990s Congress considered an adoption bill that would limit a tribal court's
jurisdiction in adoption proceedings involving children whose biological parents do not
maintain "significant social, cultural or political affiliation with the tribe."4
For African Americans, the
civil rights movement of the 1960s instilled an unprecedented pride in their racial
identity. At a time when political power seemed to be within reach of African Americans,
the possibility that some black children were being raised as white was difficult to
tolerate. If it were true that black children adopted by white parents had difficulty
identifying with the black culture, then they would be less likely to support black
political issues. In this sense, the potential loss of cultural and racial identity could
not be separated from broader political concerns.
The opposition to
transracial adoption has been quite effective. From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, when
transracial adoption reached its peak, approximately 15,000 black children were adopted by
white parents.5 In 1971, 1 out of every 3 black children
who was adopted was placed with a white family.6 But by
1975 (the last year the government collected data on transracial adoption), adoptions of
black children by white parents had disappeared almost completely.7
By 1987, 35 states had established policies against cross-racial adoption.
Have the fears of children
losing their racial identities been borne out? Research on this issue has been somewhat
mixed. Some studies have shown that a relatively low percentage of young black children
adopted by white families have problems with racial identity.8
Several studies have found that preschool children involved in transracial adoptions are
as well adjusted as children from same-race adoptions.9
Studies that have followed transracially adopted children from infancy until well beyond
adolescence have found that, despite periodic racial name-calling at school and in other
public situations, these individuals do not have problems identifying as black Americans,
are well-adjusted for the most part, and show good to very good self-esteem.10
Beyond the level of
individual adjustment, though, the broader problem of cultural heritage remains. White
adoptive parents have been known to minimize or ignore the racial identity of their
children, considering parenthood and family more important than race.11
In a study of 30 adolescent black children adopted by white parents, only 10 of them
identified themselves as black; 6 said they were "mixed," and the rest tried to
avoid a racial identity altogether by saying they were "human" or
"American."12
Not only does the issue of
transracial adoption provide an interesting example of cultural loyalty and protection, it
also shows conflicting institutional functions. Transracial adoption is as much about
cultural conceptions of what the family's role in society ought to be as it is about
race. Traditionally, one of the important functions of the family has been to offer
unqualified emotional support, nurturing, and protection to its members. But the family is
also supposed to provide its members with cultural instruction and a sense of racial,
ethnic, or religious identity.
The difficulty we face as
a society is deciding which of these functions should take precedence. The difficulty we
face as students of sociology is reconciling our human concern for individual children
with our scientific concern for multiple points of view.
1Adamec, C., & Pierce, W. L. 1991. The encyclopedia of
adoption. New York: Facts on File.
2Davis, F. J. 1991. Who is black? University Park:
Pennsylvania State University Press.
3Egan, T. 1993. "A cultural gap may swallow a
child." New York Times, October 12.
4Schmitt, E. 1996. "Adoption bill facing battle over a
provision on Indians." New York Times, May 8, p. C18.
5Davis, F. J. 1991. Who is black? University Park:
Pennsylvania State University Press.
6Ladner, J. 1978. Mixed families: Adopting across racial
boundaries. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press.
7Adamec, C., & Pierce, W. L. 1991. The encyclopedia of
adoption. New York: Facts on File. See also Davis, F. J. 1991. Who is black? University
Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
8See, for example, Feigelman, W., & Silverman, A. B.
1984. "The long-term effects of transracial adoption." Social Service Review,
58, 588-602.
9Shireman, J. F., & Johnson, P. R. 1986. "A
longitudinal study of black adoptions: Single parent, transracial and traditional."
Social Work, 31, 172-176. See also Zastrow, C. 1977. Outcome of black children-white
parents transracial adoptions. San Francisco: R & E Research Associates.
10Simon, R., Alstein, H., & Melli, M. S. 1994. The case
for transracial adoption. Washington, DC: The American University Press. See also Vroegh,
K. S. 1997. "Transracial adoptees: Developmental status after 17 years."
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 67, 568-575.
11Ladner, J. 1978. Mixed families: Adopting across racial
boundaries. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press.
12McRoy, R. G., & Zurcher, L. A. 1983. Transracial and
inracial adoptees: The adolescent years. Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas.
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