So, adoption is a topic that comes up in my family a lot because of various personal reasons. I often see mixed-race families, have friends from mixed-race families, and I see people's reactions to those families. I obviously know that most of you think of it as a non-issue. A family is a family to a kid who needs one, right? Well, that doesn't always seem to be the sentiment. I've seen people say that white people with children of another race have these children as "accessories." They seem genuinely offended by the idea that white people would adopt a child of another race. Then, of course, there is the question of the impact on the child. Is it negligible? Well, plenty of kids have a white parent and a black parent. Why not two white parents and their own dark skin? Do you think there's a difference? I can see it making the adoption situation rather obvious, which could suck, but other than that, what's the harm?
The thing is, it doesn't appear to me that you have to go actively seeking a child of another race for you to wind up with one. I think some people certainly look for children of a certain ethnicity for some emotional reason or another, which is fine, but I've found that, especially in the U.S., kids up for adoption are a mixed bag. If you want the kid who fits your family, you're going to wind up with a Skittles rainbow of skin tone to "choose" from. I think you can innocently enough wind up the parent of a kid who looks remarkably different from you. My point being that most parents who consider adoption aren't thinking of race but rather of filling in the blanks in their family. The problem isn't with them but with people who would criticize them. Still, those parents have to deal with those people and the child will eventually have to as well. Is that enough reason to adopt within your own race? Is there enough pain in having white parents when you're a different color that foster kids would rather wait for the right brown parents to come along? I suppose it's something to talk to an adoption expert about, but I'd be interested to see what the riff-raff here have to say about it.
The thing is, it doesn't appear to me that you have to go actively seeking a child of another race for you to wind up with one. I think some people certainly look for children of a certain ethnicity for some emotional reason or another, which is fine, but I've found that, especially in the U.S., kids up for adoption are a mixed bag. If you want the kid who fits your family, you're going to wind up with a Skittles rainbow of skin tone to "choose" from. I think you can innocently enough wind up the parent of a kid who looks remarkably different from you. My point being that most parents who consider adoption aren't thinking of race but rather of filling in the blanks in their family. The problem isn't with them but with people who would criticize them. Still, those parents have to deal with those people and the child will eventually have to as well. Is that enough reason to adopt within your own race? Is there enough pain in having white parents when you're a different color that foster kids would rather wait for the right brown parents to come along? I suppose it's something to talk to an adoption expert about, but I'd be interested to see what the riff-raff here have to say about it.
