Adopting a Black Child: Family Experiences of Inter-Racial Adoption. Barbara Jackson. 1975. 14p. Association of British Adoption Agencies (UK).

Adopting from Different Cultures for Perspective Parents: What It Really Means!. Anna D Friedler. 1997. 60p. Lift Every Voice.

Adopting Maternity: White Women Who Adopt Transracially or Transnationally. Nora Rose Moosnick. 2004. 192p. Praeger Publishers. Discusses the issues related to race, class, and gender involved in adoption based on in-depth interviews with 22 adoptive mothers. This text compares and contrasts the experiences of white women who adopted Asian, black, or biracial children. The bulk of the book is dedicated to presenting the women’s words as they talk about their perceptions of fertility treatments, birth mothers, other mothers, adoption processes, and outsiders’ reactions, among other matters. Feminist discourse is used to examine the applicability of these theories to women’s self-characterizations. Beginning with an overview of the theoretical basis of the book, discussions of becoming an adoptive mother and the realities of being an adoptive mother follow. Each chapter presents feelings and experiences of adoptive mothers, in addition to analysis that brings these feelings into broader societal context. This honest portrayal will offer adoptive families, adoption professionals, and social workers important insights into mothers’ adoptive experiences. Scholars of women’s studies, social work, and sociology will find this volume useful as well.

Adoption & Race: Black, Asian & Mixed-Race Children in White Families. Owen Gill & Barbara Jackson. 1983. 151p. British Association for Adoption & Fostering (UK). The adoption of black children by white couples is, inevitably, a controversial area of social policy. Opponents of the practice—including some black community groups—have argued that blacks have always serviced whites and are now servicing them in the ultimate fashion by providing children for them. Equally, it is argued that such children will face major difficulties of integration and, in adolescence, an “identity crisis”: not knowing who they are—black or white—will result in a debilitating sense of confusion and major behavioral difficulties. This study tests these assumptions by looking in detail at the effects of transracial adoption once the children have reached adolescence. The authors interviewed a large group of white parents and talked at length to the children, now aged between 13 and 15, about their experience of adoption. Thus, much of the evidence presented here is based on the direct testimony of the parents and, for the first time in British adoption research, of the children themselves. The result is a fresh and illuminating account of family integration in practice, family attitudes and policies towards adoption and racial identity, the children’s own conception of their racial identity and their experience of being black in a white family. These detailed findings are then placed in the context of the wider political issues surrounding transracial adoption. The book will have much to say to social workers, policymakers and prospective adoptive parents seeking up to date information on which to base their own discussions, practice and decisions.

Adoption of Black Children, The: Counteracting Institutional Disctimination. Dawn Day. 1979. Lexington Books.

Adoption of Native Canadian Children, The. Margaret Ward. 1984. 69p. Highway Book Shop.

Adoption of Non-White Children: The Experience of a British Adoption Project. Lois Raynor. 1970. (National Institute for Social Work Training Series). Allen & Unwin (UK).

Adoption, Race & Identity: From Infancy Through Adolescence. Rita J Simon & Howard Altstein. 1992. 240p. Greenwood.

Adoption, Race, & Identity: From Infancy to Young Adulthood. Rita James Simon, et al. 2002. 230p. Second Edition. Transaction Publishers. Adoption Race, and Identity is a long-range study of the impact of interracial adoption on those adopted and their families. Initiated in 1972, it was continued in 1979, 1984, and 1991. Cumulatively, these four phases trace the subjects from early childhood into young adulthood. This is the only extended study of this controversial subject. Simon and Altstein provide a broad perspective of the impact of transracial adoption and include profiles of the families involved in the study. They explore and compare the experiences of both the parents and the children. They identify families whose adoption experiences were problematic and those whose experiences were positive. Finally, the study looks at the insights the experience of transracial adoption brought to the adoptive parents and what advice they would pass on to future parents adopting children from different racial backgrounds. They include the reflections of those adopted included in the 1972 first phase who are now adults themselves. This second edition includes a new concluding chapter that updates the fourth and last phase of the study. The authors were able to locate 88 of the 96 families who participated in the 1984 study. Bringing together all four phases of this twenty-year study into one volume gives the reader a richer and deeper understanding of what the experience of transracial adoption has meant for the parents, the adoptees, and children born into the families studied. This landmark work will be of compelling interest to social workers, policy makers, and professionals and families involved on all sides of interracial adoption.

Best Interest of the Child: Transracial Placement Re-Examined. Jane Aldridge. 1995. Free Association Books.

Bird Without Feathers. Mike & Karen Derzack, with Cynthia Sterling. 1994. 313p. Northwest Publishing Inc. The true headlined story of baby Byron and one foster family’s fight for the child’s best interest.

Birthmarks: Transracial Adoption in Contemporary America. Sandra Patton. 2000. 220p. New York University Press. Can white parents teach their black children African-American culture and history? Can they impart to them the survival skills necessary to survive in the racially stratified United States? Concerns over racial identity have been at the center of controversies over transracial adoption since the 1970s, as questions continually arise about whether white parents are capable of instilling a positive sense of African-American identity in their black children. Through in-depth interviews with adult transracial adoptees, as well as with social workers in adoption agencies, Sandra Patton, herself an adoptee, explores the social construction of race, identity, gender, and family and the ways in which these interact with public policy about adoption. Patton offers a compelling overview of the issues at stake in transracial adoption. She discusses recent changes in adoption and social welfare policy which prohibit consideration of race in the placement of children, as well as public policy definitions of “bad mothers” which can foster coerced aspects of adoption, to show how the lives of transracial adoptees have been shaped by the policies of the U.S. child welfare system. Neither an argument for nor against the practice of transracial adoption, BirthMarks seeks to counter the dominant public view of this practice as a panacea to the so-called “epidemic” of illegitimacy and the misfortune of infertility among the middle class with a more nuanced view that gives voice to those directly involved, shedding light on the ways in which Black and multiracial adoptees articulate their own identity experiences. About the Author: Sandra Patton is Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Minnesota. She is a former Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota.

Case for Transracial Adoption, The. Rita James Simon, Howard Altstein & Marygold S Melli. 1994. 150p. American University Press. This timely study analyzes the issue of adoptions that cross racial and national lines, and assesses their success and appropriateness. The book’s centerpiece is a comprehensive long-term study of the transracial adoption conducted by Rita Simon and Howard Altstein, the result of twenty years of research and analysis. The authors discuss the case often made against transracial adoption and explain the laws that govern these adoptions. About the Authors: Rita J. Simon is Professor in the Department of Justice, Law and Society at the American University. Howard Altstein is former Dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland. Marygold S. Melli is the Voss-Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin School of Law.

Children of Special Value: Interracial Adoption in America. David C Anderson. 1971. St Martin’s Press. About the problems and rewards of interracial adoption. The prevailing attitudes toward adoption in general in America and the problems encountered in dealing with agencies and adoption procedures. The book discusses four case studies of American Indian, Korean, and Negro children concerning their interracial adoption.

Children of the Dragonfly: Native American Voices on Child Custody & Education. Robert Bensen, ed. 2001. 270p. University of Arizona Press. Native American children have long been subject to removal from their homes for placement in residential schools and in foster or adoptive homes. This is the first anthology to document the struggle for cultural survival on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border. Through autobiography and interviews, fiction and traditional tales, official transcripts and poetry, these voices—Seneca, Cherokee, Mohawk, Navajo, and many others—weave powerful accounts of struggle and loss into a moving testimony to perseverance and survival. About the Author: Robert Bensen is co-editor of Iroquois Voices, Iroquois Visions: A Celebration of Contemporary Siz Nations Arts and has authored numerous essays on Native literature and child custody. He is Professor of English and Director of Writing at Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York, where he teaches American Indian law and literature. He is also a poet with numerous publications and awards.

Colour of Difference: Journeys in Transracial Adoption. Sarah Armstrong & Petrina Slaytor, eds. 2001. 160p. Federation Press (UK). Stories from adoptees about the experience of transracial adoption. The authors introduce the issues around cross-cultural adoption and themes arising from the adoptees’ stories. They also provide statistics on the scale of cross-cultural adoption.

Does Anybody Else Look Like Me?: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Multiracial Children. Donna Jackson Nakazawa. 2003. 256p. Da Capo Press. A psychologically wise guide to helping multiracial children of all ages develop confidence and a healthy understanding of their uniqueness. “Am I black or white or am I American?” “Why don’t my eyes look like yours?” “Why do people always call attention to my ‘different’ hair?” Helping a child understand his mixed racial background can be daunting, especially when, whether out of honest appreciation or mean-spiritedness, peers and strangers alike perceive their features to be “other.” Drawing on psychological research and input from over fifty multiracial families, Does Anybody Else Look Like Me? addresses the special questions and concerns facing these families, explaining how we can best prepare multiracial children of all ages to make their way confidently in our color-conscious world. From the books and toys to use in play with young children, to advice on guiding older children toward an unflappable sense of self, Does Anybody Else Look Like Me? is the first book to outline for parents how, exactly, to deflect the objectifying attention multiracial children receive. Full of powerful stories and counsel, it is sure to become the book adoptive and birth parents of different races alike will look to for understanding as they strive to raise their children in a changing world.

Ethics of Transracial Adoption, The. Hawley Grace Fogg-Davis. 2001. 176p. Cornell University Press. Transracial adoption is one of the most contentious issues in adoption politics and in the politics of race more generally. Some who support transracial adoption use a theory of colorblindness, while many who oppose it draw a causal connection between race and culture and argue that a black child’s racial and cultural interests are best served by black adoptive parents. Hawley Fogg-Davis carves out a middle ground between these positions. She believes that race should not be a barrier to adoption, but neither should it be absent from the minds of prospective adopters and adoption practitioners. Fogg-Davis’s argument in favor of transracial adoption is based on the moral and legal principle of nondiscrimination and a theory of race-consciousness she terms “racial navigation.” Challenging the notion that children “get” their racial identity from their parents, she argues that children, through the process of racial navigation, should cultivate their self-identification in dialogue with others. The Ethics of Transracial Adoption explores new ground in the transracial adoption debate by examining the relationship between personal and public conceptions of race and racism before, during, and after adoption.

Family Experiences of Inter-Racial Adoption. Barbara Jackson. 1976. 32p. Association of British Adoption and Fostering Agencies (UK).

Far from the Reservation: The Transracial Adoption of American Indian Children. David Fanshel. 1972. Scarecrow Press.

Gift Children: A Story of Race, Family & Adoption in a Divided America. J Douglas Bates. 1993. 304p. Ticknor & Fields.

I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black & Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World: A Guide for Parents & Teachers. Marguerite A Wright. 1998. 290p. John Wiley & Sons. A child’s concept of race is quite different from that of an adult. Young children perceive skin color as magical—even changeable—and unlike adults, are incapable of understanding adult predjudices surrounding race and racism. Just as children learn to walk and talk, they likewise come to understand race in a series of predictable stages. Based on Marguerite A. Wright’s research and clinical experience, I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla teaches us that the color-blindness of early childhood can, and must, be taken advantage of in order to guide the positive development of a child’s self-esteem. I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla is filled with practical, positive, and creative ideas for handling common situations such as what to do when your child says she wants a white doll; how to deal with relatives and friends who compare your childrens skin colors and hair textures; and how to discipline your children so that they can grow up with self respect. Teachers will gain valuable insights about how preconceptions can contribute to a childs success or failure and how to handle discipline problems in the classroom. Wright answers some fundamental questions about children and race, including:

•   What do children know and understand about the color of their skin?
•   When do children understand the concept of race?
•   Are there warning signs that a child is being adversely affected by racial prejudice?
•   How can adults avoid instilling in children their own negative perceptions and prejudices?
•   What can parents do to prepare their children to overcome the racism they are likely to encounter?
•   How can schools lessen the impact of racism?

With wisdom and compassion, I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla spells out how to educate black and biracial children about race, while preserving their innate resilience and optimism—the birthright of all children.

In Black & White: The Story of an Open Transracial Adoption. Nathalie Seymour. 2007. 184p. British Association for Adoption & Fostering. This is an honest account of one couple’s attempt to create a family. Nathalie and Tom, a white couple living in 1970s Britain, wanted to have a family but knew that they could not have children of their own. Adoption was their aim and their wish. At a time when black children drifted in the public care system, it seemed right and desirable to establish a transracial family. But Nathalie and Tom went further: they wanted their two adopted children to remain connected to their birth family and to grow up with pride in their heritage. Today “open adoptions” are becoming more usual , but 30 years ago Nathalie and Tom were breaking new ground. Neither they, nor the professionals advising them, foresaw where this approach would lead and how it would affect the children, their birth family and the whole process of adoption. In Black and White describes how the children settle in with their new family, with varying degrees of enthusiasm and success. It follows them as they get to know their birth father’s family and in time make the dramatic decision, one by one, to leave their adoptive home. But that is not the end of the story...This extremely candid account throws light on the feelings of the adults and children involved against a background of challenging issues including child development, open adoption, race and mental illness. In spite of the many difficult times and disturbing outcomes, In Black and White provides a positive account that celebrates the strength of families and relationships. It is an unusual story, bravely told, that will stimulate thought and debate on a wide range of highly relevant and topical issues.

In Search of Belonging: Reflections by Transracially Adopted People. Perlita Harris, ed. 2006. 400p. British Association for Adoption & Fostering (UK). Substantial anthology giving voice to the experience of transracial adoption in the UK through poetry, art, autobiography, memoir and oral testimony from over 50 adoptees. Adoption of black children by white families has been known in the UK for over 40 years (since the numbers of white babies available for adoption declined) and yet the voices of transracially adopted children and adults are rarely heard. Very little is known about the childhood and adult experiences and the adoption support needs of this heterogeneous and hitherto silenced group. This collection of writings begins to address this gap. It brings out common themes of difference and belonging; identity; racism and racial abuse; loss of birth relatives, culture and language; visiting country of origin and search and reunion with birth relatives. All the contributors were adopted by a white family in the UK and spent some or all of their childhood growing up here. Those born in the UK are of a wide range of parentages including many with one white and one black parent and their stories and their interpretation of their own childhood and adult experiences have inevitably been influenced by the wider debate about the practice of transracial adoption in this country. This is the first time in the UK that the experiences and stories of transracial adoptees have been brought together. They identify and highlight a number of key themes and issues of huge relevance to practice both in adoption and the provision of adoption support services.

In the Best Interests of the Child: Culture, Identity & Transracial Adoption. Ivor Gaber & Jane Aldridge, eds. 1995. 249p. Free Association Booke Ltd. In the Best Interests of the Child is a controversial book. It is the first to undertake a sustained examination of the highly charged issue of transracial adoption—the placing of babies and children for adoption with parents of a different ethnic background. For the past decade this issue has provided a potent symbol for those who have argued that transracial adoption represents a form of “genocide.” White people, it has been claimed, were “stealing” black babies and many sought to ban the practice. As a consequence of these bans, the issue was taken up by those arguing against so-called “political correctness,” who have claimed that they represent one of the worst examples of political ideology being given precedence over the welfare of vulnerable children in care. In the Best Interests of the Child (a phrase that is at the heart of current legislation) puts these arguments into context. It examines the historical, cultural and political background of the claims and counter claims and examines the issue from the perspective of sociologists, psychologists and legal experts. It features an important section of evidence from the United States, from where much of the impetus to impose bans originated. There is a valuable appendix which, for the first time, brings together all the important policy statements and guidelines issued by the organizations central to this debate. The conclusion presents a series of proposals for handling transracial adoptions which, the editors believe, will be “in the best interests of the child.”

Inside Transracial Adoption. Gail Steinberg & Beth Hall. 2000. Perspectives Press. Inside Transracial Adoption is an informative, comprehensive introduction to the adoption of children by parents who do not share their racial identity. With their many years of practical experience in the area of transracial adoptions, Gail Steinberg and Beth Hall successfully collaborate to offer general and culturally specific suggestions and advice on issues related to racial identity, family connection, and child development within the context of race. Inside Transracial Adoption is very highly recommended and usefully applicable reading for anyone considering or in the process of constructing a transracial family unit through the process of adoption. — Midwest Book Review

Insider’s Guide to Transracial Adoption, An. Gail Steinberg & Beth Hall. 1998. 434p. This comprehensive manual offers concrete strategies for dealing with the challenges of multiracial family life. Topics include racial identity for children of color, strengthening family connections, predictable developmental stages relating to racial issues, and suggestions to offer support and direction. An Insider ’s Guide to Transracial Adoption is an important book for every multiracial family.

International & Transracial Adoptions: A Mental Health Perspective. Christopher Bagley. 1993. 376p. Ashgate Publishing Co.

Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, & Adoption. Randall Kennedy. 2003. 688p. Knopf Publishing Group. Fears of transgressive interracial relationships, informed over the centuries by ugly racial biases and fantasies, still linger in American society today. This brilliant study—ranging from plantation days to the present—explores the historical, sociological, legal, and moral issues that continue to feed and complicate that fear. In chapters filled with provocative and cleanly stated logic and enhanced by intriguing historical anecdotes, Randall Kennedy tackles such subjects as the presence of sex in racial politics and of race in sexual politics, the prominence of legal institutions in defining racial distinction and policing racial boundaries, the imagined and real pleasures that have attended interracial intimacy, and the competing arguments around interracial romance, sex, and family life throughout American history.

Just Don’t Marry One: Interracial Dating, Marriage, & Parenting. George A & Sherelyn Whittum Yancey, eds. Foreword by Curtiss DeYoung. 2003. 235p. Judson Press. This groundbreaking work weaves together the personal and professional perspectives of racially diverse Christian leaders as they confront this emotionally charged issue. This pioneering multidisciplinary Christian handbook serves a twofold purpose: (1) to affirm healthy interracial dating, mating, and parenting for family members, and (2) to create a reference textbook to equip professionals with biblical insights and practical tools for ministering to multiracial families.

Living in Limbo: Families Journeying Toward Understanding. Mavis Olsen, PhD, & Dallas Williams. 2003. 276p. BPR Publishers. This book traces the journey of transracial adoptive families, with particular emphasis on our family. It describes the behavior, responses and mistakes of family members. It describes a way toward hope, love and wholeness. It offers other family members one way to live in limbo with peace.

Lost Bird of Wounded Knee: Spirit of the Lakota. Renee Sansome-Flood. 1995. 384p. Charles Scribner’s. This never-before-told story of a Lakota Indian child kidnapped from the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee and raised as a white child offers the stunning portrait of a young girl robbed of her roots and lost in an alien culture, and a powerful symbol of this nation’s tragic relations with Native Americans.

Loving Across the Color Line: A White Adoptive Mother Learns about Race. Sharon E Rush. 2000. 190p. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. What would a liberal, white, civil rights law professor have to learn about race? When Sharon Rush adopted an African American girl, she quickly discovered the need to throw out old assumptions and start learning all over again. This is the moving, heartfelt memoir of a mother and daughter’s loving relationship that opened the author’s eyes to the harsh realities of the American racial divide. Only by living with her daughter through the day-to-day encounters and life passages did Rush learn that racism is far more devastating to blacks than most whites can ever imagine. Some of the stories are funny, others are sad, a few are almost unbelievable. But they all are poignant because they illustrate how insightful a little black girl of three can be about race and justice. With love and spirituality, Rush and her daughter live a deeply joyous life, just as they both have become increasingly active in working publicly and privately against racism. Dr. Sharon Rush lives in Gainesville, FL, where she is Professor of Law at the University of Florida.

Mothering Without a Compass: White Mother’s Love, Black Son’s Courage. Becky W Thompson. 2000. 168p. University of Minnesota Press. From Publishers Weekly: Sociologist Thompson, whose previous research explored the connections between childhood abuse and eating disorders (A Hunger So Wide and So Deep, 1994), chronicles the emotional rewards of her first year raising Adrian, a nine-year-old African-American boy whose mother has asked Thompson—a white lesbian—to parent him. Thompson eloquently relates the difficulties of bringing up a proud, intelligent and sensitive child in a culture that, she says, does not recognize such qualities in African-American men. She soon finds that her commitment to raising Adrian in a multicultural, progressive environment is trickier than she had imagined. For instance, she encourages the boy to give a classroom presentation about Malcolm X, only to find that the black leader’s arguments about the political efficacy of violence upset the boy and bring up memories of physical abuse at the hands of his stepfather. Furthermore, Adrian’s progressive, private schoolDwhich caters to a wealthy, liberal clienteleDforces Thompson to confront her own tenuous middle-class identity, as well as the implications of raising her son in a climate of privilege. Adrian’s precocious yet na ve questions about sexuality and motherhood (“When a lesbian goes to a sperm bank, does she pay the bank or does the bank pay her?”) point to the changing nature of sex education in an era of reproductive technology and same-sex parenting. Thompson is frustratingly reserved when discussing Adrian’s mother’s motivations for leaving her son with a white woman she barely knows, and may leave some readers wishing that she would put her social critiques on hold in favor of a richer exploration of her personal feelings and doubts about parenthood. But this memoir will strongly appeal to anyone interested in the complications and pleasures of raising children in a culture of increasingly different and contested “family values.” © 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

New Dimensions in Adoption. Florence Rondell & Anne-Marie Murray. 1974. 120p. Crown Publishers.

Of Many Colors: Portraits of Multiracial Families. Gigi Kaeser & Peggy Gillespie. 1997. 160p. University of Massachusetts Press. Based on an award-winning photo exhibit, this book documents the feelings and experiences of Americans who live in multiracial families. Of Many Colors tells the stories of thirty-nine families who have bridged the racial divide through interracial marriage or adoption. In these pages, parents and children speak candidly about their lives, their relationships, and the ways in which they have dealt with issues of race.

Only in a White World. Paul Barlin. 2003. 170p. Publish America. In 1955, the rising number of interracial babies in her care causes Jessica Keebler, director of Los Angeles County Bureau of Adoptions, to have nightmares. But a California law demeans interracial babies as “non-White,” and they may only be given to Negro families. Negro adoptive applications are as scarce as rain in the Mojave desert. The increasing pressure to care for such an extraordinary number of babies threatens to explode the resources of the agency, force the agency to use inadequate foster homes, and create an impossible caseload for each of the staff. When the Liebmans, a White family, offer to take a baby “of any color or national origin,” Jessica decides to flaunt the law and process them. When word leaks to the state legislature, sparks fly. Jessica is called in to answer. Her job and the future of California adoptions are at stake.

Our Son, a Stranger: Adoption Breakdown & Its Effects on Parents. Marie Adams. 2002. 211p. McGill-Queen’s University Press. In 1973 Marie and Rod Adams, brimming with idealism and keenly aware of the plight of disadvantaged aboriginal children, adopted Tim, a young Cree boy, two and one-half years old. Tim began displaying severe behavioural problems almost immediately, problems that, despite their efforts to find help, only became worse over the years. He left home at the age of twelve and died on the streets when he was twenty-one. Devastated by their loss, the Adams began to search for answers as to why things had gone so horribly wrong. In Our Son, a Stranger, Marie Adams describes five white couples whose adoptions of native children failed to meet their expectations. Using her own experiences as background she casts a critical eye on the “Sixties Scoop,” when governments actively encouraged the adoption of native children by non-native parents, and discusses why the special issues raised by all transracial adoptions need to be carefully considered.

Trenka

Oparah

Shin

Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chinyere Oparah & Sun Yung Shin, eds. 2006. 300p. South End Press. You must have seen one—they’re everywhere. Photo blow-ups of Hollywood star Angelina Jolie and Zahara, the child she adopted from Ethiopia, both beaming. “Saved by a Mother’s Love”—it’s People’s cover story. Zahara, we’re told, is thriving. Nothing is said of the grandmother who tried to keep her, broken ties, loss. Adoption is a win-win. Right? Healthy white infants have become hard to locate and expensive to adopt. So people from around the world turn to interracial and intercountry adoption, often, like Jolie, with the idea that while growing their families, they’re saving children from destitution. But as Outsiders Within reveals, while transracial adoption is a practice traditionally considered benevolent, it often exacts a heavy emotional, cultural, and even economic toll. Through compelling essays, fiction, poetry, and art, the contributors to this landmark publication carefully explore this most intimate aspect of globalization. Finally, in the unmediated voices of the adults who have matured within it, we find a rarely considered view of adoption, an institution that pulls apart old families and identities and grafts new ones. Moving beyond personal narrative, these transracially adopted writers from around the world tackle difficult questions about how to survive the racist and ethnocentric worlds they inhabit, what connects the countries relinquishing their children to the countries importing them, why poor families of color have their children removed rather than supported—about who, ultimately, they are. In their inquiry, they unseat conventional understandings of adoption politics, ultimately reframing the controversy as a debate that encompasses human rights, peace, and reproductive justice. About the Editors: Jane Jeong Trenka was born in Seoul, South Korea, and adopted into a white family in rural Minnesota in 1972. She was reunited with her birth family in 1995. Her book, The Language of Blood, received the Minnesota Book Award for Autobiography/Memoir and was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection. Trenka has received many literary fellowships and commendations. Julia Chinyere Oparah is a professor of Ethnic Studies at Mills College, a women’s liberal arts college in Oakland, California, author (under her previous name, Julia Sudbury) of Other Kinds of Dreams: Black Women’s Organisations and the Politics of Transformation (Routledge 1998) and editor of Global Lockdown: Race, Gender and the Prison-Industrial Complex (Routledge 2005). Oparah is involved in the prison abolitionist, anti-violence and global justice movements and is a co-founder of Sankofa, a support group for transracial adoptees in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sun Yung Shin was born in Seoul, Korea and was adopted at thirteen months old by a Polish-Irish-German Catholic American family in the Chicago area. Sun Yung is a poet, teacher, and freelance writer. Her bilingual children’s book, Cooper’s Lesson (published by Children’s Book Press), is illustrated by Korean American artist Kim Cogan with Korean translations by Min Paek, author of Aekyung’s Dream. She lives with her husband (who is a domestic kept-in-the-family adoptee from Chicago), outdoor-sports journalist Christopher Cross, and their two non-adopted children in Minneapolis. MN.

Permanent Family Placement for Children of Minority Ethnic Origin. June Thoburn, Liz Norford, & Steven Parvez Rashid. 2000. 240p. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Considering both “matched” and trans-racial child placements, this balanced and thoroughly researched book moves beyond the often simplistic and limiting racial distinctions such as “black” and “white” that inform much policy and practice around permanent placement. Using evidence from a long-term study of children placed with new families in the 1980s, and reviewing the available literature on ethnicity and child placement, the book looks at different types of placements and discusses whether they are more or less likely to break down, and their impact on aspects of well-being including ethnic identity. It includes first-hand accounts from young people and their adoptive or foster parents, and considers factors such as: choosing between foster placement and adoption; the nature of ethnic and adoptive identities; social work practice with black and white adoptive and foster families; issues of contact with birth family members. The authors emphasise that social workers, social services managers and policy makers need to consider adoption and family life within a wider social context, and outline positive new directions for both research and practice.

Race, Education, & Identity. GK Verma. 1979. St Martins Press.

Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother. Jana Wolff. 1997. 160p. Andrews & McMeel. About three years ago, the author and her husband, both Jewish, adopted a male baby at birth. Their child, whom they named Ari, was the birth son of two 18-year-olds, a Mexican-American mother and an African American father. In this candid memoir, Wolff relates her mixed feelings about bringing up a child from a different cultural background. Although she deeply loves her son, she is concerned that a biracial adoption may have made his future life harder. She also discusses her fears—groundless, it turns out—that Martie, the birth mother, would return to claim her child. Although the author’s frankness is disarming and she has bravely made the decision to maintain contact with Martie and to allow her to visit Ari, she makes sometimes harsh or patronizing judgments about Martie’s life choices. Wolff’s commitment to her son comes across here as absolute, but she makes clear she harbors many ambivalent emotions about the adoption that will be of interest to other adoptive parents of biracial children. — Publisher’s Weekly

Tapestry: Exploring the World of Trans-Racial Adoption. Janelle Peterson. 1995. 90p. The world of trans-racial adoption is unique. The goal of this book is to explore this world from three perspectives. First, for the pre-adoptive parent, it discusses the motivations to adopt and the commitment and implications of having a trans-racial family. For those who have already adopted, the book supplies new perspectives and food for thought, providing guidance as to the many issues that families face as the child matures. Finally, for professionals, Tapestry is designed to serve as a resource book to use in the teaching of cultural competency classes.

Transracial Adoptees & Their Families: A Study of Identity & Commitment. Rita J Simon & Howard Altstein. 1987. 163p. Praeger. Reporting on the third phase of a 14-year study of transracial adoption, this volume focuses on the adoption of non-white children by white families. It includes personal interviews with 96 mothers and fathers and 218 children which help to answer questions about the long-term effects of transracial adoption on the adoptees’ mental and emotional health and their racial identities. These valuable empirical data are combined with discussions of the practices of adoption agencies, recent court rulings, and alternative forms of adoption. About the Authors: Rita J. Simon is Dean of the School of Justice at American University. Howard Altstein is Professor of Social Work at the University of Maryland.

Tansracial Adoption: Children & Parents Speak. Constance Pohl & Kathy Harris. 1992. 142p. (YA). Franklin Watts. Explores the issues related to interracial and international adoptions, using interviews with black, biracial, Asian, and Hispanic young people who were adopted into white or biracial families.

Transracial Adoption: A Follow-Up. Rita J Simon & Howard Altstein. 1981. Lexington Books.

Transracial Adoption & Foster Care: Practice Issues for Professionals. Joseph Crumbley. 1999. 160p. CWLA. Transracial adoption and foster care has been a controversial topic throughout this decade—a topic that has led to arguments and divisions between families, neighborhoods, professionals, and policymakers on both local and national levels. The purpose of this book is to go beyond the arguments and ask the question: How do we as professionals help children and families make transracial adoptions and foster placements work? Joseph Crumbley, a well-respected authority on transracial adoption and foster care, describes specific ways that practitioners can work with transracial families to ensure that children develop positive racial and cultural identities, as well as how professionals can better serve these families. Dr. Crumbley also addresses such professional concerns as cultural competence and recruitment of minority adoptive and foster parents. Case studies and “myths” of transracial adoption provide valuable background information for child welfare professionals.

Transracial Adoptions: An Adoptive Mother’s Documentary of Racism, Injustice & Joy. Jo Ann Harder-Lang, with the help of her two adopted African American sons, AJ & Ty Lang. 2002. 180p. Writers Club Press. This book gets to the heart of transracial adoptions with an inside look from the children’s voices as well as documenting encounters with the child welfare system, school system and law enforcement. How the adoptive parent’s handle encounters with racism because of their belief’s and love for their black children and the events they have all endured.

Vanilla Mommy. Bradie Moore. 2005. 248p. Xulon Press. Vanilla Mommy is a unique non-fiction story about how a young, single white woman adopts a five-year old African American girl from the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services. This transracial family discovers how to live in two worlds, black and white. Everything from nappy hair to ashy skin is new to Bradie as she joins a black Baptist church to help her daughter learn about God and her heritage at the same time. While her daughter Amanda goes through culture shock and begins to deal with her turbulent past, Bradie learns to “Go Deep” both spiritually and in the new black world she gradually becomes a part of.

Where Courage Is Like a Wild Horse: The World of an Indian Orphanage. Sharon & Manny Skolnick. 1997. 144p. University of Nebraska Press. The dreams of a courageous Apache girl illuminate the hidden world of an Indian orphanage in this unforgettable story. Over forty years ago, Sharon Skolnick (Okee-Chee) and her sisters were removed from their Apache parents and became wards of the state of Oklahoma. She and her nearest sister made their way together through the Oklahoma Indian child welfare system. Shuttled back and forth between foster homes and orphanages, they finally ended up at the Murrow Indian Orphanage in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Here, Skolnick tells the gripping and ultimately triumphal account of the year the sisters spent there. Murrow was a place of wonder and terror, friendship and loneliness, where resilient children forged shifting alliances and conspired together yet yearned in solitude for a home and family to call their own. Skolnick paints an absorbing portrait of the world of an Indian orphanage, a world both bright and dark, vividly rendered through a child’s eyes but tempered by the perspective of the woman who survived the Indian child welfare system and became an Apache artist.