Rachel’s Tavern » Reframing Transracial Adoption
Rachel’s Tavern » Reframing Transracial Adoption
The other sort of notion that these articles present is the sort of “love conquers all†mentality, which is naive at best and dangerous at worst. Love only provides a softer place to fall. It doesn’t challenge racism, and for white families who transracially adopt love, plus multicultural education is a great start, but this only works on the individual/small group level. In fact, in the era of colorblind racism very few people would ever acknowledge “hating†any ethnic group. Racism is not about love or hate; it is really about power. Love may be great for an individual child, but love doesn’t stop racism. Only social activism will stop racism, and if they asked the transracial adoptive parents the right sorts of questions in these interviews, they may find that the parents actually agree with my contention here.
Best line? “Racism is not about love or hate; it is really about power.”
September 1st, 2006 at 4:26 pm
A group I used to work with used to say this about power: We like power. It’s a good thing. Power is such a good thing, we think everyone should have some.
I also love where she says “love provides a softer place to fall.”
September 3rd, 2006 at 10:37 pm
i think the formulation racism = prejudice + power is a pretty old one, nu?