Rachel’s Tavern » Reframing Transracial Adoption
1Sep2006 Filed under: Adoption, Race Author: DawnRachel’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.”
Related posts
No Responses to “Rachel’s Tavern » Reframing Transracial Adoption”
Leave a reply
About Me
I have two kids and a delightfully odd husband, Brett. My children are Noah (born to us in 1997) and Madison (born to her first mom, Pennie, in 2004 and brought to our family through a domestic, open adoption). They are my inspiration and also the reason I don't get more done around here.
I'm a writer and sometimes I get published, which is a nice thing. I write for joy, I write for money and when I'm very lucky, both things happen at the same time. My work appears in national publications including Yoga Journal, Disney's Family.com, Utne, Wondertime, Brain Child and Salon. Currently I am working on a book about my daughter's adoption and seeking representation for the proposal. I also own Smart Cookie Communications with my husband.
Twitter:
-
- @snapclick: Your footer is fixed!
- Fresh blog: An interesting question http://www.thiswomanswork.com/?p=3443
- Busy work because there are no holidays for the enthusiastic freelancer!
- Test fireworks going off at game. Kids are getting antsy.
- Off to the clippers
Round is Funny
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.”
mamamarta
September 3rd, 2006 at 10:37 pm
i think the formulation racism = prejudice + power is a pretty old one, nu?