Introduction
Adoption of people from one culture or race to a group of different culture or race is known as interracial or intercultural adoption. This is a subject which undergoes different kinds of debates in different parts of the world. This essay covers different aspects of interracial adoption. It includes annotated bibliography of five articles written by different authors. Annotated bibliography consists of summary of articles as well as evaluation. These articles include the comments of social workers, people who are related to adoption process and the experiences of many adoptive parents. I have chosen another important article related to the topic. This essay also includes the synthesis of different information in this article. The portion of the article which I have paraphrased has been highlighted. A working thesis statement has been included. I have explained a writing plan to write may research paper. I have also made revision process in the essay.
Annotated bibliography
There are lots of families who have already adopted children, crossing the racial barriers. The article of Amy Rose is very helpful for those kinds of families. It is very necessary to make a good bond between the adopted children and the family. The author introduces some easy techniques to create such a good bond. In this article he emphasizes the need for having a well planned manner of food consumption. Sharing of meals can make a very healthy mental tie among the family members. The author suggests six step plans for bringing this idea into action.
Amy Rose explains the creation of bond between the parents and interracially adopted children. But, all the suggestions are based on meals sharing among the family. The author doesn’t go through the other aspects of bonding between the family and adopted children. There are many barriers that should be crossed while children from one race start to live with a family which is in different cultural and racial background. The author doesn’t go through all aspects of the issue. But, the author has been successful in establishing in what way shared meals can be helpful in bringing a good bond between the family and adopted children from different races “We already know regularly shared meals can help families feel bonded and rooted.” (Rose, 2009, para.3).
This article explains the different problems of interracial families. The parents who adopt children from other race have to face a number of challenges in their life, like being the part of minority family, becoming subject to criticism from various realms of society, odd remarks from the community and prejudices from people. It gives an example on how the adopted child “Julie” who is a black is looked by other children. Psychological studies and researches report that the adopted children can handle the issues on their identity. “Joan of Los Altos says her greatest surprise after she adopted two black children was facing her own racism. ”I was raised as a white liberal and was not prejudiced in obvious ways,” Joan said. “I never realized [my racism]. It was rather shocking and embarrassing.”“ (Interracial families, 2009, para.4).
Psychological studies are very positive on the inter-race adoption of children. A law was enacted that there should be an agency for spending ninety days to match children racially before trans-cultural placement.
The author goes through different aspects of interracial adoption. Many personal experiences have been referred to make the arguments. Readers could get clear idea about how interracial adoption can become a complex problem. Martha Osborne clearly mentions that just emotional attachment between the family and adopted children is not enough to make a good life in the society. Adoptive families should be educated well to tackle the psychological issues they may have to face in the society in future. The article could become a perfect one if some practical solutions have been mentioned for the problem. (Interracial families, 2009).
Compared to white children, black children are more likely to be adopted from foster cares. One practical solution for this is to try to place white children in black’s families and black children in white’s families. But, various associations especially of colored people were not ready to accept this idea. Many studies reveal that many families and children who have already been adopted in this way are having a good life. “It claimed that seventy-seven percent of the children had adjusted successfully.” (McManus, n.d., para.2).
Correct Judgment of adoptive families about the skin color of children is not enough to provide a good home to adopted children. Parents should be confident that they could solve the problems which could be possibly raised in future. There are many racial associations which protest against interracial adoption. They argue that inter racial adoption can badly affect black children in many ways. There are number of laws related to interracial adoption in USA.
This article has included the definition of interracial adoption as well as different arguments made by different people on the topic. This article is an attempt of explaining different aspects of interracial adoption. There are many problems that are raised related to the identity of adopted children. But, there are no appropriate solutions for these problems. (McManus, n.d.).
Racial identity of black children can be lost if they are adopted crossing racial barriers. Even if they could start a happy life with white family, later it would be difficult for them to live with the peers of same race. No one can make sure that black children can get enough consideration in white family in future too. Many studies reveal that most of the interracially adopted children are having a happy life with their adoptive parents. “In 1994 the U.S. Congress passed the Multiethnic Placement Act, forbidding a federally-funded agency from denying placement of a child just because of race or national origin.” (Hilborn, 2009, para.6). After that the tendency of interracial adoption has increased well. It is necessary to make interracially adopted children aware of their own culture to overcome the problems related to racial identity in future.
The article includes the opinion of social workers which is derived from different experiences in their profession. So, it is very reliable. It has briefly explained the arguments for and against interracial adoption. It has also mentioned the ban in Canada against the adoption of native children by non natives. Finally, the author explains how the interracially adopted children can be taught their own culture. (Hilborn, 2009).
Adoption of people from one ethnic group to a different ethnic group is called as intercultural adoption or interracial adoption. People who are ready to adopt children view the process of adoption in different angles. Some people take race and culture as important aspects while some others don’t think about these things. There are some people who only care the children who need to be adopted. Adoption experts also have different opinions regarding the issue. Some say at least one of the parents should be the same race of the adopted child. But, some others say race or culture should not be a matter of consideration while people go for adoption. There are different steps that should be followed while a family prepares for interracial or intercultural adoption. The family should be ready to accept a different kind of new member. The parents should behave very closely to children. It is the responsibility of the adoptive parents to make a strong sense of race and culture in their adopted children to keep them away from possible confusion related to self identity in future. Adoptive parents should also make their children ready to tackle realities in life.
The article is titled as Transracial and Trans Cultural Adoption. This article discusses various aspects of interracial adoption. It includes some useful information for the families who plan to adopt interracially and people who have already done it. It has been explained well how a person or family can be prepared well if they decided to adopt interracially. (Transracial and transcultural adoption, 2009).
Selection of an article
(Adoption, 2009). The article titled as “adoption” is published by NASW (National Association of Social Workers) which is an association of social workers. NASW is an association committed to develop and formulate policies and good practices for child welfare. Adoption is a service for the parents who are unable to have children and for the parents who are not able to care their children. The subject of adoption is controlled by the children welfare agencies. This article mainly deals with various interrelated subjects like introduction on adoption, special needs of adoption, impact of religion on adoption, effects of age and race on the odds of adoption, foster care, inter racial adoptions, negative outcomes of interethnic adoption of Mexican American children, promoting same-race adoption for children of color, effect of trans-racial/trans-ethnic adoption on children’s racial and ethnic identity and self-esteem: A meta-analytic review, socio-demographic influences in the prediction of attitudes toward trans-racial adoption, perspectives of African American adoptive parents on same race adoption, training for trans-racial adoptive parents by public and private adoption agencies, willingness to adopt black foster children: implications for child welfare policy and recruitment of adoptive families, openness and contact in foster care adoptions, the impact of openness on adoption agency practices, open adoption of infants, post adoption issues such as analysis of child behavior problems in adoptions in difficulty, predictors of psychological functioning and adoption experience in adults searching for their birthparents, adoption knowledge among professional social workers and the changing face of public adoption practice. A study reports that there are negative results in inter racial adoption among Mexican-American children whose parents are non American-Mexican. 861 Mexican-Children who are below 18 years of age were asked four questions. They were the child may have the stress or conflict with regard to the ethnicity, the respondent may forget the background in which he or she was born, the child may have limited participation in Latino cultural occasions and the respondent may not cultivate the skill to overcome racism. The responses of respondents show that there remains a belief that gives the importance for social and cultural barriers from adopting a child from Latinos. There is a socio-demographic influence on the attitude towards trans-racial adoption and this article gives proof for it. A study was conducted with 916 respondents through telephone opinion survey in 1999 in order to assess the attitude towards the trans-racial adoption. Seventy one percent of the respondents were of the view that race is not a factor in the selection of adopting a child. Then, this article presents the views of African American parents who adopted children who belong to the same race. A study was conducted to understand the insights of adopting parents. Most of the respondents preferred to choose healthy female children and at the same time they were ready to change their preferences when they met the actual child. The reason why they were interested in choosing female children was most of them were in the first adoption, because they did not have enough confidence on their parenting ability. They thought to adopt boys after gaining confidence and experience. One of the important points in this article is on the training for trans-racial adoptive parents to improve their parenting ability by some of the private and public agencies. There is lack of awareness on the racial disparities with regard to the adoption of children and its process. There are very few studies conducted on these subjects.
Highlighted passage from the article
Opponents of policies that protect same-race adoption assert that children of color are languishing in out-of-home care because they are being restricted from entering trans-racial adoption arrangements. This study argues that trans-racial adoption is not necessary to ensure that children of color are adopted in a timely manner and sets forth alternative arguments around six issues: (1) policies favoring adoption by foster parents, (2) the availability of same-race families to adopt children of color, (3) the abundance of children in out-of-home care unavailable for adoption or with special needs, (4) disparities in child welfare services related to ethnicity, (5) misleading data on the numbers of children of color who are in foster care, and (6) poverty as an underlying cause of out-of-home placements. This study presents the history of the trans-racial adoption controversy and discusses its current status; counters assertion typically used to oppose same-race adoption policies for children of color; summarizes the positions of several social work organizations regarding adoption and race; and makes recommendations for education, policy, research, and practice.
Paraphrasing
There are opponents to inter race adoption and they hold the view that same race adoption is better way to ensure psychological health of the children, because the children of color are becoming tired of out-of-home care. They put forward six issues in ensuring the trans-racial adoption, and trans-racial adoption is not important to understand whether the children of color are adopted in a correct way. The six alternative issues are policies and laws that are helpful in the adoption of children by foster parents, the accessibility of the parents who belong to the same race and their readiness to adopt the children of same color, a number of children living out-of-home care who are not adopted, difference of opinion and disparity in child welfare services with regard to the various races and ethnicity, a number of children are misled in the foster care and the experiences of poverty for food and cloth being the reason for out-of-home placements. This study also brings so many other facts such as controversies on trans-racial adoption, discussing the current understanding on the trans-racial adoption, emphasizing the same race policies and views of different organizations committed to the social work of trans-race adoption.
Highlighted passage from the article
The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain insight into the adoption experiences of African American adoptive parents. Nine in-depth, audio taped interviews were conducted during 2000-2001 with 13 participants. They were middle-class, age 40 or above, religiously affiliated, and expressed the importance of faith in their daily lives. Although most participants preferred young, healthy female children (which is no different than non-African American adoptive parents), they were flexible in discarding preferences when presented with an actual child. Most were first-time parents who expressed uncertainty about their parenting ability, hence their comfortableness in initially adopting younger children. After having gained self-confidence, some of the participants adopted boys and members of sibling groups.
Paraphrasing
A qualitative study was conducted in order to assess the experiences of African-American parents when they adopted children. They conducted nine interviews during 2001-02 and these were audio tape interviews. There were thirteen respondents. These participants belonged to the middle class, more than forty years of age and they were religiously motivated. They shared the experience of faith they have in their daily life. This study showed that most of the respondents preferred female children to boys. Most of the adopting parents were in their first adoption and they were not having enough confidence on their ability for taking care of the children. They thought that they can adopt boys after gaining experience in adoption and taking care of the children.
Writing plan
“What are the major issues in the inter racial adoption”
Five articles on interracial adoption
The five articles which are annotated in this paper are trans-racial and trans-cultural adoption, issues in trans-racial adoption, inter racial families-trans-racial and trans-cultural adoption, how to create family bonding with inter racial adoption and trans-racial adoption.
Article on “adoption”
It is a detailed article explaining the different aspects of interracial adoption. The different aspects are the negative outcome of inter-ethnic adoption, promotion of same race adoption, effects of trans-racial adoption on children, perspectives of African American adoptive parents and training for trans-racial adoptive parents.
Summary of the article
This part includes the summary of the article “Adoption”. Negative outcomes of interethnic adoption of Mexican American children, promoting same-race adoption for children of color, effect of trans-racial/trans-ethnic adoption on children’s racial and ethnic identity and self-esteem: A meta-analytic review, socio-demographic influences in the prediction of attitudes toward trans-racial adoption, perspectives of African American adoptive parents on same race adoption and training for trans-racial adoptive parents by public and private adoption agencies.
Highlighted passages
The two highlighted passages are promoting same-race adoption for children of color and perspectives of African American adoptive parents on same race adoption.
Paraphrasing
The two highlighted passages are paraphrased in this section.
Revision or summary of changes
It is a summary written as a revision of the draft. Inter racial adoption is a major issue in American countries especially in United States. Introduction on what is the inter-racial adoption and its various perspectives are not given precisely and sufficiently in this paper. Since a number of aspects on inter-racial adoption are lacking, a dearth of logic is visible in the paper. A proper suggestion is necessary for the people who decide to adopt children crossing the barriers of race and culture. It should be made after proper analysis of incidents, different opinion of experts in the subjects and interviews with different people from different culture and race.
Conclusion
There are many works related to interracial adoption. As this is a subject that has different aspects, different articles view it in different point of views. Heat of the debate about interracial discussion is still on as the incidents and discussions related to racial discrimination still exist in different corners of the world. Many of the facts mentioned in the articles make people think seriously about social and psychological aspects of interracial adoption. Many of these articles refer other articles which had made reliable studies regarding adoptions. Descriptions of personal experiences of adoptive families and social workers who are related to adoption process are very helpful to get reliable information. Different arguments of opponents and proponents have been included in most of the articles. Advices of experts in the field of adoption would be very helpful for the people who prepare for interracial adoption and those who have already adopted in this way.
Reference List
Adoption. (2009). NASW: National Association of Social Workers. Web.
Hilborn, R. (2009). Transracial adoption. Family Helper: Adoption Resource Central.
Interracial families – Transracial, transcultural adoption. (2009). Adopting.org. Web.
McManus, M. (n.d.). Issues in transracial adoption. Web.
Rose, A. (2009). How to create family bonding with interracial adoption. E How: How to do Just about Everything. Web.
Transracial and transcultural adoption. (2009). Adoption Online: Adoption Education Center. Web.