Black Parents Adopting a White Child - Weekend Wisdom

Question: Today's question is about black parents adopting a white child. This was a question we received from a survey we sent out to issues that our audience wished that we would address.

Resources:

• Raising a Child Through a Transracial Adoption
• Transracial Adoption Twist: Black Parents Adopting White Kids
• Black Families Adopting White Children

Transcript

Please pardon any errors, this is an automated transcript.

Welcome, everyone, to Weekend Wisdom by Creating a Family. I'm Dawn Davenport,
and I am going to be the host and answering your question today on this week's
Weekend Wisdom. Before I do that, let me remind you that we are now on YouTube.
YouTube is the fastest growing way that people access podcasts, so check us out on
YouTube. We would appreciate that. Also, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel.
All right, weekend wisdoms are where we answer your questions. So today was a
question about black parents adopting a white child. This was a question we received
from a survey we sent out to issues that our audience wished that we would address.
So let's talk about that. You know, honestly, we do not talk as much about-- we
talk about transracial adoption a lot and all the time. But the assumption is
usually that it is a white family, a white parents adopting a child of color. And
in fact, that is by far the more common. But we do need to talk about because
there are definitely black families adopting white kids as well as families adopting
Asian kids and Hispanic kids. It happens more often than people know. Anecdotally,
I think it happens perhaps more often when adopting from foster care. Statistics on
this are really hard to come by. So honestly, I don't know how good these stats
are, but you know me, I'm going to try to find stats or research on something if
I can. So about 8 % of the white kids in foster care are adopted by black or
interracial families. And 2 % of adoptions in general were black parents adopting
white kids. That's the best I could find. And as I said, Caucasian families, white
families, adopting black or brown kids is far more common. And now about 40%,
and I actually think it might be higher, but 40 % of all adoptions in the US are
now transracial. But specifically as to the issues that a black family would face
when adopting a white child or a child of a non -black race. It's going to be
similar to other issues that all adoptive families would face, but specifically all
transracial adoptive families. Race being the biggest issue. I like this quote from
an interview with a black dad with a white daughter, and he said, "I've never felt
more self -consciously black when then while holding our little girl's hand in
public." And I think that raises one of the issues is that as with all transracial
families, you become a conspicuous family. You stand out, you are not the norm.
And that's particularly the case if both parents are black and they are out together
and they are with a white child. So I think becoming conspicuous is something that
black families as well as any transracial family needs to think about before they
adopt a white child. Another thing that perhaps is more unique to black families is
being mistaken for being the child's nanny, particularly if moms are out with a
child. So something to think about beforehand. Another thing to think about is your
own racial prejudices and assumptions. Again, in an interview I did once with a
black dad, he said, "I never realized how much our family talked about white people
and talked about race until we now had this white little girl. And we had to be
aware of the fact that we were talking negatively and we all had our own prejudices
that we really had not identified. So that's something to become aware of. So what
can you do about it? Some of the same things we recommend for white families create
diversity in the child's life. In this case, if the child is white, you need to
find white role models for the child. Fortunately, in some ways, that is easier
because the assumption is white superiority. So it's easier in schools tend to focus
on the good things that whites have historically have done. So in some ways, it's
easier, but you also have to be cognizant of it and make certain that you are
doing that. You also need to be able to provide a strong white role models for
this child that you are adopting, helping helping this child identify as a white
person in the U .S. You need to consciously be thinking of that. There are not a
lot of resources available for black families adopting white kids. To my knowledge,
creating a family has the most. I'll recommend two that we have. One is an article
titled Transracial Adoption Twist, Black Parents Adopting White Kids. And another
article we did is black families adopting white children. You can Google both of
those or search on our site, creatingafamily .org. I hope this helps. I hope that
this number one makes you feel less alone, but also I hope it gives you some ideas
of things to think about. So thanks for listening, and before everyone leaves,
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