Transracial adoption (TRA), also known as interracial adoption, involves the placement of children in families that are racially and culturally different from them. In modern western societies, this practice largely involves the placement of minority ethnic children in white adoptive families (Barn, R., 2013). From Colonial Times, through World War II, children from within the borders of the United States were adopted by American parents of the same race. The intercountry adoption (ICA) of foreign-born children, began primarily in North America shortly after World War II and escalated again after the Korean War (Brumble, K; Kampfe, CM, 2011).
The first domestic TRA was of American-Indian children by non-Indian parents. However, concerns
…show more content…
TRA debates and struggles are almost always about white parents gaining access to children of color, not parents of color gaining access to white children. Until the recent explosion of ICA, questions regarding TRA were debated almost exclusively between white couples trying to adopt black children. Given the fact that the majority of TRA 's are made up of "children who are not either black or white," the fiery debate between white parents and black social workers highlights the threat posed to communities and identities when the black-white color line is crossed. Today, interracial married couples are entering the adoption and race debates, and they raise many more questions about racial understandings and injustice. If a white mother puts her multiracial baby up for adoption, who is best suited to raise the child? A black family? A multiracial family? A white family? All other factors being equal, what makes one family more qualified than the other? The experiences of interracial couples who have adopted reveal an adoption system that is grounded in essentialist understandings of race. In such a system blacks are devalued, whites valued, multiracial children are assigned an in-between status, and interracial couples at times are treated with respect and at times face discrimination and mistreatment (Dalmage, HM.,