Race and cultural heritage are two topics our family is actively learning on, especially in relation to transracial adoption. I recently wrote a couple of posts with practical tips to explore these areas:

• Transracial Adoption: Would You Adopt a Child of A Different Race?
• Adoption and Cultural Identity: Tips for Parents

Today I want to use this space to share few videos that every adoptive parent and adoption applicant should watch to learn more about the nuances of transracial and international adoption.

White parents, raising black children

Uncomfortable conversations with a black man is an awesome Youtube series that I recommend to everyone. The host is American-Nigerian sport analyst Emmanuel Chinedum Acho. He hosts interviews and conversations with several people to talk about race, racism, and much more. In this video he meets a transracial adoptive family – white parents, multiracial children. They touch on several interesting points: the education social workers and agencies miss to provide on the topic of race (a pain point in the Finnish adoption system), the anxiety and trauma racialised kids are forced to grow up with, and the importance of intentionally preserve a child’s heritage.

Lucky girl

Adult adoptees worldwide regularly denounce how people and the mainstream narrative forces gratitude onto them. From casual comments (“You’re so lucky”) to downright online abuse when the speak uncomfortable truths (“Would you rather have grown up in an orphanage”), the message is clear: you should be grateful. Even if this is not professed in their home, this is the narrative they meet out in the world, sometime explicitly and sometime implied. I loved this short movie because it felt like a realistic snapshot (the ending suggests it was based on true events) of how an adoptee can wonder about their loss and meet comments that force a certain narrative onto them. It also features well-meaning white adoptive parents who miss to have deep and uncomfortable conversations on the matter.

An adoptee reclaiming her story

In this TedTalk South-Korean adoptee Sara Jones shares her own story as a transracial adoptee and the struggle to identify with any cultural identity. Not white enough, not Asian enough. Transracial adoptees may experience the worst of two worlds: racism reminds them they are not white, but at the same time they are not allowed to benefit from the richness of their birth culture. Sara talks about the complex feelings surrounding transracial adoption and wonders how the community can support every adoptee to own their own story and decide their life’s narrative.

After watching these videos, let me know in the comments: did you learn something new? Do you spot these aspects of race and culture in your own life?

Featured Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay