Persuasive Essay On Transracial Adoption

In an interview with ABC News, Leigh Ann Tuohy, white mother of black football player Michael Oher, stated “Families don’t have to match. You don’t have to look like someone else to love them.” Transracial adoption is “defined as the adoption of any child from a different race or ethnicity than the adoptive parent” (Lindsey 55). Although white parents may not always be completely prepared to teach their black or Asian children the skills they will need to live as minorities in a sometimes racist culture, race should not be a barrier to adoption. For a child, the most important thing they can have is a lifelong home where they are accepted and cared for and loved unconditionally. If the child is adopted from outside the country they were born

in, it could greatly improve their life then if they were adopted by a couple inside the country. While being adopted by people who are racially and culturally similar would be ideal, children shouldn't have to wait in foster care until same-race parents can be found.

Interracial adoption prevents children from having to linger in foster homes and orphanages for unnecessary lengths of time, and will create more options for people unable to have children of their own.
A disproportionate number of children waiting to be adopted are non-white. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 57% of the children waiting to be adopted in 2014 are of color: 23% are black, 23.6% are Hispanic, 7.7% are mixed race, and 2.1% are Native American (Child Welfare 3). According to Social Work Professors Maria Vidal de Haymes and Shirley Simon, “The gap between the number of children of color in care and the recruitment of minority foster and adoptive homes has triggered growing support for transracial adoption,”(de Haymes 251). There is also a shortage of minority homes willing to foster or adopt a child, or cannot due to their living conditions. This means that some of these children will never be adopted if parents of a different race are unwilling to adopt them, and they may linger in an orphanage until they’re adults. Research that has been done on this topic “suggests that transracial adoption is a viable means of providing stable homes for waiting children” (Silverman 117).
Some people adopt children of a different race from outside the country to give them a better life. In Africa, in the past orphaned children have often been cared for by extended family. Recently, with all the civil wars, poverty, and disease, orphans have become a common phenomenon, and relatives have stopped being able to care for them for them (Roby 199). According to UNICEF, there are now 132 million orphans globally (qtd. in Lindsey 55). These orphans have started facing more dangers than ever before. “The suffering of African orphans is relentless and huge in magnitude. Orphans are more deprived than their national peers of education, socialization, and nutrition.They face isolation, prejudice, crime, abuse, neglect, child labor, prostitution, exploitation, and HIV infection. Psychological effects include depression, guilt, fear, and possible long-term mental health problems” (Roby 200). For many of these orphans, if they are not adopted, they will die, be sold as slaves, or possibly become criminals.
An objection that many individuals have to transracial adoption is that the child will lose their racial identity because they are not exposed to their culture.

The 1988 edition of Standards for Adoption Service stated, “Children in need of adoption have a right to be placed into a family that reflects their ethnic or cultural heritage” (qtd in Silverman 106). The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a nonprofit that studies and provides education on adoption, did a study on African-American children who had been adopted by parents of a different race. They found that if the parents minimized the importance of racial identity, the children hesitated to identify themselves racially (Lee-St. John 2008). Another study found no differences in self-concept and self-esteem between transracially black teens and those adopted by black parents. However, it was in the area of racial identity that there were differences (Silverman 110). According to registered nurse Brandi Lindsey, who has adopted two Ethiopian children, “Parents must not enter into the transracial adoption thinking that race will not be an issue for their child” (Lindsey

60).
When white parents adopt a child of another race, if they acknowledged racial identity, moved to an integrated neighborhood, or provided positive black role models, the child's self esteem was the same as other children and they had a strong sense of racial pride (Lee-St. John 2008). Parents need to be aware of racial situations there child will encounter, and prepare them for these. Communication and validation of the child’s feelings regarding racial differences can help. Also welcoming the child’s heritage and culture into the family and exposing them to diverse racial communities and schools will help provide a “more positive sense of racial identity.” Parents must not disregard their children’s racial identity to support the child (Lindsey 58).
For both international adoptions and also within the United States, “pre-adoption education and efforts for same-race placements, as well as post adoption services, should be well defined and substantial.To assist in the retention and promotion of cultural identity and ease the trauma of adoption, open adoption arrangements could be considered” (Roby and Shaw 208). If parents have been educated on how to raise a child of a different race, they can adopt a child of another race and celebrate racial differences. “For families of adoption, particularly those who combine racial and cultural differences, it is essential that they engage in transformational dialogue and behavior surrounding these issues” (Dinwoodie 2016). This could even help combat racism. Mixed race families could teach others about racial issues and how to interact with other races. “It’s important not to discount the hope that transracial adoption offers us in expanding families and lessening cultural divides, particularly when families of birth and adoption stay connected over time” (Dinwoodie 2016).
All children have the right to a loving home, regardless of racial differences within the family. Transracial adoption is a legitimate option for giving orphaned or unwanted children a home, as lingering in foster care or in an orphanage will cause more problems for the child than being with parents of a different race. As long as parents have been educated, transracial adoption is an ideal way to get orphans of all races permanent homes. Every child truly deserves to be part of a strong family. Strong families build strong communities, and strong communities make a better world for all of us.