12.19.07
The fundamental problem with trans-ethnic adoption
There’s a fundamental problem with adopting babies that have a skin color that’s different from yours– you take away the child’s right to keep the adoption a secret or to let it be publicly known. Many same-nation adoptees, if they know that they’re adopted, will NEVER tell you that they’re adopted unless you’re someone they hold in they’re highest confidence. It’s a very personal thing. It’s something that one holds dear to oneself. It’s not something that you go around boasting about. Aside from this, there are a whole host of identity issues that can and do arise in children who are adopted transnationally. For example, how do you think a child’s psychological development is affected when they are constantly reminded “you’re adopted” every time friends of the family come over to visit? Such a situation simply would not occur if the parents and the child shared the same ethnic heritage. If you’re all the same skin color, the topic of adoption just doesn’t come up.
In this extreme case, these parents decided that their transnational adoptee suffered from a “severe form of fear of emotional attachment.” Apparently, neither skin color nor personalities mingled all too well in that family.