TOM 1 ! TOM Professor Lewis English Writing 482 12 March 2011 There is Only One “Race” Exordium Despite thinking I had unconditional love two or three times with women who are now ex girlfriends, it is only with family that I have truly found it. Few things, if anything, have more meaning and value than family, and no one should have to do without the tremendous love, special bond, and support a family can provide. Yet there are so many children in need of good families. A People magazine cover from earlier this year clearly hit a nerve with some as it showed the award-winning actress and recent transracial adopter Sandra Bullock lovingly embracing her newly adopted black infant son (see fig. 1). Madonna also came under fire when she decided to adopt a Malawi baby boy in 2006 (see fig. 2). Dr. Christina Villarreal—a practicing psychotherapist and ex-teacher at Argosy University who is an expert in culturally diverse populations and a contributor to the Department of Public Health—states that in the United States, the
Fig. 1 Not everyone looked as happy as Sandra Bullock while holding her baby, Louis Bardo, because of their contrasting views of transracial adoption.

majority of hopeful adoptive parents are white, yet half the adoptable children are black. One need not possess great math skills to conclude that these ratios will create a very unhappy ending for
Fig. 2 Madonna holds her precious 2-yearold, David Banda.

TOM 2 ! adoptees if laws or society’s disapproving pressure thwart the placement of these children with good, loving families. Some believe these children in need belong only with those who are the same race. Conversely, I and others believe people of any race are capable of being great parents, for it is love and ability that should determine the worthiness of adoptive parents, not race. Narratio This issue at hand, which shouldn’t even be an issue, is called transracial adoption. According to Dr. Villarreal, transracial adoption is the placement of infants and children of one race with parents of another race. It’s unfortunate that race is still such a big issue worldwide and within our home, the United States, and being a subset of racism, transracial adoption is also a worldwide issue. But for the sake of the scope of this writing, I’m purely addressing transracial adoption in the United States and defining society as all citizens of the United States. Partitio As part of a larger issue of racism, transracial adoption is related to biological transracial families and, thus, transracial marriage. Biological transracial families are becoming more ubiquitous, and as that happens, transracial adoption will become more widely accepted and vice versa. Furthermore, children in foster care will more likely be adopted when race is no longer as big an issue as it was in the past and is today. The increase in transracial adoption or biologically related transracial families and marriages will directly lead to improvement in the other as social acceptance becomes more widespread as a whole. This will also invariably lead to race being less of an issue for adoption of children in foster care, providing more homes to more children faster.

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TOM 3 ! Refutatio I recognize what the opponents of transracial adoption have to say, and I understand their points of view. But while I understand their points of view, some points are farfetched, teeming with hyperbole. The president of the National Association of Black Social Workers was quoted by Dr. Villarreal, saying the association was “. . . opposed to transracial adoption as a solution to permanent placement for black children. We have an ethic, moral, and professional obligation to oppose transracial adoption . . . It is a blatant form of racial and cultural genocide.” But no cultural genocide exists at all if the adoptive parents—who desire children and make a conscious decision to be parents, unlike the countless parents, including mine, who have “oops” babies— learn about, educate, and expose the child to her background and culture. The vast differences in physical traits between races, such as skin and hair, are brought up as an issue when speaking to people about transracial adoption. While it is true that such differences do exist, it is by no means an insurmountable problem. All it takes for parents of different races than their transracially adopted children to successfully overcome this physical barrier is some education, care, and practice. People already successfully take care of entirely different species, such as dogs, cats, snakes, birds, etc. Compared to our loved ones of different species, the differences between the skin and hair of different human races become very minor, and that argument is negligible at best. There are other issues with solutions that may not be so easy, and I understand those concerns as well. For instance, as Dr. Villarreal observes, racial identity is a very real and complex issue in regards to transracial adoption. She acknowledges the opponents’ argument that children of a different race than their adoptive parents may lack their own sense of racial identity,

TOM 4 ! which may create difficulty for the child to cope with prejudice and discrimination, leading to internalization of racist behavior toward them, possibly resulting in a variety of problems, such as psychological distress, and it’s a logical argument. But the bigger, longer-term problem here is that if we disallow transracial adoption, separation and segregation continues, creating and extending an environment much more prone to racism. To prevent or look down upon the pervasiveness of transracial families is to delay transracial acceptance and diverse norms that will lead to acceptance. Confirmatio Regardless of what the opponents say, transracial families will not go away, and transracial adoption shouldn’t either. With mostly whites wishing to adopt, and over half of the adoptable children in the United States non-white, the numbers simply don’t support the greatest number of children being adopted into loving families as quickly as possible, and Dr. Villarreal asserts that proponents of transracial adoption agree that transracial adoption is a preferable alternative to foster care. In fact, her article states that studies have repeatedly found transracial adoption is a good situation for children and families. Moreover, other studies she mentions have shown the foster care system produces adults who are socially isolated, overrepresented in the homeless population, highly unemployed, and developmentally disabled. We need to have as many of our children in good, loving families in lieu of foster care. My mother was transracially adopted, as was my recent ex-girlfriend of four years, Natalie, so I have a lot of secondhand knowledge and experience with it. Natalie has no bad feelings or attitudes about being transracially adopted. In fact, she loves the fact that she was transracially adopted because she gets very exposed to different cultures. Her parents have been

TOM 5 ! sure to expose her to their cultures as well as her biological parents’ cultures and even her adopted brother’s four different cultures. She feels like she owes her full lack of prejudice to others and openness and interest in other cultures to her exposure to such diversity from her adoptive parents and her adopted brother. When her brother, Anthony, was in kindergarten, he painted a colorful house, and said he lives in a “rainbow house;” and he seemed very happy about it. Her mother, Marian, says the family always celebrated their differences. Marian feels Natalie and Anthony have never been afraid of other races because of their diverse family. Natalie’s dad, Paul, believes it’s relatively well-accepted to be a transracial family in this area because it of its diversity, unlike other areas of the United States, such as the relatively homogenous South. My mother had a much different experience than Natalie. She found out she was adopted from her much older cousin on her 10th birthday. My mother felt hurt and betrayed when she found out, even though her parents were just trying to protect her by not telling her. It was difficult for her to be different. She questioned her identity and “roots” and felt she missed out on her inherent culture. She also felt out of place after she found out because there weren’t many people of mixed ethnicity when she was growing up. Even though her parents tried to expose her to different cultures, there weren't nearly as many things as one could do today, like Natalie's family did for her. Things are better now, and Sacramento is a diverse area. Today, my mother recognizes she would likely have had better acceptance and feelings toward being transracially adopted if she was told of it earlier from her parents, but she genuinely enjoys being different. The fact is that most transracially adopted preadolescent and younger children adjust well in their adoptive homes; that comes straight from the National Adoption Information

TOM 6 ! Clearinghouse, a resource of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services via a PBS film special called Precious Cargo. Another study mentioned in this PBS film found that transracial adoption was not detrimental for the adoptee in terms of adjustment, self-esteem, peer relationships, parental and adult relationships, or academic achievement. In fact, transracial adoption is getting easier bureaucratically and socially as well, says a New York Times article, Overcoming Adoption’s Racial Barriers. But regardless of whether or not it’s getting easier or not, we cannot wait until society is prepared; there are children’s lives at stake. Peroratio We all have divisions to some degree, and we need to get over them. As long as we’re separated and segregated, we will have racial issues. The good news is we live in an increasingly connected world, and there’s simply no way we are going to stay divided forever. The sooner we accept others who are different, the sooner we can all live together in harmony with increasingly common goals. I once saw a bumper sticker that said, “There’s only one ‘race,’ and it’s human. Everything else is culture.” Culture is a beautiful thing! Let’s embrace each other. Let’s embrace variety and culture. Let’s embrace transracial adoption. If transracial adoption didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be here. I am a product of a transracial family, and I too am glad to be diverse and to have the desire to learn about and accept other cultures, likely stemming from the great diversity within myself.

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TOM 7 ! Works Cited Clemetson, Lynette, and Ron Nixon. “Overcoming Adoption’s Racial Barriers.” New York Times. New York Times, 17 Aug. 2006. Web. 10 Mar. 2011. Madonna with Son, David Banda. Digital image. Babble.com. 28 May 2008. Web. 12 May 2011. “Precious Cargo.” Public Broadcasting Service. Public Broadcasting Service, 2001. Web. 10 Mar. 2011. Sandra Bullock and baby Louis. Digital image. Posh24.com. 10 May 2010. Web. 12 May 2011. Villarreal, Christina. “Transracial Adoption: What do the Proponents and Opponents Say?” Oakland Medical Health Examiner. Oakland Medical Health Examiner, 28 Apr. 2010. Web. 10 Mar. 2011.