The strength of this book is not so much in its attention to the arguments for and against transracial adoption. Instead, its effectiveness is in the author's thoughtful and innovative alternate methodology, which she labels Racial Navigation, for addressing and appropriately reassessing transracial adoption policy catering to the best interest of the child.
For Fogg-Davis, race at the political and public level, is chosen for us through racial categories and institutionalized classification systems that function in premise to stratify different racial groups. While she doesn't agree with categorizing people on the basis of race, she does assert that racial classification as it currently exists can serve as a strong departure point from which to understand one's racial identity as imposed by others, while at the same time providing a basis for constructing one's own racial identity at the personal level.
While Fogg-Davis argues that using a "colorblind" approach to adoptive placement is an "ethical ideal", she goes on to insist that colorblindness "falls apart in practice". In a country so heavily reliant on racial categories and labels, to deny the use of race from our language creates the inherent inability to articulate racial injustices and discrimination. As a result, colorblindness becomes a band-aid, quick-fix resolution for bypassing the aspect of race with regard to family configuration and compatibility.
Fogg-Davis disagrees with the arguments against transracial adoption articulated by cultural nationalists in support of race-matching placement as a means to secure racial proliferation, in addition to providing a more suitable environment for children to cultivate their racial identity and group affiliations. What is particularly striking in her refutation of same-race placement policy is her willingness to acknowledge that there is a lack of support to sufficiently confirm that a racially congruent family will do a more effective job in fighting racism than its interracial/multiracial counterpart.
This is an excellent point because it illustrates that "blackness" doesn't guarantee an intrinsic ability to overcome racism. If nationalists can argue that same-race adoptive placement will secure stronger self-concept and group preservation in the best interest of the child, why aren't transracially adopted children granted the same affordability for stronger social cohesion and cultural awareness given their distinct family dynamic grounded in racial amalgamation? Due to the history of race relations in this country, "blackness" does attract a stronger likelihood that the issue of race and discrimination will present itself in due time. Therefore, she does acknowledge and support the cultural nationalist's attention to race throughout the adoption process. The distinction she makes however, is that race should play a factor in the adoption process, however it should not be assessed as the determining or sole factor for any specific adoption.
For Fogg-Davis, adoptive children should not be viewed as tools to further the political agenda for cultural nationalists. Nor should the assumption be made that, children, of all people, can remain colorblind with regard to race. Children form questions based on what they see. They learn about who they are from their surroundings regardless of whether or not their parents are of the same "original" racial background or community. Fogg-Davis's theory of racial navigation, supports this conclusion, providing a middle-ground or reconciliation, that more effectively addresses the issues of family compatibility. Specifically, will the adoptive family foster healthy self-esteem, individuality, and the flexibility to facilitate the child's racial identity based on a combination of personal as well as communal factors.
Differences in family appearance, coupled with possible cultural differences within multiracial and interracial families, encourage members of those families to address issues regarding race and identity with greater frequency. We continue to live in a society where interracial families are constantly questioned as to their validity, however, I will continue to underscore that a well-informed family can provide a solid foundation to support and nurture the evolving self-concept of the transracially adopted or mixed-race child.
The Ethics of Transracial Adoption is a valuable contribution to the field of multiracial studies and race relations in the United States.
The Ethics of Transracial Adoption, by Hawley Fogg-Davis (Cornell University Press), is an indispensable resource not only for those contemplating adoption across racial lines, but also for those interested in reexamining the ways in which our current racial classification systems affect racial identity construction, our notions of the family dynamic, and what elements are best deliberated when determining the placement of a child in adoption policy.Race & Family
Our interpretation of the family dynamic is at the center of the debate surrounding transracial adoption. We cannot choose our "original" families, however at the core of adoption policy is that our families are quite publicly chosen for us. Because "race has a visual dimension few can elude", Fogg-Davis firmly maintains that pinpointing our concept of what constitutes a legitimate family invokes the question as to whether or not race should play a factor when assessing family "compatibility" with regard to adoptive placement procedure.
Fogg-Davis begins by urging to reexamine our preconceived notions of what "race" means on both political and personal levels. In other words, how do we define race? Is it ours to define or is race something that we simply inherit through biological and/or sociopolitical means? Can children learn about their own racial and ethnic identity from those outside of their "original" racial and ethnic groups?Transracial Adoption
The book provides arguments proposed by advocates and opponents of transracial adoption, namely those in favor of using a "colorblind" approach to adoptive placement policy, while also illustrating the arguments favoring "race-matching" initiatives asserted by "cultural nationalists" intent on the preservation of black culture through same-race family assignment.Racial Navigation
What is central to The Ethics of Transracial Adoption, is its proposal to amend how race is addressed with regard to transracial adoption -- using the individuality and ongoing identity development of the child as its focal point. Fogg-Davis argues that the adoptive child's ability to contemplate and comprehend her own racial identity through ongoing introspection is missing from the current debates surrounding transracial adoption.Recommendation
The author uses transracial adoption as a "case study" for reexamining how we think about racial classification, racial identity construction and the outside societal factors that influence the adoptive child's self-concept. As a mother of a biracial daughter, I highly recommend this book not just for those interested in researching the debate over transracial adoption, but for those people involved in multiracial families. The arguments discussed in this book are directly transferable to the debate concerning interracial marriages and the "What about the Children?" question shadowing mixed-race families.
Brief Bio:
Kimberly Cooper-Plaszewski holds a Masters Degree in Education from Pepperdine University's Graduate School of Education and Psychology. Additionally, she will be presenting her graduate research on biracial children in U.S. Schools at the Sixth Annual Pan-collegiate Conference on the Mixed Race Experience at Cornell University.
Also by Kimberly A. Cooper:
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