Transracial Adoption
Check out some of Pact’s most timely and popular publications. For permission to reprint or repost, please contact Beth Hall at beth@pactadopt.org.
by Liza Steinberg 1998 Adapted from “A Bill of Rights for Mixed Folks,” by Marilyn Dramé. Every child is entitled to love and full membership in his or her family. Every child is entitled to have his or her heritage and culture embraced and valued. Every child is...
by April Dinwoodie 2018 Growing up as a transracially adopted person in the seventies and eighties, I never imagined it would be harder today than it was then to move through the world as a person of color. While there was a stark lack of diversity in rural Rhode...
by Amanda Baden 2018 Ten things I need from those who love me to feel supported as an adoptee of color: Empathy and humility. As an adoptee of color, a psychologist, an educator, and a parent, I have learned that the most valuable gift you can...
by Rebekah Hutson 2018 Listen, don’t dismiss The worst possible thing you can do is ignore me, to ignore my voice and my concerns. As someone who loves me, you should be there to support me through my transracial adoption journey, which is lifelong. Too many times,...
by Susan Harris O’Connor, MSW, LICSW, ASQ/CQIA 2018 When Pact asked me to to share what it is I need from people who love me, I thought immediately about the Childhood Relationship Blueprint given to me by my parents and a core group of childhood friends. Born in...
by Rebecca Carroll 2016 Give your black children some black to grow on -- black friends, black culture; work hard and tirelessly to make sure they are never the only one in the room, anywhere. Find a black person to teach you how to manage your children’s hair and...
2014 When we asked Pact members what they wish they had known before they adopted, we weren’t sure what kind of response we would get. The feedback we received, overwhelming in volume, was primarily from white parents parenting children of color. Clear themes emerged,...
by Beth Hall 2014 Mom… Hey, sweetie! Mom, I have something to tell you. For those of you who have adult children old enough to live away from home, you will no doubt recognize the fear these words put into the hearts of parents. Is anything wrong? No, no, at least I...
by Dwight Smith 2016 A version of this essay was previously published on medium.com. What happens when a Black boy is adopted at birth into a white world where race and racism are ghosts of the past and racial identity is a silly thing to waste time thinking about?...
by Louise Derman-Sparks 2018 PART ONE: THE DEVELOPMENTAL JOURNEY Supporting our children’s learning to know themselves, and to like who they are—without feeling superior or inferior to others—is a fundamental task of parenting. This task is about both children’s...
by Stephanie Flores-Koulish originally published 2018, excerpted 2023 Recently, we heard the news of a Border Patrol agent asking two women at a Montana gas station for identification after the agent heard them speaking Spanish to each other. Social media also helped...
by Susan Branco 2018 I am a practicing Licensed Professional Counselor and work primarily with transracial adoptive families. When I began my doctoral studies in counselor education and supervision in 2012, I realized that despite significant gains in research related...
by Dr. Kripa Cooper-Lewter 2016 Transracial and transnational adoption not only connects children with adoptive parents, but in many instances also forms new sibling relationships across more than one race. Parents who have adopted children of different races face the...
by Rebecca Carroll 2016 It's said that a person’s story belongs to them; I don't know if that's true for people born into the same families in which they grow up, but mine has never felt like my own. Maybe that's because it's always been a little different, depending...
by Robert L. Ballard, PhD 2010 Alasdair MacIntyre, a well-known ethicist, wrote: “We all live out narratives in our lives.”[1] If this is true, then each life is a story, with a beginning, an end, and a wide range of characters, plot changes, and climaxes that enrich...
By Beth Hall Originally published 2018, updated 2022 The irreducible price of learning is realizing that you do not know. One may go further and point out—as any scientist, or artist, will tell you—that the more you learn, the less you know; but that means that you...
How to Be an Anti-Racist Adoptive Parent by Beth Hall, with Michele Rabkin August 2020 “The opposite of ‘racist’ isn’t ‘not racist.’ It’s ‘anti-racist’….There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist.’” Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist As an adoption...
Book Review: In Their Voices: Black Americans on Transracial Adoption by Rhonda M. Roorda reviewed by Pact Staff 2016 Pact is always looking for well-researched, authentic and honest literature to support families with adopted children of color. With this in mind, we...
Book Review: White Parents, Black Children: Experiencing Transracial Adoption by Darron T. Smith, Cardell K. Jacobson, and Brenda G. Juárez, with a foreword by Joe R. Feagin reviewed by Frank Ligtvoet 2013 Each time I walk with my two African American children to...
Book Review In Their Siblings' Voices: White Non-Adopted Siblings Talk About Their Experiences Being Raised with Black and Biracial Brothers and Sisters by Rita J. Simon and Rhonda M. Roorda Reviewed by Marie-Claude Provencher 2009 There is very little published about...
Book Review In Their Parents' Voices: Reflections on Raising Transracial Adoptees by Rita J. Simon and Rhonda M. Roorda Reviewed by Mollie McLeod 2007 Too often, the imagery associated with adoptive parenting is focused upon childhood. The reality is that parent-child...