Transracial Adoption in the Time of Black Lives Matter
Adoption can be tough, no matter what type of adoption you are engaging in. Whether it’s a closed adoption or transracial adoption, each comes with its own set of challenges. Adoption Choices of Missouri is here to help you navigate through these challenges and offer advice in your time of need.
What is Transracial Adoption?
Transracial adoption is the adoption of a child from a different race, ethnic background, or culture from your own. There are all types of transracial adoptions: a black family with a Mexican child or an Asian family with a white child. Transracial adoptions come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Black Lives Matter
Since its inception, Black Lives Matter has been a champion of justice and liberation for black people. Black Lives Matter is a global organization that “count[ers] acts of violence…inflicted on black communities.” What can you do to support BLM in your transracial adoption?
- Donate: you can donate to BLM; all movements need funds, and BLM is no different.
- Volunteer: find your local BLM chapter and volunteer. You can participate in protests or some form of giving back to the community.
- Educate: educate yourself and the people around you about BLM and black people. There is a wide range of information regarding black people, their struggles, and accomplishments, especially in 2022. Read a book or watch a television show about black people, talk to someone who is black about their experiences, and share those experiences with your friends and families. The only way we can overcome race issues is to discuss them.
- Surround: make a conscientious effort to surround yourself with black people. Befriend a colleague or join an organization like BLM to learn more about black people. Your child will benefit from being around people who look like him or her.
Benefits of Transracial Adoption
Adoption is about love, and your child will be loved unconditionally. You are choosing adoption for your child because you love them, and you are giving an adoptive family the opportunity to start or expand their own family. Your child will learn about diversity early in their life. Your child will learn that everyone is different in their own way and embrace those differences. Diversity makes one more open-minded and appreciative of other cultures.
Your child will also learn healthy coping skills. He or she will undoubtedly have self-esteem and identity issues because we all do, but transracial adoption in Missouri can amplify these issues. It is important that the adoptive parents be encouraging and truthful when your child asks questions about their identity. The adoptive parents should make a concerted effort to surround themselves and their child with people who share the child’s culture. It is important that we see ourselves reflected in other people.
Open adoption can be very beneficial to transracial adoption. Open adoptions allow your child to learn their heritage from their birth parents. Open adoptions allow your child to get to know you while simultaneously learning about their own culture and heritage. It can be difficult to maneuver a transracial adoption, but Adoption Choices of Missouri is here to help you every step of the way. We specialize in all types of adoptions, and we guide all of our birth mothers through the entire adoption process. The benefits of a transracial adoption outweigh the difficulties; transracial adoptions are beautiful, despite their specific challenges.
Contact Adoption Choices of Missouri Today!
Adoption Choices of Missouri has local adoption agencies throughout the entire state. We are the premier private adoption agency in the state. Our staff is ready and waiting to assist you with all of your adoption needs, questions, and concerts. Contact Adoption Choices of Missouri today to begin your adoption journey. You’ll be glad you did!
Adoption Choices of Missouri serves birth parents statewide and beyond, please call us or text us to learn more! Call us toll-free at 877-903-4488 or, in Missouri call or text us at 816-527-9800
Meet the Author: Rayna Batiste is an alumna of the University of West Florida with a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing. Having graduated with honors, she hopes to attend graduate school at New York University, majoring in Journalism. Rayna is also a United States Air Force veteran who enjoys watching documentaries about pretty much any subject, learning, and spending quality time with her family and friends. She is also a fitness enthusiast and an avid Peloton user.
Her hobbies include brunch (yes, brunch is a hobby), fashion, makeup, and of course, reading and writing. Rayna has a real passion for the written word and correct grammar and syntax. She enjoys manipulating sentence structure and experimenting with punctuation in her writing. She’s what you would call a “werd nerd.” She was also recently featured at the Pensacola Museum of Art for her work, entitled Triangular Geometry.