Adoptee Reminders

Transid “Transabled”, "transracial" (not in the adoption sense!)

What is the 'adoption sense' /gen

Happy to explain!

I would like to add that this topic is *incredibly* nuanced, and I am not adopted. I have included links at the end to explain a bit more about this topic, as well as some personal accounts of those who have experienced this, but I wanted to give a brief explanation in case you struggle to read articles!

"Transracial adoption" (also referred to as transcultural adoption) refers to when a person is adopted by a family of a different race than their own.

It is NOT being a different race than one was born, and that definition (the transid one) bastardizes the term referring to adoption.

Here are a few links with more info! (Please note that I attempted to provide various sources, as anything in depth I have to say about this doesn't apply because I am not adopted, myself)

NPR: Code Switch: Transracial Adoptees On Their Racial Identity And Sense Of Self

Harvard: Understanding Transracial Adoption: Life-long Transformations, Not Frictionless Transactions 

The Washington Post: ‘I know my parents love me, but they don’t love my people’

NPR: What stories are missing from the transracial adoption narrative?

PubMed: Racial Identity and Transcultural Adoption

Okay so I've been going down a bit of a rabbit hole today and felt compelled to share my findings. I clearly remembered that, off the back of Nkechi Diallo's forcible outing as trace in 2015, a couple years later there was a smaller scandal related to a college course that delved deeper into this idea on an academic level. I remember thinking, even though at the time I was against being trace, that it would have at least been interesting to attend. There are only a few reactionary articles from mid-2017 reporting on it, as the course has been scrubbed clean from the website of the Rhode Island School of Design. But thanks to the power of the Waybackmachine, I was able to take a look at it!

The faculty who taught the course is named Joon Lee, a Korean-American queer transsexual! Unfortunately I still haven't been able to pinpoint if he considers himself trace in some way, although he appears to have in-depth studies on black feminism, so it's possible that's related in some way? Just pure speculation. Thankfully he still works there even though this particular course is no longer offered. Here's his website!

But what's interesting is that this wasn't a new course in 2017; I found the same class (although called something else) in a course list from 2009-2010 and even one as far back as 2005-2006!!!

"letter to my birth mother"

Adoptees, especially if they’re transracial, get so much grief.

We’re stripped of agency in the narrative, if we’re included at all. All the nuance is taken out of our stories, if they’re told at all. The ending is always happy- except when you’re the adoptee.

We’re not [insert ethnicity] enough, but if we assimilate to mainstream culture, then we’re giving up. We’re rejected by ppl of our own culture & ridiculed by white culture.

We’re told our adopted parents, who raised us, don’t count, but if we feel conflict about them, we’re ungrateful. It’s so much better in [insert country] than [insert birthplace].

We’re helpless orphans in a backwards country for some (usually Western) to swoop in and rescue. We’re accessories to the plot lines- a commodity without conflict or feeling.

We have to work twice as hard to be accepted by our birth and adopted cultures- which creates huge identity crises, feelings of shame, and severe confusion over where we belong.

We still get affected by what happens in our birthplaces- that stuff affects our possible homes, families, etc. But we’re not included in the conversation (at least as far as I’m aware. if there are examples pls let me know).

Our transracial identity is being twisted and stolen by Rachel Dolezal. We’re robbed of our cultures, choice, and identities.

I could go on and on, but that’s all I can think of now. I’m not saying non-adoptees have it easy, bc they don’t. Everyone suffers from white supremacy, but transracial adoptees have their own unique set of issues that I can’t find anywhere else.

Hey, I understand the reaction. Let me be clear: this blog does NOT advocate for the racist idea that people can change their own race. I am a transracial adoptee, which means I am an Asian person adopted into a white family. I was born Asian (and was born in an Asian country), and my race is still Asian.

I am highly aware of how certain people have stolen the term to mean that they are "transitioning" from one race to another, but that is not right. It is not equivalent to being transgender (which is real), and this misconception has pushed adoptees out of our own terms.

The term transracial is pretty well known in adoptee communities, and it is the proper historic and academic term used to describe us. I am in real life adoptee communities that use this term to this day.

The username of this blog is not meant to align the term transracial with the term transgender, it's actually more of a call towards how I felt about my own queer identity and my own racial identity. I had a lot of difficulty talking to my white cishet parents about racial issues in the same ways as with LGBTQ+ issues.