Blog Post 6

               One of the most important things I read in the Pertman chapter was that, “incorporating an adopted child’s heritage and history into daily life is invariably invaluable” (67). We talked a bit about this in the last class, too. When families first started transnationally adopting, they often became “colorblind” and raised their children as if they were completely their own, ignoring the cultural and ethnic differences. What they didn’t realize was the negative consequences of that behavior. Pertman quotes a Korean adoptee who stated that she was brought up “110 percent American” and legitimately thought she was white; that really struck a chord with me! I am definitely for transnational adoption, but I think parents need to embrace their child’s heritage and give the child opportunities to learn about their culture.

                One question that I have from the Pertman chapter deals with the transnational adoption of American children. Why is it that this form of adoption is so unheard of? Furthermore, why is it that the children are typically either of mixed race or have some sort of special needs? Perhaps most importantly, why is that adopting a child from the U.S. costs as much as $50,000 to $100,000, when Americans adopting children from other nations pay significantly less? There is very little information about the adoption of American children in the reading, but in my opinion it definitely seems to reflect poorly on our country.

                What struck me most about the Nelson article was the section titled “foreign babies as a cultural commodity.” The idea of anyone thinking of a child as a commodity is disturbing to me. A child is a life, not a material good. Nelson quoted theorist bell hooks, who said “Ethnicity becomes spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish of mainstream white culture” (93). In my opinion, if someone is adopting a transracial child to “liven up” their culture, their social worker should probably take another look to see if they should really be parents. Nelson also writes that hooks and author Deborah Root would likely believe something along these lines: “parents as consumers are already conditioned to want the authentically exotic, and what better way to meet this desire than to adopt an authentically exotic child?” (94). She then brings in a good point; it is quite likely that the child will become somewhat assimilated to the “American” culture, and so the whole idea of “cultural enrichment” that motivates some families to adopt internationally doesn’t necessarily happen to the degree they think it will. While I am still pro-transnational adoption, I think parents should choose to adopt internationally for reasons other than to become culturally enriched.

                One thing I took issue with in the Nelson article was the way that white adoptive parents were negatively portrayed. She cites Nelson-Erichsen and Erichsen saying that adoptive parents should not give gifts to the birthmother, because the birthmother will just want more from them. She then interprets this as an example of how the white adoptive parents think they are superior to the birthmother and stigmatize them by “representing them as greedy or grasping” (101). While I of course have no experience with adopting a child, I hardly think that the reason that adoptive parents may choose not to give the birthmother a gift is because they see the birthmother as greedy. As it says further down, it may simply be that they don’t want it to see like they are “baby-buying,” as that would be unethical. I also saw the negative portrayal of adoptive parents when she discusses the BCIS forms. She writes that adoptive parents “place themselves at the top of a national hierarchy, with their children below them and immigrants or national of the “Third World” on the bottom” (99). I would need to see more support for this point, because in my opinion it seems inaccurate. I don’t think that all adoptive parents see themselves as higher on this “national hierarchy” than their children, and I think it would be a problem if they do. 

-Rachel

Pertman, A. (2011). Adoption nation. Boston: Harvard Common Press. 

Kim P. Nelson. “Shopping for Children: In the International Marketplace” in Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chinyere Oparah, and Sun Young Sin, eds. Outsiders within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. Cambridge: South End Press, 2006: 89-114.