Transracial / Transcultural Adoption

At work, my manager recently hired a new part-timer, and his job is to help me with my job. I'll call him Oswald. He called me, we chatted... and some weird remarks were made. I told my husband, he said I'm overreacting, and thus, a blog post was born. The first strange comment came when I told Oswald that the product's user interface was written by developers in China. I said, "I'm sure that their English is better than my Chinese, but -" then he cut in with a really bad Asian accent "I wanna numah six" - as though he we ordering Chinese food. O... K... Towards the end of the call, he said that he usually tries not to… [more]

I had lofty ideas for a Martin Luther King, Jr. day post, but something that happened today put that on hold. But first, Chris Rock. I watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. As you may know, that's on Comedy Central. Comedy Central's commercials included one for a Chris Rock special. The commercial included the line: All my Black friends have lots of White friends. All my White friends have one Black friend. It's true for me. I have one Black friend, and she lives in New York. Technically, she's not even my friend, as she's married to one of my husband's best friends, so in the friend lottery, she belongs to him. Jack's pre-school classmates include several brown children. We're friends with an interracial family in… [more]

When I read about the earthquake in Haiti, I immediately thought of an old online friend. Lori and her family have adopted several children from Haiti, and they do missionary work there. She works with a woman who runs an orphanage. Her blog states that the orphanage's food depot collapsed, so there isn't any food. The Global Orphan Project blog is reporting from Haiti. Apparently, at least one of the orphanages they work with is located at Ground Zero. They have been unable to communicate with anyone there. The project has 2,000 orphans under its care, according to one news report. I can't imagine what families who are adopting from Haiti must be going through right now… [more]

Once upon a time, there was a mom, Her name was Mrs. Pteranadon. Sitting in her nest, she heard a scratching And said, "Oh boy!  My eggs are hatching!" One by one, her kids popped free, Baby pteranodons one, two, three. "I'll name them Tiny, Shiny, and Don." But Tiny said, "Wait! There's one more Mom." The last little baby was a different size With teeth and a tail and big green eyes. He didn't look anything like the rest. "What am I doing in a pteranodon nest?" But dear old Mrs. Pteranodon said, "This is your family, and I'm your mom. You may different, but we're all creatures. All dinosaurs have different features. Come on Buddy, we'll take a vacation. I'll get us a ticket at Pteranodon Station. We'll travel the world in… [more]

There are only a few more days in 2009. Soon, a new decade will be upon us. At the end of the year, I like to reflect on what has happened in the previous 12 months. I went through this year's posts on the Adoption Blogs, and on each of the blogs I write - Hoping to Adopt, US Infant Adoption, and Transracial/Transcultural Adoption - I'm summarizing for you. Here on Transracial/Transcultural Adoption, you get a list of posts that we wrote responding to adoption-related news. I chose to put the news links on this blog because most of the posts relate to race or international adoption.

• Ethical International Adoptions (January 30, 2009): about Liberia suspending inter-country adoptions.

I thought I would share a few finds that I have found this year to help our family have a colorful Christmas.  I say Christmas, because that is what we as a family celebrate.  I promise next year to be on the look out for Hanukkah , Kwanzaa and Ramadan, it just didn't happen this year! I was browsing through Barnes and Noble when I found a board book I had to buy.  I may not have toddlers anymore, but board books are so durable and this one was so beautiful I just had to buy it ($6.99) right away.  The Little Drummer Boy is my favorite Christmas song of all time.  Ezra Jack Keats has illustrated this song with a gorgeous… [more]

If you follow this blog, you know I'm a little obsessed with Disney. I've been anticipating The Princess and the Frog, featuring African-American Princess Tiana, for over two years now. It finally opened on Friday, December 11th. I took my son and met up with a friend and her two kids (ages 3-1/2 & 2). This review contains spoilers! The plot goes something like this: In turn-of-the-century New Orleans, little Tiana and her father dream of opening a restaurant. Tiana grows up. Her father dies (it wouldn't be Disney if he didn't). She works two jobs to save every penny she can to buy her own restaurant. Prince Naveen from Maldonia shows up. He's been cut off by his parents because all… [more]

The Princess and the Frog opens today! It's heroine, who becomes Princess Tiana, is the first African-American princess. I've written about this before. I intend to see the movie today, and review it here too. In preparation, I'd like to take a moment to discuss the Disney princesses. Including Tiana, there are nine Disney princesses. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty (aka Aurora), Cinderella, Ariel - all white. Belle (Beauty and the Beast) is white too, but she broke the mold in one important respect - Belle, though "her looks have got no parallel" is very smart, and shuns the ignorant but handsome hunter Gaston. She's really the first princess with a brain. Belle was followed by Jasmine, Disney's Arab princess in… [more]

Back in September, Newsweek featured an article titled "Even Babies Discriminate". Mandy beat me to the punch and blogged about it. However, what I wanted to blog about could wait, until now. Towards the end of the article, we learn that teachers in a rural Ohio school read a version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas in which Santa is black. They introduced the concept of Santa as a black man. At the school Christmas party, Santa showed up, and yes, he was black. The problem is, Santa isn't black. You know why? Santa Claus isn't real. I love 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. I love Christmas in general. I watched Frosty the Snowman three times tonight. None of that changes the… [more]

At the end of October, the article "Pregnant Woman Requests All White Delivery Staff" caught my eye. After reading it, I knew I had to blog about it. Not for the content of the article - I mean, come on, Racism Exists in America, News at 11 - but for the comments. The article's author wrote: "I hate to cry racism at every turn, but let’s call a spade a spade." Then, this comment came in: "I think it’s funny that in your post about not being a racist you use a racist term–to 'call a spade a spade' has its roots in anti-black sentiment." When I read that, I was pretty sure the commentator  was incorrect. I always thought the phrase "to… [more]