While I was doing some research online tonight I found an article about a documentary title “Outside Looking In”. The film was made by an African American filmmaker, who was adopted by a white family in the 1970’s, when transracial adoption, especially that of black children to white families, was still fairly rare.

Phil Bertelsen follows his own adoption and life story in the film, as well as several other story lines involving transracial adoption, including a white mid-western couple and the black birthmother they are making an adoption plan with. Through the film, Bertelsen gives a 30-year history on transracial adoption in America.

This article, http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/articles.php?aid=290, discusses the film and has a short question and answer section with Bertelsen. It also gives information on ordering the film. (I am not encouraging anyone to order it, because I have not seen it and cannot say if it is a film I recommend or not).

This certainly intrigues me and it is definitely something I’d like to try and rent or borrow. If I can’t find a way to do that, I might break down and buy it. I ‘d love to hear feedback if any of you have seen it.

On the same topic, I thought that it said a lot that “Crash” won the Oscar for Best Motion Picture this year. I think that says that Hollywood thinks that racial issues are important and rewarded a well-made film tackling some really tough issues. My husband and I rented “Crash”, and while it was tough to watch at parts, I think that was the point. It was definitely a “get you talking” movie.

I also was wondering if anyone caught the new show on TLC (I believe) that is called “Family Makers”? It was about a bunch of couples trying to adopt (all domestically I believe) and it showed interviews with the adoption agents, the birthmothers and the adoptive couples and followed stories before, during and after the adoption. It showed a lot of “behind the scenes” stuff, like how the birthmother chose the couple, and how that was handled, etc. Anyway, I found it interesting.

And last but not least, I have been hearing on some of my email lists about a new reality show that is going to try and “make a black family white and a white family black”. The name of the show is “Black. White” and here is a link to info about the show, http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=215906

I have to admit that I am not a big fan of Fox reality television and at first I assumed this was going to be a some sort of hoax or completely tasteless show, but after doing some reading, maybe it could result in some good. Here is a quote from the website, “"Black.White." proceeds with open-minded seriousness as it leads viewers to a conclusion both obvious and powerful: race counts, for better and worse. Expressions of racism and racial identity change, but that bedrock truth remains.”

The show is on FX and I haven’t seen any of the episodes yet, but I will try and look for it (if and when I find the time to watch TV!). If you catch it, let me know what you think. On one hand the sensationalism of reality TV does not seem like the appropriate forum for this sort of topic, but on another hand, anything that gets people talking, and gets people to think about prejudice and racial issues can be a good thing.

All in all, I think it is a good thing that racial issues are getting so much attention in the media lately. I’ll be on the lookout for more.
For now I am off to bed! More soon.