This wonderful article was posted to one of my email groups this morning. It is titled "The Lifelong Impact of Transracial Adoption: Learning From Adoptees and Their Non-Adopted Siblings" and was written by Dr. John Raible, Asst. Professor, Diversity & Curriculum Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and was originally presented as a keynote address at the 4th Biennial Adoption Conference at St. John's University in New York in October of 2006.


The link can be found here, and although it is long, this is really worth the read. It is really good stuff, and looks at learning about transracial adoption both from adult adoptees, and from the "non-adopted siblings" in transracial adoptive families, which isn't an angle we often hear about, yet is one that involves many of the adoptive families out there (including mine).

The author is an adult adoptee, an adoptive parent, a researcher and a professor of diversity studies, so he provides an extremely well-balanced view point. The link shows this talk on the New York State Citizens' Coalition for Children's Transracial Resources page, which is a fantastic resource I have shared in the past for adoptive parents, complete with articles, resources and the opportunity to ask transracial adoption questions to experts.. You can read my post about that here.

I found this article really interesting and hope you do too. I hope you are able to find the time to read it.

Here is a quote I love from the end of the article...

I have come to believe that transracial adoptive family life can pave the way to that bright future -but only if it is done right. To summarize what I have learned from the non-adopted white siblings of transracial adoptees: (1) A few of us choose to transracialize our lives-while most of us opt not to. Yet it is never too late to make another choice. (2) Whether we do or don't transracialize has a direct bearing on whether we can transform our society. Finally, (3) not to avoid uncomfortable discussions of adoption, race, and cultural differences within families, but to embrace those issues as our own, and as empathetic and compassionate sisters and brothers-these are the lessons I have learned from listening to the white women and men who stand in loving solidarity with their siblings of color.

For more articles on transracial adoption by this same author you can read "What Is Transracialization and How Do I Get Started?" from Aug. 2006, "An Open Letter to Parents of Mature Transracial Adoptees" from 2003 and "The Significance of Racial Identity in Transracially Adopted Young Adults" from 1990, all of which are found on the NYSCCC website.

Happy reading!