Over on the transracial adoption message board, I found a post about an interesting research project being done by a professor at George Mason University.

The name of the project is “Transnational Adoption and Changing Faces of American Families” and it is being conducted by Prof. Linda J. Seligmann in the Department of Sociology and Antropology.

The website describes the project like this…

This research is an in-depth, long-term project. It examines the impact of international adoptions on the ways that people in the United States are thinking about families and how they are constituted. It is designed by Professor Linda J. Seligmann, an anthropologist at George Mason University. It looks at how racial mixing, identity, and family structures and dynamics are understood within the context of transnational and transracial adoption.This research is funded by the Center for Global Studies and the Office of the Provost at George Mason University.

They are currently looking for families with children from China and Russia, or families who have adopted African American children domestically in the U.S. I do not know much more about it, but there is more information on the website above.

So what do you think? I think it is an interesting topic, and I would love to see the results. I think it would almost have to be true that transracial adoptive families are slowly changing the way that people see and think about families.

I think about all of the adoptive families I have spoken with who worried about their parents or other extended family members being upset about them adopting transracially…and then I think about all of the new grandparents who are completely smitten with their new Asian granddaughter or African American grandson. I think about all of the teachers, neighbors, friends, etc. who interact with our families.

I believe that every adult or child who knows my family and spends any amount of time with us sees us as a true family, and would have to change or at least soften traditionalist views on what a family is and how a family can be formed.

While we do get our fair share of people who assume we are a daycare or something like that, we get even more people that simply comment on what a beautiful family we have, or say something along those lines.

I think the only way that social changes really happen is slowly…one person or one family at a time. And I think that transracial families are quietly challenging the way a lot of people think of family and race, etc.

Reality is that the perfect picture of a family is no longer one white mom, one white dad, one white daughter and one white son. And personally, I think that the family pictures we are painting are a lot more beautiful.