Shifting the spotlight: exploring race and culture in Korean-White adoptive families

Predicting Non‐African American Lesbian and Heterosexual Preadoptive Couples' Openness to Adopting an African American Child

“…It may be that preferential adopters are more open with regard to certain aspects of their adopted child, but this openness does not extend to adopting an African American child. Indeed, they may be more open to adopting transracially, but feel that Black children are “too different” (Shiao et al, 2004).…”

“…African Americans are often the recipients of the most negative stereotypes, being considered stupid and lazy (Lee & Bean). As Shiao, Tuan, and Rienzi (2004) pointed out, the United States “is moving beyond its historic hierarchy of Whites over non‐Whites to an emergent hierarchy of non‐Blacks over Blacks” (p. 2).…”

“…Individuals who adopt from Asia may do so because they feel that Asian children are more assimilable to mainstream (White) culture than other minority race children (Ishizawa, Kenney, Kubo, & Stevens, 2006). Shiao et al (2004) studied White adoptive parents of Korean children and found that parents often chose to adopt from Korea because of their perception that Korean children were “exotic yet assimilable” and “baggage free … and saveable” in contrast to African American children, who were viewed by some parents as unadoptable owing to perceived “damage, irredeemability, and marginalization” (pp. 7–8).…”

“…They may be encouraged by adoption workers to evaluate how supportive their family members are of their decision to adopt, and to consider how family might react if they adopted a different‐race child (Brodzinsky, 2008). Family nonsupport and racism represent major challenges faced by multiracial heterosexual (Shiao et al, 2004) and lesbian (Bennett, 2003) adoptive families, and can contribute to familial tensions. Consequently, perceived social network support for adoption was considered as a predictor of openness.…”

Korean transracial adoptee identity formation

“…Contemporary research mirrors these findings about adoptive parents' colorblind ideologies. Studies find that although parents engage in colorblind practices with their transracially adopted children, they relied upon racist stereotypes to guide their adoption choices and the (un)desirability of certain adoptable children (Brian, ; Shiao, Tuan, & Rienzi, ). For example, white adoptive parents use racially coded language to describe Asian children as a “better fit” into their family than black children; they also frame Asian children as “baggage free” in comparison to black children (Kubo, ).…”