Prompt: If you were to adopt a child, would you adopt one of a different race? Why or why not?
When I first heard the prompt, my initial response was no. I agree with the points that were made in class about the child not feeling like he/she belongs in the community or being judged for having a different skin color as the rest of the family. One more point I would like to add is that as a parent of a different culture/ethnicity, if I were to adopt a child of a different race, I wouldn't have the knowledge nor ability to allow my child to explore his/her own native culture ethnicity. Personally, I wouldn't want to deny my child the chance to be exposed to his/her culture by taking him/her from his own community and placing him/her into mine.
A couple of days ago, I was browsing through Reddit, and I came across this thread titled "IAmA black guy adopted and raised by a white family, AMA[Ask me anything]!" As I was scrolling through the man's responses and other user's comments, I learned that maybe someone whose skin color is associated with an ethnicity/culture doesn't necessarily have to learn about his/her own ethnicity/culture. What's most important is that the child can find his/her own identity.
Some of the comments from other users were:
"Took me years to figure out I was one whole individual, not pieces of different cultures."
"I have always had trouble identifying with either black or white and I'm only now (19 years old) realizing that that i just want to be me."
The OP replied to a question:
"I believe that your culture isn't something you're assigned with at birth. It's something that grows and develops as you grow and develop. I don't feel like I've lost anything because I never had it...I still think that your culture is about you, not about people like you."
After reading this thread, I came to the conclusion that one day, if events in my life really lead me to adoption, I would consider adopting a child of a different race.
Link to the post can be found here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1qrpmm/iama_black_guy_adopted_and_raised_by_a_white/
One more thing, last week during discussion we were talking about and wrote our own Tritinas. I didn't share in class, but I regret not having shared, so I'll just post it here. The three words are "myth", "magic", and "believe".
Maybe the reason why we have myths
Is that in each, there is some magic
Which at times can make it hard to believe
But there are other times in life when we want to believe
That there is truth in these myths
Because once in a while, we could do with a little magic
What we don't realize is that life has always been full of magic
It's just up to us whether or not we want to believe
Or just call the magical stories from our ancestors, myth
Or is it just a myth that we once believed in magic?
Sorry if the Tritina doesn't make much sense!
-Tiffany Wang
When I first heard the prompt, my initial response was no. I agree with the points that were made in class about the child not feeling like he/she belongs in the community or being judged for having a different skin color as the rest of the family. One more point I would like to add is that as a parent of a different culture/ethnicity, if I were to adopt a child of a different race, I wouldn't have the knowledge nor ability to allow my child to explore his/her own native culture ethnicity. Personally, I wouldn't want to deny my child the chance to be exposed to his/her culture by taking him/her from his own community and placing him/her into mine.
A couple of days ago, I was browsing through Reddit, and I came across this thread titled "IAmA black guy adopted and raised by a white family, AMA[Ask me anything]!" As I was scrolling through the man's responses and other user's comments, I learned that maybe someone whose skin color is associated with an ethnicity/culture doesn't necessarily have to learn about his/her own ethnicity/culture. What's most important is that the child can find his/her own identity.
Some of the comments from other users were:
"Took me years to figure out I was one whole individual, not pieces of different cultures."
"I have always had trouble identifying with either black or white and I'm only now (19 years old) realizing that that i just want to be me."
The OP replied to a question:
"I believe that your culture isn't something you're assigned with at birth. It's something that grows and develops as you grow and develop. I don't feel like I've lost anything because I never had it...I still think that your culture is about you, not about people like you."
After reading this thread, I came to the conclusion that one day, if events in my life really lead me to adoption, I would consider adopting a child of a different race.
Link to the post can be found here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1qrpmm/iama_black_guy_adopted_and_raised_by_a_white/
One more thing, last week during discussion we were talking about and wrote our own Tritinas. I didn't share in class, but I regret not having shared, so I'll just post it here. The three words are "myth", "magic", and "believe".
Maybe the reason why we have myths
Is that in each, there is some magic
Which at times can make it hard to believe
But there are other times in life when we want to believe
That there is truth in these myths
Because once in a while, we could do with a little magic
What we don't realize is that life has always been full of magic
It's just up to us whether or not we want to believe
Or just call the magical stories from our ancestors, myth
Or is it just a myth that we once believed in magic?
Sorry if the Tritina doesn't make much sense!
-Tiffany Wang
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