Transracial Adoption

Historical Background

Transracial adoption is defined as a form of adoption in which parents and children who are racially different from one another are legally conjoined as a family. Domestic transracial adoption typically occurs through private adoption, foster care, and interracial marriage with stepchildren, whereas international transracial adoption occurs when children are adopted from other countries and are considered racial and ethnic minorities in the adoptive country. In the United States, transracial adoptive parents are almost always racially White and of European descent, and adoptees are racial and ethnic minorities. As a result, adoptees and adoptive parents are inevitably confronted with an inherent racial discrepancy. Namely, transracial adoptees have access to certain privileges growing up in European American households, but these experiences are contradicted by their ...