[aclee]

Originally Posted by ljsdo2007

The advice I was given and that I shared here comes straight from African American friends and colleagues and also from transracial adoptees.

The one thing I keep hearing over and over is not to deny that racism exists when you are raising children in a multiracial home. You don't have to make a big deal out of it, but if it was me, I would rather my children hear it from me and have the opportunity to work through it than grow up thinking the world is this wonderful melting pot then get slapped in the face with reality when they leave home.

I would also rather they have strong AA role models, teachers and friends in addition to CC family members and other ethnicities. I personally think it is important when you are faced with a world that unfortunately IS going to treat them differently because they are AA, that they have lots of strong, positive people in their life who are also AA.

It's easy for CC people to deny racism and ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist. But it will exist for your children. Whether you choose to prepare them for that is your business, but what I am hearing from many AA people is that you should prepare them for a world that is going to be quite different from the wonderful home they grew up in.

I realize plenty of people are going to disagree, and that's fine. But as aclee said, it's just a discussion, and it's okay to disagree and hear other viewpoints.

If you have AA friends, wouldn't you have role models? Even if you don't see them all the time, they could still be role models couldn't they? Clearly you speak with them enough that you've discussed this with them at length...why can't they be role models to an AA infant? We don't even specifically have AA friends that are going to be close role models for Ty actually...sounds like you would be one up on us already!