[joskids]

My husband and I are an interracial couple - he is AA, I am CC. We have adopted 4 children, one is full AA, the other 3 are biracial. (We never requested biracial, BTW, we were only open to minority race children and these are the children that came to us). We also belong to a group of interracial families that are generally CC parents of AA children. NONE of the families that we know from that group are uneducated about race in adoption. Because we live in a very racially diverse area, the issues of children being raised in a culturally diverse environment don't really exist here. We have had parents, though, who live in areas of our county that are less diverse and they have intentionally moved to areas with more diversity. What bothers me more is that many folks who adopt internationally don't seem to consider the diversity in their families. Somehow they feel that an Asian child is "more white"?? Or that a Guatemalan child is not adopted transracially. I think that is just as much a disservice to the child as if they had adopted a black child and remained ignorant. I can see where this report upsets some folks, particularly CC couples who wish to adopt and are not concerned about color, yet understand upfront that they will be responsible to be sure that their child understands his racial heritage. I also see the other side -- that children do need to know who they are, where they come from, and that they are taught pride in their ethnicity. Any CC parent who is not willing to provide same for their child, should definitely not be adopting a child of color. Turning a blind eye to the racial issues we still deal with in this country is plain ignorant. We only have to look at our current presidential candidates to see the ignorance and hatred that still exists in terms of race in this country. It's very sad to me that racial ignorance still reigns free and that some of us still accept it. We all need to take responsibility to be sure that each and every one of our children is raised to be strong and confident in who they are.