[anarchamama]

Oh lord where to start. I am a cc canadien who has been considering adopting from the US, my husband and I already have 2 biological children. Adopting from the US would mean for us adopting an aa child, probably a boy (our 2 kids are also boys). However, we are really struggling with the ethics of this question. The racial dinamics in canda are different than the US as is our history, but there is still much racism here.

I talked with a couple of adoptive parents of an adult child who was aboriginal here (and these are good folks who's judgement I trust). Their response to us was that while they knew nothing about international adoption, they felt that they had been unable to be good parents in a transracial family. That everything they did as a family was undermined by the intense racism agaginst aboriginals in canada, and that they would not do it agagin and would advise us not to as well. Yikes! This made me think I needed to seek out some input/stories from other adult adoptees.

An AA person in canada would experience less overt racism then they would in the US (though certianly some, especially boys/men). But there would also be many less cultural opportunities as there is a far smaller black population in canada.

We have explored the option pretty well and I feel like we have apretty good sense of the domestic adoption scene in the US. Adoption is an option we are serious aboutm but that discussion was pretty disheartening. I don't want to adopt a child I can't parent well. KWIM?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. PM/emails are welcome.
Heather

[ripples]

Hi Heather,
You've posted some very thoughtful and important questions. Yes, racism is a very tough thing for transracial adoptees to face. The stats. from Sweden indicate that suicide rates amongs intercountry adoptees is 3.6 times as high as Swedish-born children
The Benevolent Society - Service needs of transracial adoptive families

Luckily, I grew up in Vancouver, Canada where there is a lot of multiculturalism. I've heard from many transracial adoptees that growing up in a multicultural environment/city is far preferable to a rural, racist community.
Here's some info that might be of help:
The Benevolent Society - Articles on transracial adoption


I hope this info helps.

Regards,
ripples