Race and Kinship: Issues with Family and Identity in Transracial Adoption

Traditionally, kinship has been associated with racial congruence, meaning that all members of a family are of the same race. It is the idea that all offspring should resemble their parents, that biological dimension that was mentioned earlier. This can create a sort of identity crisis in children of biracial couples as racial congruence creates a clear separation between being black and being white. Miscegenation is the phenomenon where the marriage (or cohabitation) of people outside their own races is prohibited. In some countries, there are rules outlining the use of racially congruent eggs or sperm when using new reproductive techniques. One of the most polarizing topics in racial kinship is transnational adoption- adopting a child outside one’s own race.

The most well noted organization of racially-congruent adoption advocates for children of African American descent is the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW). Their response to black and black/white biracial adoptees being placed with white families is typically credited with initiating the public debate surrounding the best interests of black and black/white biracial children, and the associated risks of transracial adoption in developing a racial and ethnic identity (Miranda 2002). Initially NABSW viewed transracial adoption as cultural genocide, both for individual adoptees and the black community. More recently, however, some have begun to see transracial adoption as a last resort after same-race placements have proven impossible. The group highlights respect for African American cultural heritage in children as its highest priority, an issue that many foster care and adopted individuals can attest to.

There seem to be three overarching themes common to biracial adoptees: navigating the politics of their adoptive family memberships and biraciality, searching for kinship and community, and naming and claiming identities. In one interview, a mother of a biracial child says she is “a little nervous about what we're gonna do when he starts to understand why someone approached us at Target and thanked us for saving babies, or when a woman, you know, walks down the aisle of the grocery store and says, 'What's he mixed with?'. In her own testimonial, Sonia Billadeau (2014) wrote, “I had grown up with the story that the social workers considered me ‘too light’ to be adopted by a black family, and ‘too dark’ for a white one. Which left me feeling like I didn’t belong anywhere, except with a liberal, colorblind family that ‘rose above’ racial designations.” In racially conscious and Eurocentric America, children who are part of transracial adoption often find themselves lacking identity, not feeling like part of any particular kinship structure. Here is where kinship anthropology and activist anthropology meet: how can we use our knowledge about modern kinship structures to improve the quality of life for biracial adoptees? This is yet another reason why kinship in anthropology has become prominent; there is huge potential for the study of kinship to improve aspects of racism and inequality in America.

Conclusion

As new issues within “alternate family structures” arise, kinship can no longer be considered an outdated study. Recent surfacing of gay, lesbian, and racial issues within kinship have challenged previously held notions as the idea of family is redefined. A change to classic kinship ideas is the recognition of how much pain and inequality plays a role in kinship and family, especially in adoption. The search for kinship and a sense of community is on the forefront of the minds of both homosexuals and children of mixed race families. In a country where assimilation seems the easiest path, it has become increasingly more important to understand dynamic family structures and how they impact the individual. There seem to be three themes common to the study of kinship in the modern day: navigating the politics of being part of alternative family structures, searching for kinship and community, and naming and claiming identities. Kinship is no longer a study of primitive societal functions but of how the individual is impacted by changing policy and culture surrounding the idea of family.