Description
Book SynopsisA provocative critique of transnational, transracial adoption from a critical race and feminist perspective and a vision for reform
Trade Review"Kristi Brian bravely shines a spotlight on the racial inequities that undergird transnational adoptions but are typically whitewashed by assumptions of adoptive parents' benevolence and colorblindness. Reframing Transracial Adoption proposes a more culturally inclusive, child-centered paradigm focused on the voices of Korean adoptees rather than the personal preferences of white adopters, who sometimes select children on the basis of racialized criteria and then refuse to take their racial identities seriously. A critical contribution to an honest discussion of the role race plays in adoption and, indeed, in all family structures." - Dorothy Roberts, Kirkland & Ellis Professor, Northwestern University School of Law, and author of Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare "[C]ompelling... Brian effectively analyzes the inherently political act of family building... Brian's critical race feminist methodology, and her explanation of the matters of adoption and the ways in which adoption matters are useful and often insightful... There is much to be applauded in a political analysis of a phenomenon such as Korean-American adoption and Kristi Brian's Reframing Transracial Adoption succeeds admirably in this regard." Anthropological Quarterly, Fall 2012 "Brian demonstrates an exceptional understanding of the problems affecting Korean adoption...her work is noteworthy for its effort to document racism within adoptive families... Reframing Transracial Adoption is at once a scholarly study and a work of adoption reform activism. Brian highlights structural problems in the transnational adoption industry and shows how adult Korean adoptees are working to change it. In addition, she makes a strong argument against the commonly held idea that transracial adoption is a cure for racism because it creates multiracial families. She instead shows how the adoption industry depends on white privilege and the geopolitical dominance of the United States."--Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society, Winter 2014 "Brian exhibits a strong conversant history and literature on race and adoption... She is particularly good at critiquing transracial adoption by celebrity... she raises the intriguing issue of how adoptees themselves are now changing the processes of adoption... Brian's book provides an excellent critique of the hidden racism in American adoptions." - Contemporary Sociology, May 2014
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments; Personal / Political Preface; (1) Adoption Matters: Beyond Catastrophe and Spectacle; (A)The Birth of "Sentimental" International Adoption; (B) Institutionalizing Harry Holt's Mission in Korea; (C)Research Questions & Methodology; (D) Towards a Critical Race Feminist Approach to Transnational Adoption; (E) Overview of chapters; (F) Names, Labels and Terms; (2) Adoption Facilitators and the Marketing of Family-Building:; "Expert" Systems meet Spurious Culture; Customized Family-Building and the Trouble with Culture; (B) Promoting Transnational Adoption; (B:1) Meeting the Consumer Needs of the Target Market; (B:2)Depicting Korea as a Nonpolitical, Cultural "Other"; (B:3)Assuming Race Consciousness in "Culture" - Consuming Parents; (C)A Confusion of Experts; (D)The Fault line between Domestic and Transnational Transracial Adoption; (E) Conclusion: Towards a Paradigm of Consciousness; (3) Navigating Racism: Avoiding and Confronting "Difference" in Families; (A) Phase 1: Choosing the "Acceptable" Model Minority in pre-adoption decision-making; (B) Phase 2: Family Lessons on Racism; (B:1) Assumptions of easy assimilation; (B:2) Failures of the "Ad Hoc," Colorblind Approach; (B:3)"The Fly on the Wall": Adoptees Witness and Confront Racism; (C)Phase 3: Adoption as Point of Departure; (C:1) Adoptees' Departures from Whiteness; (C:2)"This Is How I Taught Her To Be": Parents Observe Departures from Whiteness; (D) Conclusion; (4 ) Navigating Kinship: Searching for Family Beyond and Within "The Doctrine of Genealogical Unity"; Confronting the "Loss" of Birth and "Risk" of Adoption; Choosing "Closed" Adoptions and the "Familyless" Orphan; (C)Reconstructing Memories of Korea as Routes to the Meaning of Family; (D)Searching for Family Origins and Identities in the Shadow of Gratitude; (5) Strategic Interruptions versus Possessive Investment: Transnational Adoption in the Era of New Racism; (A) Towards a Shared Race-Conscious Discourse and Framework; (B) Abduction Language; (C)Race-blind U.S. Adoption Policy as Possessive Investment; (D) The Hague: Race-sensitive Understanding or Multicultural Fantasy?; (E) New Versions of Family to Resist the New Racism; (F) Disquieting Adoption; References.
