Book reviews -- Adoption, Race, and Identity: From Infancy through Adolescence by Rita J. Simon and Howard Alstein

Adoption, Race, and Identity: From Infancy through Adolescence. By Rita J. Simon and Howard Alstein. New York: Praeger, 1992. 220 pp. $45.00.

Perhaps one of the most volatile discourses in child welfare centers is the issue of transracial adoption, that is, transracial adoptions that involve white couples adopting children of color--African American, Asian, native American, and Latino. The National Association of Black Social Workers and various native American tribal councils strenuously oppose the adoption of these children by white families. These organizations assert that such adoptions are racist, and that white parents cannot teach children of color survival skills needed to function in a racist society. Further, these organizations argue that the cultural identity of the children will be white and that, overall, such adoptions are not beneficial for the child's development. On the other side of the debate are those who argue that not enough families of color are available to adopt, that the developmental progress that a child makes in a family takes precedence over social and cultural needs, that race is not an important factor in child rearing, and that being raised by a white family does not negatively affect the child's racial identity and awareness.

As is often the case with impassioned debates, the reality of the dilemma is somewhere in the middle. Rita Simon and Howard Alstein, in Adoption, Race, and Identity, attempt to examine, through a longitudinal exploratory study, the impact of transracial adoptions on children of color and their families. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that the dire predictions are not matched by results as grim as expected.

This book is the culmination and synthesis of a 12-year study of transracially adopted children from 1972 through 1984. For the most part it is a readable, scholarly, thoughtful work. The sample originally consisted of 204 families (204 sets of parents, 366 children) who were members of the Open Door Society and the Council on Adoptable Children. Data were collected at three different points, with a reasonable sample-mortality rate: 1972; 1979, when 71% of the original number were located (and of the 143 families contacted, 93% responded); and finally, 1984, when 88 of the 133 families from 1979 participated.

In the first phase of data collection, parents were interviewed regarding the impact of transracial adoption. The children, both biological and adopted, were given sets of projective measures designed to measure racial identity and awareness. (Most notable was the replication of the Clark and Clark dolls test.) The second phase involved a questionnaire for the parents. The third phase consisted of interviews with both parents and adolescent or young-adult children. This phase focused on relationships among family members, racial-identity awareness, bonds and ties, and future expectations of familial closeness. The interviewing of the children is described as unique compared with previous studies of transracial adoption.

The most impressive aspect of this book consists of its thorough review of the literature related to transracial adoption. Chapter one details the history of adoption. The historical shaping of a crucial criterion of adoption--the "matching concept"--is examined, from the notion of matching religious background to the emphasis on physical similarity to the focus on race as an important factor.

The authors examine the contextual forces that shape the dilemma of transracial adoption: the decline of available white children and the prevalence of approved adoptive white families, the supposed nonavailability of families of color, and the subsequent responses from the communities of color. Chapter 2 focuses on court decisions that have affected the understanding of race as a factor in child rearing. A fascinating aspect of this review of court cases regarding the salience of race is that most cases involved bitter custody battles between estranged divorcing white couples in which the custodial parent had become involved with a nonwhite partner. The court decisions appeared to respond to individual acts of prejudice and discrimination and were not about transracial adoption per se. Finally, another strength is the authors' review of the studies of transracial adoption as well as various studies assessing racial identity and awareness.

However, the book has some problems having to do with the format and presentation of the findings. It would have been helpful to have he major hypothesis and research questions presented initially and clearly. Instead, they are embedded throughout the text of the book. For example, the major hypothesis appears on page 127. Additionally, an appendix listing the instruments and questions in each phase of the study would have been helpful. It is somewhat time consuming and confusing to extrapolate them from the body of the text. These organizational improvements would allow a reader to interpret and draw conclusions independent of the researchers' carefully arranged interpretations.

Alstein and Simon's research seems to bear out what common sense has known: that reasonable, loving parents can raise healthy children regardless of race. Children who experienced difficulty were those who came to their adoptive families already made vulnerable and at risk due to biological, genetic, and environmental factors. The principal hypothesis seems to be borne out by the study; none of the children manifested a "white" cultural preference as demonstrated by the projective testing. This seemed also to be the case regarding self-awareness and self-esteem. Although these findings may be true, the issue of institutional racism is not, and cannot be, addressed in a study such as this. Racism is not about individual acts of meanness and, conversely, cannot be ameliorated or resolved by individual acts of generosity. Racism is about interlocking structures and systems that maintain subservience and domination and control access to resources.

Transracial adoption and its dilemmas seem to demonstrate the "web of urban racism" that Harold Baron wrote so eloquently about in the 1960s. What is racist is the issue of access to resources and the multiple, historical, interlocking factors that keep communities of color from being able to compete. Who would argue that a future generation is not an important resource to a community? The insistence on a middle-class standard as the definition of what makes a potential adoptive family adequate excludes many individuals who might be interested in adopting. The intersection of race and class creates a social structure in which one does not have to be individually prejudiced in order to function in and maintain a racist system. As most good research does, Simon and Alstein's book suggests further areas of study, such as longitudinal research on children adopted into working-class families of color compared with children of color adopted into white middle-class families.

Adoption, Race, and Identity helps refine the terms of future discussion of transracial adoption. Although this study demonstrates that children are not particularly damaged by transracial adoption, it contributes nothing to lessening institutional racism. In fact, it unwittingly supports it by locating the problem in individual responses rather than in societal structures. However, the latter is not the purview of this study. This is a book that will provide rich content for courses in research, social policy, child welfare, and racism and oppression.

Copyright Family Service America Dec 1994
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