Lee on Transracial Adoption

A Washington Post article titled, “I know my parents love me, but they don’t love my people” explores how transracial adoptees (those adopted by families of a different race) struggle to talk with their White parents about race. Most transracial families involve White families and children of color, who as adults, are now reckoning with the racism they experienced growing up and how their parents struggle to see this experience. In recent years, there has been an increase in transracial adoptions, with these adoptions accounting for 28% of all domestic adoptions in the United States.

Rich Lee, PhD, Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, studies internationally adopted Koreans. His research has found that these adoptees experience the “transracial adoption paradox” which is the experience of growing up with many of the privileges associated with Whiteness but does not prepare them for the time when they leave the family home and they are confronted with the world’s perception of them as a racial minority. While adoptive parents can have good intentions, they can fall short as they may struggle to have conversations surrounding systemic racism and the effects of colonialism.

Composed by Flora Pollack, communications assistant.