Photo: One Thousand for One
Last week my daughter came home from middle school full of energy and with a look on her face that I recognized. She had connected with someone at school in a significant way. But you know tweens, I didn’t want to push too hard, so I began guessing in my head just who the connection would have been. We have been gifted so many wonderful things at her middle school this year – adoptees as core teachers in her block who handle the classroom material with first hand understanding and empathy. Adoptees as administrators who run the school and influence their teachers and environment in an open way. A diverse classroom of kids with new friends to meet and befriend. So many gifts.
And while there have been transitional bumps in middle school; she is THRIVING. Later over snack she said,
“I was talking with a boy in my class who is black mom. He assumed I was black too until I told him I was multiracial. Then we started a conversation about our ethnicities and at the end I felt so happy, so affirmed. Its nice to know so many kids in my school who look like me.”
Transracially adopted kids have specific needs and need specific support. That is why I love PACT’s “A Transracially-Adopted Child’s Bill of Rights” as it affirms all that Blended strives to embrace in raising our children. Rights such as,
Every child is entitled to opportunities to
make friends with people of his or her race
or ethnicity.
Every child is entitled to build racial pride
within his or her own home, school, and
neighborhood.
Every child is entitled to parents who
acknowledge that this is a race-conscious
society.
See the whole Bill of Rights here. This was adapted by Liza Steinberg from “A Bill of Rights for Mixed Folks,” by Marilyn Dramé and is a must read for all transracial adoptive parents and for ANYONE thinking of adopting transracially.
Check it out and pass it on.