My Story

Shared by Anonymous

As I watch the highlights of President Obama's swearing in, I think back to a conversation I had with my seven year old daughter the day after the election in November. We were watching TV, and she was asking me why some of the African American people who were interviewed were crying at the news that Barack Obama had been elected President of the United States. This led to a conversation about segregation in certain parts of our country not all that long ago. One of the practices I described was that in some places Whites sat in the front of the bus, while Blacks were required to sit in the back of the bus. She thought for a moment, looked up at me and said, "Mommy, where would I sit on the bus?"

You see my daughter was born in China and ours is a family formed through transracial adoption, so the color of her skin isn't black or white-it's somewhere in between. As she went through her preschool years my daughter was very proud of being Chinese, and we would look for opportunities to share information about Chinese customs and language in our family and with friends and her classmates. However, in the past year or so I've noticed a shift in her perceptions - questions often surface around the aspects of her appearance -the shape of her eyes, nose and skin tone, that are different from her family members and most of her peers.

During the pre-adoptive process I read materials related to transracial adoption, and we've attended various workshops on issues children experience when they are raised in families and communities where they are in the minority. Despite all these efforts, nothing has really fully prepared me for experiencing racial and cultural identity, the way I'll experience it through my daughter's eyes.

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