Out of Sorts
The aspect of the article I’d like you to focus on for this forum is the choice of having an overseas Asian baby as the most common second choice for these prospective parents. There are two parts here: 1. How do you sociologically explain why these people would choose an international child rather than an American one and why use terms like “health” and “culture” to explain their preferences? 2. What are the macro-level implications of this behavior in terms of societal level attitudes about race and ethnicity?
Example:The main reason given in the text for parents adopting an international child is that the wait for an American child was too long. The parents often stated that if they waited for an American child then by the time they finally got one they would be “too old” to be parents, which shows that the role of “parent” has certain social expectations in regards to age, and they were concerned about violating those expectations. They chose an international child because it was the only way to achieve the role they wanted. The terms “health” and “culture” in regards to their preference for what type of child was simply an attempt to mask their racial discrimination, because openly speaking about such attitudes is taboo.
The first implication about attitudes toward race and ethnicity we can take from the behavior of the parents in the essay is that race and ethnicity are considered to be deterministic in regard to cultural expression. There was concern that a non-white child would bring it’s own culture with it, as if culture is somehow genetically coded into a person, and then the innate culture would clash with that of the parents. The second implication is that there is a strong level of blindness in reagards to those outside ones own race, as demonstrated by the fact that some parents fail to even realize that a non-white child was even an option. Lastly it strongly implies a racial hierarchy. The difficulty of adopting a healthy white infant shows that they are in high demand, and therefore perceived by society as valuable, while the relative ease of adopting a non-white child shows the demand for them is much lower, and they are therefore perceived by society as less valuable.
link:
https://books.google.com/books?id=pbnrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA347&lpg=PA347&dq=%22Out+Of+Sorts:+Adoption+and+(Un)Desirable+Children%22&source=bl&ots=po8fRK234d&sig=ACfU3U1_IE-Vf1jG99I3LnRCemFpxVH7bA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjvk6X-2qvwAhViNn0KHYkEAtIQ6AEwB3oECAoQAw#v=onepage&q=%22Out%20Of%20Sorts%3A%20Adoption%20and%20(Un)Desirable%20Children%22&f=false
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