Backbencher
Weblog for HIST 381 at NDSUTuesday, January 31, 2006
Cross-Culture Adoptions
I think we can all agree with Mr. Matt Miller that the British program of "forced adoption" of aborigine children was a really bad idea. The assumption that the adoptees would eventually assimilate into European society was shortsighted at best. As Matt also points out, parallels in history do exist and some of them are more recent than you might think.
I was listening to MPR one day and they had an extensive piece dealing with Korean orphans that were adopted by American families following the Korean War. A significant portion of these children were adopted by upper middle-class or even wealthy families in communities which probably included few other minorities. Many of these children faced an extreme identity crisis. They knew they were different, but had no knowledge of the culture from which they came. In some cases this led the adoptee to resent his or her adoptive parents and return to Korea as soon as they were able.
We can justify this by telling ourselves that the adoptee's life in America was better than what he/she could've expected in a Korean orphanage, but I bet the citizens of Colonial Australia used a similar excuse.
-Dylan
I was listening to MPR one day and they had an extensive piece dealing with Korean orphans that were adopted by American families following the Korean War. A significant portion of these children were adopted by upper middle-class or even wealthy families in communities which probably included few other minorities. Many of these children faced an extreme identity crisis. They knew they were different, but had no knowledge of the culture from which they came. In some cases this led the adoptee to resent his or her adoptive parents and return to Korea as soon as they were able.
We can justify this by telling ourselves that the adoptee's life in America was better than what he/she could've expected in a Korean orphanage, but I bet the citizens of Colonial Australia used a similar excuse.
-Dylan
Comments:
Links to this post:
<< Home
Identity crisises only come about when the truth is withheld. In most cases, children who are adopted from another country, are in a better home as adoptees. Most parents who adopt, are selected through an extensive process. Of course, it is shameful when children are taken/kinapped from thier families/homes; however, that is nothing new, even in America, as in the the 1930's and later, when decietful people thought they were taking a moral/Christian high road and taking children from families and placing them elsewhere, without documnetation.
Other countries have tried to find a pure race, or breed it, as exampled in the doctors of Hitler's regime, during WWII. Now, it is people selecting the sex and features of their future children, using science and genes and even sperm banks, to satisfy their selfish needs of a perfect child.
Suzanne Ready
Post a Comment
Other countries have tried to find a pure race, or breed it, as exampled in the doctors of Hitler's regime, during WWII. Now, it is people selecting the sex and features of their future children, using science and genes and even sperm banks, to satisfy their selfish needs of a perfect child.
Suzanne Ready
Links to this post:
<< Home
Archives
January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 December 2006 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008
