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Birthmarks: Transracial Adoption in Contemporary America
"[An] empathetic study of the meanings of cross-racial adoption to adoptees."― Law and Politics Book Review
Can White parents teach their Black children African American culture and history? Can they impart to them the survival skills necessary to survive in the racially stratified United States? Concerns over racial identity have been at the center of controversies over transracial adoption since the 1970s, as questions continually arise about whether White parents are capable of instilling a positive sense of African American identity in their Black children.
Through in-depth interviews with adult transracial adoptees, as well as with social workers in adoption agencies, Sandra Patton, herself an adoptee, explores the social construction of race, identity, gender, and family and the ways in which these interact with public policy about adoption. Patton offers a compelling overview of the issues at stake in transracial adoption. She discusses recent changes in adoption and social welfare policy which prohibit consideration of race in the placement of children, as well as public policy definitions of "bad mothers" which can foster coerced aspects of adoption, to show how the lives of transracial adoptees have been shaped by the policies of the U.S. child welfare system.
Neither an argument for nor against the practice of transracial adoption, BirthMarks seeks to counter the dominant public view of this practice as a panacea to the so-called "epidemic" of illegitimacy and the misfortune of infertility among the middle class with a more nuanced view that gives voice to those directly involved, shedding light on the ways in which Black and multiracial adoptees articulate their own identity experiences.
Can White parents teach their Black children African American culture and history? Can they impart to them the survival skills necessary to survive in the racially stratified United States? Concerns over racial identity have been at the center of controversies over transracial adoption since the 1970s, as questions continually arise about whether White parents are capable of instilling a positive sense of African American identity in their Black children.
Through in-depth interviews with adult transracial adoptees, as well as with social workers in adoption agencies, Sandra Patton, herself an adoptee, explores the social construction of race, identity, gender, and family and the ways in which these interact with public policy about adoption. Patton offers a compelling overview of the issues at stake in transracial adoption. She discusses recent changes in adoption and social welfare policy which prohibit consideration of race in the placement of children, as well as public policy definitions of "bad mothers" which can foster coerced aspects of adoption, to show how the lives of transracial adoptees have been shaped by the policies of the U.S. child welfare system.
Neither an argument for nor against the practice of transracial adoption, BirthMarks seeks to counter the dominant public view of this practice as a panacea to the so-called "epidemic" of illegitimacy and the misfortune of infertility among the middle class with a more nuanced view that gives voice to those directly involved, shedding light on the ways in which Black and multiracial adoptees articulate their own identity experiences.
- GenresAdoptionNonfiction
223 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 10, 2009
This book was poorly laid out. The author didn't present a central thesis and throughout the book she made statements which were contradictory to each other.
July 19, 2013
This is an incredibly hard and boring read! We are in the process of adoption and I grabbed this book at the library hoping to learn as much as I could about adoption, but this book gave me very little insight into the adopted child, adoption life, or parental roles in adoption. Also, I do not feel as though I have grown up in a racist era or area, so I grabbed this book thinking maybe there is something I was missing. The author is a white woman adopted into a white family. Also, she only talks about a time frame over 50 years ago. This makes me feel as though she doesn't really have the life experience or current facts to support any of her opinions. She only interviewed 22 trans-racial adoptees and I felt as though a lot of their quotes could be interpreted as more of an adoption identity issue rather than a race issue. I am totally annoyed at the fact that she throws around her opinion of what terms in an adoption or the relinquishment of a child means, and if I never see a “quoted” word in my life again it will be too soon.
The only good, well thought out parts in this book, are of her own life experiences. I would much rather have read an entire book about her adoption story with her own life experiences than listen to random thoughts she has about everything adoption and society related. I believe that God has driven my husband and me to everything in our life including adoption as part of his plan for us. Also the author said she didn’t choose a side on adoption between different races, but from what I read she was pretty clear that people should only adopt children that fit the adoptive parent and birth parents exact mold (i.e. Her birth father was Jewish, so she should have been placed in a Jewish family). By that ideal situation no children would ever be adopted!
In short this book was hard to read, didn't help at all with my adoption, gave me little insight into real current racism, was poorly organized, and seemed very anti adoption. I would not recommend this to anyone and only read half of it before actually getting so upset that I couldn’t finish it. I don’t really want to finish reading a book that is so negative about adopting children.
The only good, well thought out parts in this book, are of her own life experiences. I would much rather have read an entire book about her adoption story with her own life experiences than listen to random thoughts she has about everything adoption and society related. I believe that God has driven my husband and me to everything in our life including adoption as part of his plan for us. Also the author said she didn’t choose a side on adoption between different races, but from what I read she was pretty clear that people should only adopt children that fit the adoptive parent and birth parents exact mold (i.e. Her birth father was Jewish, so she should have been placed in a Jewish family). By that ideal situation no children would ever be adopted!
In short this book was hard to read, didn't help at all with my adoption, gave me little insight into real current racism, was poorly organized, and seemed very anti adoption. I would not recommend this to anyone and only read half of it before actually getting so upset that I couldn’t finish it. I don’t really want to finish reading a book that is so negative about adopting children.
December 31, 2025
This book is not at all how it is described. The description makes it sound as if the book is an unbiased study of translation adoptions. It is not at all an educated study even though it drags on like a research paper. The author has a very clear opinion of the history of transracial adoption. All interviews are cropped to support her opinion. Transracial adoptees who were fine with their placement are labeled and attacked. I was hoping this book would give me a very clear unbiased view from society and adoptees about their experiences, but unfortunately this is not it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews