Fellow adoption activist and transracial adoptee (+overall awesome woman) Lisa Marie Rollins was featured on a discussion about transracial adoption and "why it's controversial."
Don Lemon begins the show asking this question, in light of the sometimes non-positive reactions people are having to celebrity Sandra Bullock's recent adoption of a Black American child. He obviously finds those reactions surprising, thinks it's odd that people aren't simply praising Sandra for "saving" the Black child from a lifetime of foster care.
It's amazing to me the profound ignorance of so many people in the mainstream about these issues. It shows how much adoption is shown from only one side, that so often we fail to recognize the powerful forces behind why those kids are in foster care in the first place, and also fail to validate any feelings from an adoptee that are not "grateful."
In her blog post about the show, Lisa points out that CNN was confusing transracial adoption with two white parents with mixed-race bio kids with mixed parentage. Big difference. However, you can still see Ms. Walsh's exoticizing of her mixed kids, saying that they were a "welcome racial curiosity" in their white communities.
Overall, I'm proud of CNN for giving voice to a transracial adoptee--it happens so rarely! And I'm proud of Lisa for being so eloquent and saying what needed to be said!
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