Navigating Double Consciousness and Stigma in Transracial Adoption- The Role of Covering and Passing

Navigating Double Consciousness and Stigma in Transracial Adoption- The Role of Covering and Passing

Concerns by Adoptive Parents and Adopted Children

The first concern of adoptive parents is protecting their children from stigma and discrimination and ensuring they have better experiences. A case study where a white parent, Rachel Garlinghouse and her white husband adopted three African-American children shows that transracial adoption comes with a lot of overly protective attitudes among the parents. According to NPR Staff (2014), the family lived in a white-dominated environment. Still, the adoptive parents worked extra hard to expose their children to the rest of the population who resembled them. They also tried to expose them to books written by Black authors and even subjected them to a diverse school where the white community was not the majority. This shows that the parents were concerned about their children’s identity. Additionally, the parents were also concerned about their children experiencing racism. Consequently, one of the children, Chad Goller-Sojourner, had to ensure people knew he was with a white mother so that he would not be followed to a store, for instance, or even touch anything in the store (NPR Staff, 2014).

The concerns of adopted children are most expressive when they are grown. They are mostly afraid of being seen differently by society. According to Chad’s case, adoptive children are concerned about how they act in society without the protection of their white parents and how they can interact with older adults who look like them. Understanding that society does not accept them without their parents, adoptive children of transracial families find it hard to love themselves. Another concern is experiencing insults and other offenses because of their race. Overall, adoptive children of transracial families constantly depend on their parents for many things, including their personal identity, protection, and doing things. Unfortunately, these adoptive children realize their racist experiences only when they are older.

Double Consciousness

The 1903 sociologist Du Bois described double consciousness as a sense of looking at yourself via other people’s eyes or measuring your soul using the tape of the world that looks at you with pity and contempt (Rosenblum & Travis, 2016). Therefore, it is seeing oneself through the eyes of a critical other who is harsh in their judgment. Having an independent identity is almost impossible without the dependence on the adoptive parents when it comes to adopted children. For instance, Chad was more concerned about how other people viewed him, explaining why he always ensured people knew he was with his white mother when shopping or whenever necessary in the social environment. He also carried his family’s picture and tucked it in his license for many years while sometimes telling people he was not the black man they thought he was (NPR Staff, 2014). Chad viewed himself from people’s perspective that he could not be himself without associating with the white parents. Double consciousness comes in when Chad, like other adopted children in a transracial family, views himself as a black person, but in a social environment, he views himself from the population’s critical perspective.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Covering and Passing

Ethnicity and race passing and covering may happen unconsciously and consciously. In the cases of the unconscious, people may assume a particular race due to their appearance. Rosenblum & Travis (2016) write that Middle Easterners mostly have lighter hair, skin, and eyes and can easily become French, Italians, Mexicans, Indians, Romanians, Puerto Ricans, or Argentines. Someone may also assume the entire population is heterosexual, ruling out anyone who may want to come out and tell that they are homosexual.

Racial and ethnicity passing and covering may have benefits and drawbacks. An advantage is that it helps individuals access privileges in the other race-dominated environment that they would not have received if they had not passed as other people. For example, it may help a person pass as a different culture, increasing the chance of being adopted. Essentially, some black people could secure well-paying jobs and support their families. Additionally, passing helps individuals face limited discrimination, and face increased social acceptance like Chad did when he was with his white parent at stores, in the streets, and when he showed his driving license (NPR Staff, 2014).

Furthermore, Rosenblum & Travis (2016) find that passing allows the stigmatized person to influence a specific situation, allowing them to control information, the flow of events, and privacy. The person withholds their true identity until they choose to reveal it thereby creating a situation where other people’s prejudices are challenged, leading to transformation and addressing the conflict. Due to covering and passing, an individual’s exposure to physical and verbal abuse reduces, allowing them to develop otherwise forbidden relationships in society. This improves their self-esteem, creating peace and acceptance of self. Also, their employment security increases through minimized discrimination. Therefore, the adoptee feels secure schooling in a white-dominated school, shops freely, and does activities without the fear of judgment or stigmatization.

Disadvantages of covering and passing include loss of self-identity. Individuals may distance themselves from their originality and culture. For instance, many black families did not want to adopt Chad because they considered him too black (NPR Staff, 2014). It may also increase segregation. For instance, presuming that everybody is heterosexual can result in putting homosexuals in the closet even if they did not intend to be in the closet (Rosenblum & Travis, 2016). The similar race may further see it as betrayal because the individual abandons their own culture and ethnicity.

Causing and Resolving Identity Conflicts Using Covering and Passing

In conclusion, passing takes a lot of emotion, energy, and time and introduces secrecy and deception in close relationships. This eventually leads to a lack of trust and conflicts between relationships. Moreover, covering and passing denies other people the chance to prove themselves unprejudiced, making one susceptible to blackmail (Rosenblum & Travis, 2016). Additionally, people experiencing covering and passing get to a point where they feel tired of living double lives. They, therefore, try to find solutions for accepting themselves and fighting discrimination in society. They find themselves engaging in positive measures to accept and love themselves, thus reducing internal conflicts they experienced due to double consciousness. When an adoptee of a transracial family passes or covers, they feel safe going to the malls, stores, schools, or playfields without feeling the need to prove that they are with their adoptive parents. This reduces the harshness of society towards them and allows them to feel safe in their own space and live independently.

References

NPR Staff. (2014). Growing up “white,” transracial adoptees learned to be black [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from HTTP:www.npr.org/2014/01/26/266434175/growing-up-white-transracial-adoptee-learned-to-be-black

Rosenblum, K. E., & Travis T. C. (2016). The meaning of difference: American constructions of race and ethnicity, sex and gender, social class, sexuality, and disability (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

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Assignment: Double Consciousness and Avoiding Stigma
Double consciousness, covering, and passing are ways people respond to stigma. Double consciousness refers to when you view yourself through the eyes of a critical observer. For example, Arthur Ashe, a professional tennis player in the 1960s and 1970s, experienced double consciousness when he saw his daughter playing with a white doll. He saw himself both as a father who wanted his daughter to enjoy herself and as a black father who was concerned about the perception the black community might have if they were to view his daughter’s behavior in public. He was aware or conscious of two selves: his inner self, which was not critiqued by the outside world, and the self that represented the stigma of being black during this time in history. He was faced with an identity conflict. Should he allow his daughter’s behavior and identify with his inner self, or should he ask her to change her behavior and avoid the discomfort of his potentially stigmatized self? Our text explains that people can avoid stigma by covering or passing. Families who are involved in transracial adoptions often feel the effects of double consciousness and are confronted with a dilemma similar to the one faced by Arthur Ashe.

Navigating Double Consciousness and Stigma in Transracial Adoption- The Role of Covering and Passing

To prepare for this Assignment:

Review the “Framework Essay” in Section II and Readings 22 and 23 in the course text. Pay particular attention to covering, double consciousness, and stigma.
Review the Growing Up “White,” Transracial Adoptee Learned to Be Black podcast. Gather your thoughts regarding the pros and cons of transracial adoption.
Reflect on how families involved in transracial adoptions relate to the concept of double consciousness.
Contemplate the advantages and disadvantages of covering and passing as a means of handling stigma related to race or identity.
Consider how race and ethnicity covering and passing can be used to both cause and resolve individual identity conflicts.
The Assignment (3–4 pages):

Describe the concerns held by both adoptive parents and adopted children in transracial families.
What other concerns would you add that were not discussed and why?
Explain how the concerns you discussed in the first two questions relate to the concept of double consciousness.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of race and ethnicity covering and passing.
Address how covering and passing can be used to both cause and resolve identity conflicts for both transracial adoptees and in general.
Support your Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation.