Originally posted on Daniel Drennan ElAwar:
The Evolution of Adoption Practice: Activist and Community Perspectives Friday, March 25 and Saturday, March 26, 2022 Registration is now open. Keynote speakers and panelists: https://adoptioninitiative.dryfta.com/78-keynote-speakers Scheduled presentations and panels: https://adoptioninitiative.dryfta.com/program-schedule Purchase Tickets? To register for this conference, please fill out the Adoption Initiative Attendee Registration Form on this website.?…
Author Archives: Daniel Drennan ElAwar
An adoptive parent of a brown boy who she describes as having “a perpetual tan” states that her worry for him growing up is that “statistically” brown and black men are more likely to commit violent acts and thus end up in prison: Not the school-to-prison pipeline, not systemic racism, but that the pre-condemned child […]
I recently received an email from an old mailing list that I guess I’m still on because I presented at their conference a while back. It was promoting an online discussion of a train wreck of a book written by E. Kay Trimberger, entitled Creole Son [sic]. Everything about the event outlined in the email […]
We are, I believe, currently witnessing the adoption equivalent of the resurgent and unapologetic racism and classism found elsewhere in society as white supremacy and fascism “unstructure” themselves and present fully within dominant discourses. By this I mean to say that there are adopters who present themselves as “perfected caregivers”, despite issues of race or class. There are adopters who no longer hide their loathing of the children temporarily in their care. They no longer feign guarding their privacy, or pretend that they are acting beneficently or charitably. They no longer are attempting to uphold their expected performance.
ASAC presents Voices of Adoption, an evening of literary readings, featuring Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Susan Harness, Julayne Lee, and Lee Herrick (and many other talented writers). Free and open to the public! The literary event will take place on Friday, October 19, at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center (388 9th St., Oakland), starting at 8:00 […]
JS Lee (@jessicasunlee) on Twitter asks: Adoptees: How many names have you legally had? I’ve had at least four. Unsure if I had another name before I reached the orphanage.
NOTE: This was originally a post at my blog; over the years I’ve gotten progressively more heartsick at the unending constant of adoptees in their nation-states of adoption trying to make sense of their trauma via the tools of the dominant culture in their country—the cultures that adopted us. We’ve been advocating our case for […]
I went for a checkup for the first time in a very long time, now that I have this thing called “health insurance” because I’m living and working in Canada. Honestly I was extremely worried; I hadn’t had a proper checkup in ages. There came the moment we all know and dread when my doctor […]
Over on Twitter, Lilly Schmaltz 飞岗 (@lillyschmaltz) just tweeted out: Small accomplishment. Just had my first Mandarin text message conversation with a native speaker—only needed my dictionary a few times! Feelin’ good 😆 And it made me smile, myself having learned the language “I would have spoken if….”—I know how difficult a road it is, […]
I live in Canada now, and the recent news has been talking about the country’s senate’s hearings and report on the Baby Scoop targeted destruction of Indigenous communities here via adoption: [link] and [link]. Much talk about “healing”, and “moving forward”, etc. Australia did something similar 10 years ago [link]. I’ll hold off on adding […]
What do you make of current efforts to slam the current “administration” in the US for having separated immigrant children from their parents? The disgust and horror in the media is, to me, rather hypocritical. I say that as someone who grew up looking at missing children’s faces on the back of milk cartons, who […]
I’ll keep this short. At this time last year I found out my story and visited my mother’s crypt where I keened for the one I cannot remember. At the same time, my cousin’s father contacted my eldest half-brother, hoping to establish a connection. My half-brother rejected this, we imagine due to worries about someone […]
One of my former students had a lengthy review of the movie Lion in her Twitter feed, and I was really taken with her analysis of the movie. I thought I’d open up a discussion on the film here. Did you see it? Will you see it? What did you think of it?
Colin Kaepernick was a mixed-race newborn when he was adopted transracially in Wisconsin close to three decades ago. He has been candid concerning his experiences growing up different, as a perceived-as black young man. Recently he was in the news for refusing to stand up for the national anthem during a football game [link]. There’s […]
It’s been two months since I’ve returned Stateside, and once again I am acutely aware of my sense of belonging in this country. In the corners of New Jersey that I grew up in, I am luckily not made aware of my “painted bird” [link] status. But trips to Eastern Pennsylvania (where my brothers live) […]
Transracialeyes 