| The clinical literature
has characterized the developmental issues of Biracial or
adopted trans-racial children to be associated with racial
confusion, low self-esteem, ambivalence toward family, parental
rejection, and psychological and behavioral difficulties associated
with marginality, conflicts with dual culture, confusion,
feeling like outcasts, and targets of parental anger.
The doctrine of hypodesent has risen out of societal concerns
about racial boundaries. Hypodesent was used to establish
racial heritage. Individuals whose lineage is both White and
non-White are to group within the non-White or Black group.
When a person’s lineage is mixed, one’s racial
group is derived by membership in the "lesser" group.
More recent clinical literature suggests that Bi-racial children
can develop healthy personalities (Biracial identities) if
and only if certain factors are present.
HEALTHY BIRACIAL IDENTITY MUST OVERCOME THE FOLLOWING BARRIERS:
A) The denigration of non-White people in our society, especially
groups from which the person is descended.
B) The lack of acceptance in the minds of Americans of a
"middle" mixed group with which one can belong to.
FOUR PRIMARY FACTORS NEEDED FOR HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT:
A) Geographic location -- having a community where the sense
of being different or unaccepted is minimized. This usually
means a community in which the child is accepted and is exposed
to a wide range of people and backgrounds.
1) Children of Black/White families experience greater acceptance
within the Black community than within White communities.
2) It is important to have other Blacks [or Biracial people]
to identity with, people who share the same racial background;
the child develops a sense of belonging and acceptance. For
the Black child who is in a White family, school, and community,
a useful system of social supports may not be present.
NOTE: MOST ADOPTED CHILDREN IN THIS STUDY WERE BIOLOGICALLY
BIRACIAL.
The socio-psychological context is important in the development
of racial self-feelings among trans-racially adopted children.
The children whose families resided in integrated areas, who
attended racially integrated schools, and who had parents
who acknowledged their children's race, tended to perceive
themselves as Black persons and felt positively about their
race. Those children who had little, if any, contact with
Blacks tended to develop stereotyped impressions of Blacks
and were likely to feel they were "better off" in
a White adoptive family than in a Black adoptive family.
Those children growing up in a racially different context
tended to experience an exaggerated feeling of "being
other" or different. In order to compensate or cope with
feeling difference, the children tended to react either by:
1) Denying or minimizing their feeling, dismissing the importance
of race, and emphasizing that humanness is a more significant
criterion on which to evaluate themselves.
2) Acting as much as possible like their White peers and
White family members and would tend to renounce any similarities
or allegiances to Blacks or non-whites. If asked to define
their race, they were likely to classify themselves using
terms that denied or de-emphasized their actual racial heritage.
B) The nature and quality of parental understanding and help
in dealing with racial issues - children must have help to
cope with the social idealization of White and the consistent
denigration of people of Color.
Concerned that the child learn to value both parts of self.
Overt encouragement of the Biracial child's view of self as
Black or mixed race fosters a positive identity. Ambiguous
identity such as colored or non-White leads to identity conflict.
Parents who teach children about reality of racism were most
successful in reducing anxiety and social identity conflicts.
C) A sense of support from school networks, grandparents,
relatives, friends, and the larger community. Parents must
help marshal these resources.
1) Children are given opportunities to develop relationships
with Black and White peers by attending an integrated rather
than an all-White school and by living in an integrated rather
than an all-White neighborhood.
2) An atmosphere of openness where racial issues can be discussed
such as, skin color, hair texture and the complexities of
cultural identification; and children can talk candidly about
their feelings and share their reactions to difficult an upsetting
experiences with adults.
D) Having both parts of their racial heritage accepted and
confirmed - need positive connections with people from both
groups.
The socialization of a Bi-racial or trans-racially adopted
child is similar to that of a child of Color. They must learn
to cope and not internalize possible negative reactions they
may encounter and they must learn how to live and value their
non-White community. Biracial identity development proceeds
from recognition through acceptance, to belonging. In a process
where transition occurs from a confused, denigrated sense
of self, to one in which a secure and valued Bi-racial identity
has been achieved. The primary task is to separate the evaluations
of others and to resolve the experience of dissonance and
the longing to belong. Bi-racial identity is affected by:
(A) self-definition which is determined by the social meaning
of his or her race for the child and the family -especially
the child's socialization process; (B) the developmental process
is affected further by the child's physical appearance, personality,
surname; (C) the social status of the groups to which she
belongs (including the extended family); and (D) the child's
acceptance of his or her heritage groups, parental attitudes
and management of the child's identity. The management of
the identity process is reflected in how parents treat and
communicate about the child's racial heritage, the community
chosen to live in and the schools and the institutions, as
well as the selection of appropriate role models from both
groups.
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