"This book is the story of every person who has lived in an environment in which he or she didn't quite fit.... Yet, while the stories in the book are universal, the are also deeply personal and incredibly touching. You cannot read this book without being changed." -- Lifelines
"Extremely informative and emotionally compelling." -- Social Work in Health Care
Review
"This much needed study brings hard facts and personal experiences to bear on an important subject too often dominated by dogmas and arrogance. It is a breath of fresh air in the fetid atmosphere of racial politics." -- Thomas Sowell, Stanford University
Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School
No one has contributed more useful empirical research on interracial adoption than Professor Rita Simon and her associates. In Their Own Voices is an important supplement to that scholarly tradition that will further illuminate one of the most interesting corners of race relations in American life. The stories told in this collection are fascinating, poignant, enlightening, inspiring. They deserve a broad audience.
Thomas Sowell, Stanford University
This much needed study brings hard facts and personal experiences to bear on an important subject too often dominated by dogmas and arrogance. It is a breath of fresh air in the fetid atmosphere of racial politics.
Product Description
Nearly forty years after researchers first sought to determine the effects, if any, on children adopted by families whose racial or ethnic background differed from their own, the debate over transracial adoption continues. In this collection of interviews conducted with black and biracial young adults who were adopted by white parents, the authors present the personal stories of two dozen individuals who hail from a wide range of religious, economic, political, and professional backgrounds. How does the experience affect their racial and social identities, their choice of friends and marital partners, and their lifestyles? In addition to interviews, the book includes overviews of both the history and current legal status of transracial adoption.
About the Author
Rita J. Simon is University Professor in the School of Public Affairs and the Washington College of Law at American University.
Rhonda Roorda was adopted into a white family in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. She is coordinator of financial and support services at a nonprofit educational advocacy organization in Lansing, Michigan.
