7 Common Transracial Parenting Mistakes

How much diversity do my kids need? Am I allowing my child to use racism as a crutch? Psychologist and adoptive parent Willie B. Garrett tackles these issues in the article "7 Common Transracial Parenting Mistakes". The article was originally published in Adoptive Parents Mgazine in 1999. It can currently be found in more than one location on the internet. It seems the points the author is making still hold true. Here's an excerpt:

current thinking suggests that to raise a child who can cope with prejudice and have a positive racial identity, parents must be of the same racial group. This is contrary to my own 20-year experience as a therapist and to reports I have received from other therapists. The vast majority of children we see who have identity and behavior problems are being raised by same-race parents and are living in their own cultural community. More than anything this suggests parenting is an art, not hard science...as an African-American psychologist who specializes in psychotherapy with adoptive families, I have observed that parents of transracially adopted children commonly have problems related to the following seven issues.

Please feel free to post comments about this article in our comment section. Here's the link to the full article:

http://www.informedadoptions.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=298&Itemid=31

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