When tall, blonde Cheryl Dugan walks into a predominately black barbershop on Chicago Avenue, heads turn. Then patrons notice her black son trailing behind. "We've gone through many different fashions of hair. I've never [before] had a child with curly hair," said Dugan, mother of five adopted children, including three Koreans and one from India.
Whites who adopt black children can be successful cross-cultural parents, adoption experts said. But they must educate themselves about the child's culture and include it in their upbringing,
Eight percent of all adoptions in the United States involve parents and children of different races; 1 percent involve white parents who adopt black children, according to the Web site Adoption.com.
Parents who learn about African-American culture make the transition easier for themselves and their children. According to experts, this includes learning to style hair and familiarizing themselves with music, fashions and values of the other culture.
| There's more to Julia Sewell's Minneapolis Star-Tribune article "Mixed-race adoptions can succeed"
| Also: "The propensity of strangers to comment on adoption, child raising and global politics"
posted in articles on July 5, 2004 6:11 PM | t (0)
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Interesting how the periodical "outcry" from opponents of whites who adopt black children give the impression that the percentage is much higher than 1%.
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