Adopting an infant is a dream for many couples and bringing home a baby of both Black and White heritage can truly enrich the experience of the adoptive family. From an early age, Caucasian adoptive parents can embrace their child’s blended heritage by providing resources and experiences that celebrate the background of the child’s Black birth family.
By actively exploring the baby’s cultural background, adoptive parents will be more in tune to their young child’s awareness of race and will also instill a family sense of pride around the child’s heritage. Through everyday family activities such as reading and playing, biracial children gain a sense of their cultural identity and parents can enhance this awareness by integrating Black culture into the home.
Music and Art
Families should fill their homes with music and crafts from all over the world and especially from African and Caribbean countries. Putumayo Kids.com has a number of upbeat children’s CDs that represent different cultures and cover a variety of genres. If possible, parents should take the child to see live shows by Black performers and encourage early interest in instruments and dance from the birth culture. It is also important to hang artwork reflecting Black culture all over the home, and not just in the baby’s room.
Books and Toys
Biracial kids in White adoptive families also need to have a number of children’s books in their homes that represent people of Black heritage. Here are some suggestions for children’s picture books:
- Shades of Black by Sandra Pinkney [Scholastic, 2000]
- Puppy, Puppy, Please, Puppy by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee [Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2005]
- Nana’s Cold Days by Adwoa Badoe [Groundwood, 2002]
- I Love My Hair by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley [Little, Brown, 1998]
Both boys and girls of blended origin should also have Black dolls, and puzzles, games and toys that reflect many cultures.
Special Celebrations
It is also important to make decisions about recognizing Black History Month and Kwanzaa as a family, even while the child is an infant. Special celebrations should be a natural integration into the family’s life and include extended family so there is a wider sense of connection to the child’s Black heritage.
Social Network
Beginning in infancy, biracial children need to see positive role models of their heritage and it is important for parents to connect with Black adults. Take the child to medical professionals of different races and plan to the send the child to ethnically diverse schools and activities. Attend cultural festivals and explore the Black community by enjoying plays, concerts and religious functions. Having contact with the baby’s birth family will also let the child have a connection to her cultural roots in addition to all the other benefits of an open adoption.
Raising a biracial baby is a life long experience in celebrating cultural diversity and will add to the wonderful privilege of being an adoptive family. By celebrating the baby’s Black heritage early, White adoptive families set the stage for raising a biracial child who feels positively about her blended heritage and has a real sense of who she is.
Angela Krueger - As an adoptive parent and PRIDE adoption trainer, Angela uses her insights to help others on their adoption journey.
