DUDE wtf white Freakonomics guy on adoption from China vs. adopting black kids in U.S.

[badgerbag]

Well I didn't have to look very far for some Grade A weirdness from Leavitt the Freakonomics guy.

http://www.racialicious.com/2008/03/12/freaking-out-over-freakonomics/

We did give some serious thought to adopting either a black child domestically, or adopting from Africa. It turns out that African adoption is extremely complicated, as Madonna discovered the hard way. Ultimately, my own view was that the identity issues faced by a black child raised by white parents would be too difficult. Some of my academic research with Roland Fryer has made clear to me the stark choices that black teens, especially boys, have to make about “who they are.” As a parent, I was not willing to take the chance on loving and raising an adopted child, only to know that when he became a teenager he would have to face the choice of being “black” or “white,” and that either choice would be very costly for him (and also for me). That same sort of racial “all or nothing” choice is not at play for Asian youths in our society.

Where to start?

I mean, I don't want to throw my laptop across the room. It works with books! Not with computers! An asthma attack or a stroke or a fucking coronary would be unproductive.

I post and contemplate.

Comments

[mizchalmers.livejournal.com]

Whatthefuckonomics?

[myli-ny-sy.livejournal.com]

OK, this excerpt posted, I have a song for that one (see below). Blows me away that this excerpt is the "sensible liberal" approach.

Love Me, I'm a Liberal (http://myli-ny-sy.livejournal.com/27953.html)

[nojojojo.livejournal.com]

I can't decide which is more rage-inducing -- that he's utterly erased the racial pressures on Asians, or that he's dismissed the ability of interracial children to make their own decisions about their identity (especially if they're part black). Holy fucking crap. I actually liked this guy at one point.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

As you say, where to start?

I'll go with this, because it's not so much the obvious point, and also it's one that, being a parent, I think I have some right to comment on.

No one who expects their potential child to identify with them to this extent should even consider adoption, much less trans-racial/ethnic adoption. Personally, I'd go so far as to say they shouldn't even be a parent. A child--including one born to you--is not a "mini-me."

(I tried writing more, and found myself gibbering.)

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

Oh god - I hated Freakonomics and I see the authors continue to be assfaces.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

No. *Effin.* Comment.

[artcarheather.livejournal.com]

Bizzare. Although not the most bizzare thing I've heard said about adoption to date. People come out with the darndest things. I really think it is foolish to think that you can accomplish anything politically when you adopt. You have to focus on finding the child that is the right fit for your family period.

My kiddo was my first cousin before I adopted her. She went through some rather horrific abuse for many years after my aunt died. I will always mourn that we didn't get her sooner. However I have actually had people tell me that it was 'good timing' when I got her because I didn't own a home until a year before she moved in. As if folks don't raise children in apartments. Anyway, people are stupid.