Multiracial Child Resources

Adoptive Families Articles

• Raising a Child of Another Race

  Deliberate parenting can make a difference.

• On Becoming African American

  Raised in a white community, I've just begun to embrace my heritage.

• Roundup of 2003 Culture Days, Heritage Camps and Tours
• Transracial Adoption: A History in Black & White

  What have we learned over the last 30 years—and what are we doing now to offer our children a better understanding of who they are?

• Raising a Bilingual Child

  Here’s a practical guide to help your child connect to his language heritage.

• How Do We Define Belonging?

  Ethnic identity includes ancestry, but it is shaped by experience. by Lois Melina

• A Family Commitment

  Keeping the promise of cultural pride.

• The Colors of the Season

  How One Transracial Family Reinvented Their Holiday Celebration

Books

• Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk About Race and Identity
  Lise Funderburg

  In a sensitive exploration of the pressures and prejudices confronting biracial individuals, Funderburg, a New York-based freelance journalist, presents in-depth interviews with 46 American adults who have one black and one white parent. Her respondents report feeling tremendous pressure to choose one racial identity over the other as they were growing up, yet many finally embraced both racial heritages.

• Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural
  Claudine C. O’Hearn.

  Pantheon; 1998. ISBN: 0375700110 New Yorker O'Hearn, who was born in Hong Kong of an Irish-American father and a Chinese mother, first tells her own story- she found she could pass as Hawaiian, Italian or even Russian- then goes on to collect first-person accounts of 17 others with biracial or bicultural backgrounds who grew up in the U.S. or emigrated here. A valuable book for bi- and multiracial families that parents and teens will enjoy.

• Check All That Apply: Finding Wholeness as a Multiracial Person
  Sundee Tucker Frazier.

  In her book, Sundee Frazier, a self-described "AmericanAfricanScottishDutch-DanishSwedeIndigenousPerson," tackles the ambiguities of being a multiracial woman of faith. In it she cogently describes the particular tension of multiracial identity, the sense of never quite belonging anywhere; she also insists that one's core identity comes only from God. Through her broad interviews and examples from her own life, she gives voice to the under represented of the under represented. And her reflections on the spiritual lives of multiracial people are profound. Readable, enjoyable, provocative.

• What Are You?: Voices of Mixed-Race Young People
  Pearl Fuyo Gaskins

  In this sensitive, thoughtful collection of interviews, essays, and poetry, over 40 young adults ranging in age from 14 to 26 relate their experiences growing up in the United States. Arranged thematically with occasional author notes offering clarification and transition, the primarily upbeat testimonies address issues of discrimination, dating, family dynamics, and self-esteem. A helpful resource section includes annotated lists of affinity and advocacy groups and Web sites, as well as relevant fiction and nonfiction books, magazines, and movies and videos.

• I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World
  Marguerite Wright

  This guide for parents and teachers of black children offers clear, compelling, well-grounded advice on self-esteem, shatters common myths about race, and reveals practical ways adults can instill children with positive racial identities. Parents and educators alike have long struggled to understand what meanings race might have for the very young, and for ways to insure that every child grows up with a healthy sense of self. Marguerite Wright handles sensitive issues with consummate clarity, practicality, and hope.

• Of Many Colors: Portraits of Multiracial Families
  Peggy Gillespie, photographs by Gigi Kaeser

  In this compendium, the catalog of an award-winning exhibition that has been traveling since 1993, photographer Gigi Kaeser and interviewer Peggy Gillespie profile 39 families with multiracial children. (Kaeser and Gillespie are co-directors of Family Diversity Projects, Inc, in Amherst, Massachusetts.) By using photographs and interviews with both parents and children, the authors show us the joys and frustrations inherent in being multiracial in a country that officially recognizes only five racial categories. This book will be useful to parents who want to show the variety of family life to their children.

• Does Anybody Else Look Like Me? A Parent’s Guide to Raising Multiracial Children
  Donna Jackson Nakazawa

  Donna Jackson Nakazawa’s new book offers advice from both parents of children with multiracial or transracial backgrounds, and from the children themselves. The rest of the world sees our families’ differences first, she says, and makes comments that range from the innocent to the asinine. We can’t change the world single-handedly, but we can arm our children with a strong sense of self and a selection of quips. Nakazawa is a biological mother of half-Japanese, half-Caucasian children, and doesn’t extensively address the situations that arise in adoptive families, when parents aren’t also multi-racial, and thus able to act as direct role models for their children. Her book is a good start, however, particularly the section on choosing where to live and send your children to school.

• Dim Sum, Bagels, And Grits: A Sourcebook For Multicultural Families
  Myra Alperson

  Myra Alperson provides a great starting point for families who are contemplating adopting across cultures or those looking for information to help raise a transracial family. Using a narrow definition of intercultural adoption-one that limits the field to nonwhite or non-U.S.-born children adopted by white parents- Alperson addresses a wide range of issues, mainly from the perspective of adoptive parents with young children. The most valuable section of the book is the list of resources, which includes not only organizations and publications but also websites and catalog providers of specialty foods, ethnic toys, and artifacts from around the world. This list alone is worth the price of the book.

• Multiracial Child Resource Book: Living Complex Identities
  Maria P. Root, Matt Kelley, editors.

  Root and Kelley, both notable figures in the public discourse on multiracial identity, have combined scholarly essays, U.S. census analyses, and first-person testimonials into 30 chapters that chart the history, politics, and social and psychological implications of multiracial America. The book is crammed with information targeted primarily toward educators and therapists, although parents will also find it useful. The back contains exhaustive lists of Web sites, films, and books on related topics.

• MAVIN magazine

  In high school, Matt Kelley realized the lack of resources available for people like him- a biracial, Korean American growing up in the Midwest. As a freshman at Wesleyan University, he founded MAVIN magazine. Today, MAVIN is an internationally distributed and critically acclaimed magazine celebrating multiracial and transracially adopted young people. As the only magazine of its kind, MAVIN fills an important void by presenting young multiracial people in a positive, affirming light. The magazine’s unique mix of personal, political, fashion and social justice articles embrace life in the borderlands of race. In the colorful pages of MAVIN, race is never a black or white issue.

Websites

• MAVIN
  http://www.mavin.net/

  In addition to offering information about ordering the magazine and resource book listed above, MAVIN’s Web site provides a wealth of information, resources, volunteer and support group opportunities, speaker information, and the MatchMaker Bone Marrow Project. It strives to fill the void for bi- and multiracial children and families that founder Matt Kelley experienced while growing up as a Korean-American adoptee in a midwestern community.

• Association of MultiEthnic Americans
  http://www.ameasite.org/

  AMEA’s mission is to educate and advocate on behalf of multiethnic individuals and families by collaborating with others to eradicate all forms of discrimination. The Web site contains more information about the organization, books and movie reviews and recommendations, and contact information for affiliate groups across the country.

• The Center for the Study of Biracial Children
  http://www.csbc.cncfamily.com/

  Dr. Francis Wardle, Executive Director of the CSBC, works to produce and disseminate materials for and about interracial families and biracial children. The Center provides advocacy, training and consulting. Its primary mission is to advocate for the rights of interracial families, biracial children, and multiracial people. The Web site contains many articles written by Wardle, as well as information on training and workshops offered by the center.

• Interracial / Intercultural Pride
  http://www.i-pride.org/

  I-Pride is a nonprofit organization interested in the well-being and development of children and adults who are of more than one racial or ethnic heritage. I-Pride's mission is education, and its activities reflect this goal, urging us to educate ourselves, our children, and our community about the facts of interculturalism and interracial identity. In particular, they strive to fight that peculiar form of racism aimed at interracialism, which is present in all ethnic communities. They sponsor events and provide news and resources.

• National Association for Multicultural Education
  http://www.nameorg.org/

  NAME acts as a clearinghouse for multicultural education resource materials and educational strategies, and facilitates initiatives supportive of culturally diverse faculty, administrators, students, and parents in schools at all levels, from pre-K through universities. The Web site provides information about finding or starting a NAME chapter in your state, resources, and publications.

• The Multiracial Activist
  http://www.multiracial.com/

  The Multiracial Activist is a libertarian oriented activist journal covering social and civil liberties issues of interest to individuals who perceive themselves to be "biracial" or "multiracial," "interracial" couples/families and "transracial" adoptees.

• Swirl, Inc.
  http://www.geocities.com/swirlinc/

  Swirl aims to unite the mixed community by providing support to mixed families, mixed individuals, transracial adoptees, and inter-racial, cultural couples. Swirl sponsors an average of three events per month in its eleven chapters across the U.S. and in Japan.