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18 Transracial Adoption: Mothers, Hierarchy, Race, and Feminist Legal Theory 176 Twila L. Perry


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  1. Adoption, including transracial adoption, has existed as both a practice and an institution for thousands of years. In her book, feminist scholar Twila L. Perry explores transracial adoption from a feminist perspective. Perry begins her chapter by introducing the controversies faced by transracial adoption, including the fact that transracially adopted children are often being transferred from a severely disadvantaged woman to a woman of much more advantage and privilege. Perry also highlights the disparity between how white women view transracial adoption and how women of color view transracial adoption. After she describes the several controversies that surround transracial adoption, Perry makes the argument that “a feminist analyzing adoption must take into account the political and economic circumstances in which parenting takes place and the difficulties that often lead to the surrender of children” (Perry, 177). Perry goes further to require that a feminist analysis of transracial adoption must consider the impacts of race and racism, sexism and the patriarchy, and capitalism and poverty; she also posits that the elimination of racism, poverty, and the patriarchy would drastically reduce the availability of adoptable children. While Perry is not opposed to transracial adoption and acknowledges the need for children to have capable mothers, she states that the ultimate goal of a feminist approach to transracial adoption would be working toward adoption being a choice that is not dictated by oppressive circumstances, but rather by personal choice.

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