As a Scarborough mom of a son, 23, from Korea, a daughter, 18, from Taiwan and a daughter, 14, from Vietnam, I feel compelled to write in response to the beautiful picture of the Gardner/Noiles family with the indefensible headline: “The Scarborough Municipal
Zoo” (Aug. 9)
Laurence Gardner’s playful response to the question, “If there was a movie about your life, what would it be called?” does not justify the positioning of this headline.
Ironically, I opened to this page of The Current as our family hosted six bright, thoughtful transracial teen adoptees who meet purposefully to educate others about the difficulties of being raised in a very white culture, where insensitivity abounds.
My 14-year-old ripped up your newspaper in disbelief that you would use a provocative headline to grab your viewers’ attention, at the expense of the children pictured. My son, older, wiser and more experienced at educating others about life as a transracial adoptee was, surprisingly, not shocked, because insensitivity is so common. He was just saddened that your newspaper would liken children from other countries to animals in a zoo.
As an adoptive parent, I hope to alleviate the burden that my children too often shoulder in a community where people of color are sparse and often tokenized for their uniqueness. Many transracial adoptees do not easily reveal the difficulties of dealing with the insensitivity of others or their feelings of isolation, sadness, and loss. However, the more my children share with me and the more reading I do (“Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption,” by Jane Jeong Trenka; “Beyond Good Intentions,” by Cheri Register), the more I have come to understand that our insensitivity, our tasteless humor, our ignorance – all rob these children of their right to feel a sense of inclusion.
If you would like to have some understanding of what it is like to be a transracial adoptee living in a predominately white community, I suggest you go to my son’s blog; www.kadnexus.wordpress.com, scroll down to “Top Posts” on the right-hand side and click onto: My Sister’s Adoption Essay, written by our 14-year-old. It may open your eyes and perhaps remind you to choose your headlines with more care.
Becki Kupel
Scarborough
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