Real Brothers, Real Sisters: Learning From the White Siblings of Transracial Adopees

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a qualitative study of twelve non-adopted White siblings of transracial adoptees. It discusses various responses among White siblings to the adoption of children of color by their White biological parents. Drawing on sociolinguistic understandings of social practices and identities as enacted through constitutive discourses, the study paid particular attention to the ways study participants engaged with the discourses of race and adoption. Using the narrative analysis methodology developed by Wortham (2000), various kinds of selves were analyzed in transcripts of interviews about the participants' experiences with transracial adoption. Of particular educational value are those selves described as transracialized, through which a few of the non-adopted White siblings demonstrated unpredictable and innovative ways of “doing” White identities, based largely on ongoing caring relationships with people of color outside the family. Whether transracialized or not transracialized, all of the study participants revealed feelings of affection for and compassion towards their adopted siblings, who through the act of legal adoption arguably became their “real” brothers and sisters, despite frequently expressed ambivalence about transracial adoption as a social practice. This ambivalence among the non-adopted White siblings derived from the ongoing challenges faced by various members of transracial families, adopted and non-adopted alike, and from the lack of social supports needed by such families.