Harlow's Monkey

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Day: August 12, 2008

Identity

Windows and Mirrors

by JaeRan
Posted on August 12, 2008June 17, 2014

"Other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves." — Beverly Tatum, PhD., author…

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The contents of this blog represent my personal opinions and are not representative of the University of Washington.

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Book chapter deadline coming up soon so this is my weekend. #knowourhistory

Part of the "remedy" for all those dangerous immigrant children who were destined to be the future criminals and prostitutes according to Charles Loring Brace, creator of the orphan train movement (1850's-1929): send them to Protestant farm families where the children would work in the farms or as domestic help. This was the first wide scale foster/adoptive program in the US and it targeted poor immigrant children. An estimated 200,000 children were sent to these "foster/adoptive" homes during the years the orphan trains were in operation. No home studies were conducted. . The text in part reads: "To awaken the demand for these children, circulars were sent out through the city weeklies and the rural papers to the country districts. Hundreds of applications poured in at once from the farmers and mechanics all through the union. At first, we made the effort to meet individual applications by sending just the kind of child wanted; but this soon became impractical. Each applicant or employer always called for "a perfect child," one without any taints of earthly depravity. The girls must be pretty, good tempered, not given to purloining sweet meats, and fond of making fires at daylight, and with a constitutional love for Sunday Schools and Bible-lessons. The boys must be well made, of good stock, never disposed to steal apples or pelt cattle, using language of perfect propriety, and delighting in family-worship and prayer meetings more than fishing or skating..." #adoptionhistory

New post at Harlow's Monkey: Reflections In this post I reflect on my 14 years of blogging at Harlow's Monkey. Image description: A photograph from a park in Seoul. On the bottom right is part of a temple that is built over part of a lake. In the background are trees and mountains.

Do not write and illustrate books like this. And do not portray Asian adopted children with super slanty eyes. I can't believe I even have to say this.

I'm a fan of Star Trek and there are a lot of episodes throughout the different series that have parallels to adoption. I'm making my way through the Deep Space 9 series and just watched an episode where a Cardassian child is adopted by a Bajoran family. The Bajoran family has taught the child to hate his race. When asked how his Bajoran parents could hate Cardassians but love him, the boy replies that his parents hate -other- Cardassians, he is not like "them." This reminds me of all the transracial adoptees who are adopted by white parents who hold prejudicial and/or racist beliefs about people of color but see their child of color as an exception, as not like "them." For anyone interested, it's season 2: episode 5 Cardassians.

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