This New York Times article features several fellow adoptee friends! It's great to hear their voices.
Adopted from Korea and in Search of Identity
…Growing up in Georgia, Kansas and Hawaii, in a military family, she
would date only white teenagers, even when Asian boys were around.
“At no time did I consider myself anything other than white,” said Ms.
Young, 48, who lives in San Antonio. “I had no sense of any identity as
a Korean woman. Dating an Asian man would have forced me to accept who
I was.”
explore her Korean heritage.
…The experiences of Ms. Young are common among adopted children from
Korea, according to one of the largest studies of transracial
adoptions, which is to be released on Monday. The report, which focuses
on the first generation of children adopted from South Korea, found
that 78 percent of those who responded had considered themselves to be
white or had wanted to be white when they were children. Sixty percent
indicated their racial identity had become important by the time they
were in middle school, and, as adults, nearly 61 percent said they had
traveled to Korea both to learn more about the culture and to find
their birth parents.
Like Ms. Young, most Korean adoptees were
raised in predominantly white neighborhoods and saw few, if any, people
who looked like them. The report also found that the children were
teased and experienced racial discrimination, often from teachers. And
only a minority of the respondents said they felt welcomed by members
of their own ethnic group.
You can read the whole article here.
