biracial child, interracial families & adoption

She is biracial (African-American and Danish) and saids this... If I see a white woman or a black man with a curly-headed light brown-skinned child in tow, I nod. I’m trying to let them know: You are not alone. I’m one of your daughter’s or son’s people—and guess what, we grow up and we’re pretty okay.

For me, it’s important to let interracial families know: I see you. I see exactly how--despite your difference--you make a family.

Imposed invisibility is the primary difficulty of the mixed-race family. I remember when I was growing up, it wasn’t uncommon for people to compliment my mother on the beautiful brown babies. And then finish with: “whose are they?” When we became a little older, there were the awkward silences when my mother would appear at school functions. “Oh, this is your mother?” people would say in wide-eyed surprise when they looked at my blonde-haired, blue-eyed mother next to me.

My mother, a single white woman, who raised me and my two brothers, would take the questions and comments in stride. And I think because it didn’t seem to bother her, it didn’t bother us as much. We still knew what our family was.

That is the point...all the debates and arguments fail to take into consideration all those children who grow up knowing simply - that's mom and dad and THIS is family. Too busy living their lives happily to debate over the existence of interracial families.