Beyond Color-Blind and Color-Conscious: Approaches to Racial Socialization Among Parents of Transracially Adopted Children

Objective To examine how parents of transracially adopted children think about and practice ethnic-racial socialization. Background Previous research has highlighted how some parents are color-blind and others are color-conscious, yet these 2 categorizations fail to cover the range and fluidity of adoptive parents' approaches to ethnic socialization. Method Semistructured interviews were conducted with 34 parents of children with Asian, Latino, and Black ancestry. Parents were recruited through adoption agencies and support groups, personal contacts, and snowball sampling and were asked about attempts and concerns in ethnically and racially socializing their children. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded for common themes using the grounded theory method. Results Some parents downplayed race/ethnicity, but our findings elucidate their range of motivations from "protecting" their children from a racialized society to prioritizing other goals. More parents attempted to ethnically socialize but did so in varied ways, such as buying consumer items or forging relationships with people of their children's ethnic group. Compared with "color-conscious" parents of Asian and Latino children, "color-conscious" parents of Black children were more likely to emphasize preparation for bias. Conclusion Adoptive parents can vacillate between minimizing the impact of race to talking about steps taken to ethnically socialize children. Some parents note a profound change in their perspective at some point after adopting their children. Implications Delving into more than 2 approaches to ethnic socialization and identifying changes over time affords a deeper understanding of parents' perspectives and behaviors and helps researchers interpret the mixed results found in past studies.