Those who don’t know their history….

Are doomed to repeat it.

I really believe this whole heartedly. That is my problem with this society in general. History is told by the people who won the wars. They keep us from knowing our history, so that generation after generation, we continue to be slaves of this system, in one way or another.

Of course, the history of adoption in this country is very important to me. My experiences will one day be history, so I tell my story. Others experiences in the present time will one day be history. It is in the present that we can do what we can to learn the systemic abuse, and recognize the patterns of the people making all the rules that keep us from getting the freedoms we demand. Perhaps one day, we will succeed.

I have long stated that closed records only protect the agencies and lawyers as well as other politicians. It doesn’t protect the persons who are adopted, the family who has lost their loved one, or even the adoptive parent. The present, and recent past has demonstrated that. Even when all parties request the adoption to be opened, whether for a birth certificate or any other information, it is completely up to the courts to do so, and many still are denied.

I will go into more detail, when I have time… but I have finished reading the book, “Georgia Tann, the Baby Thief Who Corrupted Adoption”. It really speaks volumes to me about how an individual can wield so much power over those who are vulnerable. It kinda really emphasizes to me, that laws were put into place to protect those in power. When laws are there to defend the poor and the vulnerable, they are often times ignored.

Here are some clips of Georgia Tann:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Tann
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/sep/25/the-baby-thief/
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6083
http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Thief-Georgia-Corrupted-Adoption/dp/1402758634/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215182275&sr=8-1

 

Oppression and Racism in Adoption

Ok, I have to start typing this article. It’s important that I finally let go what is raging inside of me. Why is there anger? Why is there such a deep sadness? Why are us moms so angry at the Whole System?

Because it is bigger than just one of our experiences. Over and over I hear the stories of young women being drugged up, and their babies being kidnapped under the guise of adoption. Over and over, I hear stories of these young women being told about having an open adoption, and it being closed. Over and over again, I hear about how they have taken advantage of us, and how we weren’t given any other option.

Adoption is classist because:
There is a hierarchy of pricing depending on the most marketable baby (white) to the least marketable baby (child with special needs).
Rich women do not let their babies be adopted.
Poor people can’t afford to adopt.
It is nearly IMPOSSIBLE for women who lose their children to adoption to get legal support.
Most lawyers defend adoptive parents, because they have the money to pay them.
Because, like slaves, adoptees are bought, and therefore owned (sometimes seen in this way by the courts, sometimes by the adoptive parents… if they saw these children as dignified, equal persons with rights, then they would not be abused in the first place)

Adoption is racist because:
There is a hierarchy of pricing depending on race, white being most expensive, etc.
Adopters will attempt to get ‘more whiter’ children by adopting from other countries such as Russia, China, Korea, etc, as opposed to adopting African American children in the US
Women from other countries can’t get legal support, because it leads to international law, language barriers, culture barriers, etc
It reinforces slavery, in the sense that adoptees can’t know their natural families, have difficulty getting original birth certificates, and are forced to be ‘eternal children’ in these ways
Parents in other countries (China, Russia, Korea, etc) aren’t adopting children from the US.
No thought is needed to be given by white parents, that they have to think about the racism their children will endure by being a different race than white
Parents who adopt from another country may feel that giving their child American versions of (said country)’s food, culture, etc, will be enough to make them feel at home.
Some families are killed in their countries, and the product is orphanages, and children without families who are taken in under the guise of adoption, but are really prisoners of war.
There is rape in other countries, by our military, and the product is these children who have two races, and the ones who win the war get to bring home the prize, these children.

And then I hear about home studies, and how they mean nothing. How, so many adoptees were abused, emotionally, physically, sexually, by their adopters and others. I read about how much we knew in the 1950’s about separating children from their mothers, and how traumatic it was for both of them. I hear about adoptees feeling like they didn’t belong, that they always felt they had to please thier adopters. How they don’t feel secure. How they are always looking for people who look like them. I read about how adoptees commit suicide. I read about how so many adoptees end up dead, or permanantly physically disabled because of physical abuse caused by their adopters.

I read about how so many people were talking about the connection of the mother-baby and that they were like one person, but how no one says this to mothers who are about to lose thier babies. I hear about how mother’s milk is specifically made by the mother’s body to give just the right nutrients to her baby. I hear that women are specifically geared to become mothers, once they are pregnant, and that all mothers are afraid at first. I hear about how moms tried in some manner, to reclaim thier motherhood, to get their baby back, but had no support to do so. I hear about how so many mothers kill themselves, because they can’t handle the separation. I hear about some women dying after they lose their children to adoption.

Because it is not one incident. Because it’s systemic. It is oppression. It is greed, it is selfishness, it is a sickness. If we weren’t angry about all of this, THEN there’d be something wrong with us.

 

adoption, blank slates, and history

I saw a movie, “Race: The illusion of Power” and saw that historically, white (whatever that means, as the definition has changed over time) have been killing people of color / turning them into slaves, either in name, or by forcing them into a certain jobs / neighborhoods where they would be forced to live and work, etc, and basically showing how racism exists Systemically. (Most of which I knew in theory, but now had examples of how this actually worked.)

My friend, who is Latina, says that she felt pressured to have an abortion, which goes along with the history of people of color, and having them be killed, and what better way than to have them kill themselves.

Historically, it was white people from England, who gave up their culture / identity because they were poor peasants and felt oppressed, and so, after killing lots of indigenous people in the US, they wanted all others to give up their culture / identity in order to fit in to the “new world”. Maybe because they cut ties to their identity, they felt insecure, and powerless over there own lives, and so, in order to feel powerful, had to force others to do the same.

Ok, so, history of people who came to America, and in order to be ‘white’ had to give up who they were, their ethnicity, their history, their traditions, their identity and adapt to being ‘american’. (My family is one example of this ’success’).

What happened in the fifties (or so) is that people of color (Irish, some African Americans, and others) applied to be US citizens. This created a whole new system of slavery, by outcasting Japanese (and others) people, and the white men in power took away their homes, their businesses, and they were left without rights.

So, in the department of ‘whiteness’ and lack of identity, the saga continues, that those of us who have no support (maybe because we didn’t quite merge into the stereotypical ‘americana’ definition, (married in order to be pregnant, have some money, some status, etc, etc) were targeted, to give up our children, so that they could be the next blank slates for conformed ‘americans’ who’ve made the cut, so to speak, and completely erase our heritage, history, and identity and become consumers of the American Dream.