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MISSING: COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION
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TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION IN MICHIGAN

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MISSING: COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION AND CRITICAL DISCUSSION
ON THE TOPIC OF TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION IN MICHIGAN

By

Elisha Marr

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of Sociology

2007

ABSTRACT

MISSING: COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION AND CRITICAL DISCUSSION
ON THE TOPIC OF TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION IN MICHIGAN

By

Elisha Marr

A highly controversial topic in the 19703, the transracial adoption of
children of one race (usually children of color) by parents of a different race
(usually White Americans) was a matter of great importance to public and private
adoption agencies, organizations representing various racial groups, and the
general public. Interestingly, the increase in transracial placements was
accompanied by a decrease in the collection of statistics and trends on the topic,
as well as its centrality to public discourse.

This dissertation explores the information available to Michigan residents
on the topic of transracial adoption since 1985. A statistical analysis resulted in
minimal, fragmented information on transracial adoption trends. A media
analysis identified an increase in newspaper articles focusing on the micro-level
experiences of adoptees and their adoptive parents and a simultaneous
decrease in critical discussion of the broader implications transracial adoption
has on various racial groups and adoption stakeholders. Noting that the absence
of a topic from public discourse does not mean that the difﬁculties have been
addressed, the lack of information on transracial adoption may serve only to
perpetuate structural inequality inherent in a phenomenon in which children

borne to people highly represented in disadvantaged groups are adopted by

middle and upper-class White Americans. Concluding with a call-to-action, this
discovery of the lack of information available on transracial adoption requires that
organizations which have information on transracial adoption trends and
organizations that educate the public about important phenomena, be held
accountable for compiling and publishing more comprehensive information on the

topic of transracial adoption.

DEDICATION

In honor of my children. Although my family and responsibilities grew
tremendously during this project, your presence encouraged me to make
accomplishments on behalf of those who are unable to choose homes for

themselves: the children of the world.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I could not have completed this dissertation without support of my husband,
Michael Marr, who became a full-time homemaker and parent during the busiest
time in my life, so that I could focus on my research. Tammy Spangler also went
above and beyond her responsibilities as a department secretary to ensure my
success as a non-traditional, commuting student. I also want thank my
committee members, Toby Ten Eyck, Alesia Montgomery, and Harriet McAdoo
guided me with ﬁrm, but understanding hand-holding through the research
process. Last, but not least, I express the deepest appreciation for Clifford
Broman, who not only recruited me into the program, but helped me to mature
from a ﬂedgling undergraduate into an expert in the field.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1
Background ......................................................................................................................... 3
Adoption Policies and Practices ............................................................................. 3
Social and Political History of Transracial Adoption in the United States .............. 5
History of Data Collection on Adoption .................................................................. 8
Contemporary Data Collection on Adoption ........................................................... 9
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 10
Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 11
Transracial Adoption Literature ............................................................................ 11
Birthparents: The Invisible Portion of the Adoption Triad ..................................... 14
Black Americans ................................................................................................... 18
Theoretical Framework ...................................................................................................... 25
Intersections/Structural Inequality Perspective .................................................... 26
Racism .................................................................................................................. 29
Public Opinion, the Media, and Public Policy ....................................................... 31
Research Methods ............................................................................................................ 39
Research Parameters .......................................................................................... 39
Research Hypotheses .......................................................................................... 42
Data Collection Methods ...................................................................................... 43
Contextual Information ......................................................................................... 49
Analysis and Findings ....................................................................................................... 51
Quantitative Findings ............................................................................................ 51
Qualitative Findings .............................................................................................. 75
Theoretical Relevance ....................................................................................................... 84
Findings Review ................................................................................................... 84
Mid-Range Theories: Racism, Public Opinion, the Media, and Public Policy ...... 86
Grand Theory: Intersections/Structural Inequality Perspective ............................ 91
Discussion and Conclusion ............................................................................................... 93
Discussion ............................................................................................................ 93
Overall Conclusion ............................................................................................. 103
Limitations .......................................................................................................... 104
Appendices ...................................................................................................................... 107
Works Cited ..................................................................................................................... 113

vi

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Crosstabulation: Source v. Year ......................................................................... 52
Table 2: Frequency: Day of the week ................................................................................ 54
Table 3: Frequency: Section of Newspaper ...................................................................... 54
Table 4: Frequency: Page ................................................................................................. 54
Table 5: Frequency: Type of Section ................................................................................ 55
Table 6: Crosstabulation: Source v. Type of Section ........................................................ 56
Table 7: Frequency: Type of Article .................................................................................. 57
Table 8: Crosstabulation: Source v. Type of Article .......................................................... 58
Table 9: Crosstabulation: Graph, Chart, or Statistics Present? V. Type of Article ............ 59
Table 10: Crosstabulation: Picture Present? V. Type of Article ........................................ 60
Table 11: Frequency: How does the article seem towards TRA? ..................................... 62
Table 12: Frequency: How does the picture seem towards TRA? .................................... 62

Table 13: Crosstabulation: How does the article seem towards TRA?

V. How does the title seem towards TRA? ....................................................................... 63
Table 14: Crosstabulation: Portrayal of TRA v. Year ........................................................ 65
Table 15: Frequency: Source and Quotes of Stakeholders .............................................. 66
Table 16: Frequency: Source and Quotes of Stakeholders .............................................. 67
Table 17: Frequency: Portrayal of Stakeholders ............................................................... 68
Table 18a: Crosstabulation: Portrayal of Adoptive Parents v. Year .................................. 70
Table 18b: Crosstabulation: Portrayal of Birthparents v. Year .......................................... 70
Table 18c: Crosstabulation: Portrayal of Adoption-related Agencies v. Year ................... 70
Table 19: Frequency: How does the letter to the editor seem towards TRA? .................. 72
Table 20: Frequency: Portrayal of Stakeholders ............................................................... 74
Table 21: Crosstabulation: Year v. Type of Article Combined in New York Times ........... 76

vii

INTRODUCTION
Converging Worlds:
Interracial Adoption Becomes More Prevalent Due to Shortage of Black Families
The Grand Rapids Press - February 6, 2005

This alarming headline preceded a primarily positive article on the
experience of a White family overcoming cultural differences to successfully raise
an African American child. The article which began on the front of the
newspaper section continued on an interior page next to a comparatively short
piece about possibly institutional discrimination of Blacks as adoptive parents.
These contrasting articles prompted more questions than answers. First, why is
there a disproportionate amount of Black children available for adoption? Are
there more Black children than Black adoptive parents or are Black parents
experiencing discrimination in the adoptive parent approval process? Second,
what message does this newspaper article send to the reader since transracial
adoption is touted as the solution to the failure of Black parents to adopt on the
face page of the section, yet a critical analysis of the phenomenon, including
possible racial discrimination of Black parents, is only addressed as an interior
side—note?

Preliminary research on transracial adoption in Michigan identiﬁed
difﬁculties in locating relevant information on transracial adoption such as the
number, race, and gender of infants available, the number of transracial
placements of infants, and the proﬁles of potential adoptive parents, especially

those who were not selected to be adoptive parents. Although fragmented

information was available on ﬁnalized infant placements, there was no

comprehensive or systematic method for compiling the information on
overarching trends. Similarly, newspaper articles on the topic of transracial
adoption focused on the placement of an individual infant with an adoptive family
and lacked information on macro-level trends or broader considerations such as
the effect on racial groups and ethnic cultures.

This dissertation employed the scientiﬁc method in an attempt to create a
sociologically sound investigation of the information available on transracial
adoption in Michigan. Although a thorough media analysis conﬁrmed the trend in
which articles on transracial adoption were highly micro-level and ethnographic, a
statistical analysis resulted in the discovery that not enough information is
available on infant transracial adoption in Michigan to make any deﬁnitive
conclusions. These findings, which were analyzed in reference to the
Intersections/Structural Inequality paradigm in addition to more speciﬁc theories
on the topics of racism and media portrayals, resulted in a call-to-action:
Adoption-related agencies and newspaper journalists that report on the topic,
need to be held accountable for collecting, compiling, and reporting more
comprehensive information on the topic of adoption with speciﬁc attention to
transracial statistics and trends. The lack of information on adoption made
available to the public and the selective representations of transracial adoption
and its stakeholders perpetuate a pattern of structural inequality which begins
with demonizing birthparents and Black Americans and results in increased
opportunity and ability for middle and upper-class White married couples to adOpt

children borne to those highly represented in disadvantaged groups.

BACKGROUND

A general understanding of adoption policies and processes is essential to
the discussion of transracial adoption. The research site of this dissertation is
the State of Michigan so a brief review of Michigan’s adoption practices and
policies precedes information on relevant federal legislation in the area of
transracial adoption. The socio—political history of transracial adoption in the
United States is followed by an outline of previous data collection methods. This
chapter concludes with contemporary statistics and trends as well as the current

process for collecting adoption data in the state of Michigan.

Adoption Policies and Practices
Fundamental to understanding the adoption process in Michigan is a
delineation of the types of adoptions that occur.

- Infant adoption — infants in Michigan are placed in adoption by private
adoption agencies or direct placement with the adoptive parents. If the
birthparents release the child to the private adoption agency, the agency
selects the prospective adoptive parent with a speciﬁed amount of input
from the birthparents. Birthparents may also work with attorneys to
directly place the child with the adoptive parents of their choice.
Birthparents are considered to be “voluntarily relinquishing” their parental
rights to the child through these processes.

- State and court ward adoption - the Department of Human Services is
responsible for children whose parental rights have been terminated by
the family court (involuntarily relinquishment). Children are either placed
with relatives, foster parents, or in foster care facilities. The majority of
these children are from minority groups, are older, have physical,
emotional, or mental impairments, or are part of a sibling group.

- Relative adoption — a child is adopted by a relative. This is usually
handled by the court. .

- Step-parent adoption — if the non-custodial parent in a divorced couple
consents or has his or her parental rights terminated, a step-parent can
apply to the court to adopt the child.

- lntercountry or interstate adoption — Michigan recognizes the adoption of
a child in another state or country as long as the process is in accordance
with the laws of the state or country in which it is executed. The court will
issue a Michigan birth certiﬁcate to recognize intercountry or interstate
adopﬁons.

- Adult adoption — with the consent of the adoptee, an adult can adopt
another adult via the court or a private attorney. The adoption makes the
adoptee an heir of the adopting parent (S. o. M. D. o. H. Services,
Agcmting a Child in Michigan; B. C. Services).

This dissertation on transracial adoption focuses on infant adoption in
which the birthparents voluntarily relinquish an infant and adoptive parents
choose to transracially adopt an infant. Although transracial adoption occurs with
wards of the state, relatives, and step-parents, race is not necessarily a primary
factor in the decision-making process and may include factors outside the
parameters of this research. Consequently, private adoption agencies and
attorneys are responsible for the placement of the children which is the foci of
this dissertation.

The United States federal government offers a tax credit to citizens
incurring expenses in the adoption process Including adoption fees, court costs,
attorney fees, and travel expenses. The credit limit is determined annually and is
subtracted from the adoptive parent’s tax liability (Service). The State of
Michigan offers adoption subsidies to parents to adopt wards of the state or court
which are considered to be “special needs” children, but does not provide any

assistance to parents adopting infants through private agencies or attorneys (S.

o. M. D. o. H. Services, Michkgan's Ad0ption Subsidy Programs).

The federal Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA) enacted in 1994, and
amended by the Interethnic Adoption Act (IEPA) of 1996, prohibits discrimination
in foster care and adoptive placements on the grounds of race, color, or national
origin. Adoptive or foster care parents who have reason to believe that he or she
has been denied or delayed the placement of a child because of race, color, or
national origin are able to ﬁle a complaint with the adoption services division in
their state. Although the impetus for the MEPA and IEPA was to prevent children
from languishing in out-of-home care during the placement with same race
adoptive or foster parents, the act applies to private as well as public agencies.
The Indian Child Welfare Act supersedes the MEPA and the IEPA (Kinder Smith

MA; Exchange).

Social and Political History of Transracial Adoption in the United States
Although transracial adoption has occurred informally throughout
American history, it became more frequent and visible during the 19705. More
liberal attitudes about race and interracial relationships were a factor in this
change as well as the simple law of supply and demand: as White women began
to gain access to birth control and abortions, yet also felt less social stigma in
becoming a single parent, fewer “blue ribbon” babies (White, Protestant) were
available for White families to adopt (Simon and Altstein, Transracial Adoption;
Solinger, Beggars and Choosers). White parents became more willing to adopt
transracially based on the changing social climate, the lack of White children

available, and concerns about children of color living in foster homes. In

acknowledgment of this “need” for children of color to be placed with White
parents, adoption policies permitted transracial adoption, although parental and
child racial matching was the priority.

Transracial placement of all children of color sparked controversy. The
National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) voiced their outrage
beginning with a position paper in 1972 noting that transracial adoption was
harmful on many levels. From a broad perspective, the NABSW considered the
adoption of Black children by White parents an insult to the strength of the Black
family, an institution already weakened by Whites due to slavery. The NABSW
also feared a loss of the generational transmission of Black culture to Black
children (Simon and Altstein, Transracial Adoption: A Follow-Up: Patton).

The foremost concern of the NABSW was that White parents would not be
able to equip Black children with the skills needed to survive in a racist society.
There were concerns about Black children developing a White psyche, yet living
in a Black body. The NABSW felt that transracial adoption placed a Black child in
a situation in which he or she would not be fully comfortable in the Black or White
community (Patton; Simon and Altstein, Transracial Adoption).

Native American groups considered transracial adoption to be cultural
genocide. The placement of Native American children in White homes was
viewed as a step towards the elimination of the future of Native Americans in the
United States (Simon and Altstein, Transraﬁl Adoption; Patton). Similarly,
international adoption was considered a form of colonial exploitation (Simon and

Altstein, Transracial Adoption). When foreign countries began allowing

Americans to adopt their children, adoption costs rose. Not only were in—country
relatives less able to afford to adopt their blood-kin, but potential adoption by
Americans offered life in the “land of opportunity” (Solinger, Beggars and
Choosers).

Native Americans were the most successful organized group in their
efforts to prevent transracial adoption. The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 was
signed with the purpose of preventing the decimation of Indian tribes through
transracial adoption. The placement of children with documentation of tribal
identity is decided by the according tribe, exclusive of the federal or state
government (Simon and Altstein, Transracial Adoption: A Follow-Up).

The objections of other groups opposed to transracial adoption were
considered, but not fully implemented. Adoption agencies were created that
specialized in locating same-race placements. In 1999, these agencies toted a
94% success rate for African Americans and 66% for their Hispanic families.
Additionally, other adoption agencies made the recruitment of adoptive families
of color a priority (Simon and Altstein, Adoption across Borders: Serving the
Children in Transracial and lntercountry Adoptions). Ad0ption subsidies were
implemented to help marginally financially stable non-White parents to adopt
children of their race (Simon and Altstein, Tranﬂcial Adoption).

Despite these efforts to eliminate the need for transracial adoption through
racial matching, transracial placement rates continued to increase from 1970
throughout the 1980s. By the 19903 a more color-blind ideology was gaining

acceptance resulting in increasing support of adoption policies that took the

 

emphasis off racial matching. The 1994 Multiethnic Placement Act was signed
with the intention of removing barriers from transracial placements and no longer
using race as a factor to deny or delay adoption. Although racial matching is still
a priority, it is no longer as essential to the adoption process (Simon and Altstein,
Adoption across Borders: Serving the Children in Transracial and lntercountry

Adoptions; Patton).

History of Data Collection on Adoption

Beginning in 1944 the Children’s Bureau and National Center for Social
Statistics (NCSS) collected data on adoption trends from each of the United
States. Although this information was voluntarily reported by private institutions
to the state, it was considered the most comprehensive information on adoption
in America. The NCSS dissolved in 1975.

In the early 19805, the American Public Human Services Association
(formerly the American Public Welfare Association) began to collect data on
children who passed through the child welfare system. The information was
collected through a Voluntary Cooperative Information System (VCIS) and
struggled with issues due to deﬁning terms and concepts as well as inconsistent
and incomplete information. Although these efforts continue, more emphasis has
been placed on a system commonly referred to as AFCARS (Adoption and
Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System). The Adoption and Safe Families
Act of 1997 required states to collect information on adopted children placed by

the state child welfare agency or by private agencies under contract with the

 

public child welfare agency. The AFCAR system organized and streamlined the
information collected and is the basis for the State of Michigan’s reports on
adopﬁon.

Other efforts for data collection on the topic of adoption were made by
private researchers. Most notably, Victor and Carol F lango reviewed court
records, bureaus of vital statistics, and social service agencies resulting in
reports in 1990 and 1995. Their 1995 report is considered to be the most
comprehensive, contemporary picture of ad0ption in the United States by the
National Adoption Information Clearinghouse. Other organizations such as the
Alan Guttmacher Institute and Child Welfare Research Center at the University of
California, Berkeley have collected related information on the topic. General
information such as the National Survey of Families and Households or
Immigration Naturalization Service (INS) distribution of visas are also considered

for research because they include information on adoption.

Contemporary Data Collection on Adoption

Although the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 created a renewed
effort to compile data on adoption, its collection requirements speciﬁcally exclude
infant adoptions in the State of Michigan. Since infants are not placed by the
State, nor are the private agencies contracted by the State to place the infants,
the federal government does not require collection of information on these

trends.

 

Similarly, information on rates of voluntary infant relinquishment,
applications for adoption of infants, parents who have been disqualiﬁed to adopt
or other adoption stakeholder groups are available to the public. The State of
Michigan does require private agencies to report demographic information (eg.
race, gender) on ﬁnalized adoption placements via the Facilitator Clearinghouse
Record, yet the State of Michigan only keeps electronic records of information on r
the cost of adoption using a Microsoft Access database. At the time of this
dissertation many hard copies of the form are collected but the information has

not been data entered or compiled into reports.

 

Conclusion

Although transracial adoption continues to be an important and
controversial topic, it is estimated that only 8% of adoptions are transracial (child
and adoptive mother in different racial categories). Approximately 1.2% of
adoptions are domestic Black children adopted into White families and 6.8% are
international children primarily adopted into White American families. During the
late 1990s a greater number of Chinese girls became available due to the “one
child” policy, yet the development of Korea resulted in a simultaneous decrease
in the number of Korean children available for international adoption (Simon and
Altstein, Adoption across Borders: Sewing the Children in Transracial aLd
lntercountpj Adoptions). It should be noted that these contemporary trends are
estimates of private research. Adoption data, especially transracial adoption

data, is difﬁcult to locate.

10

LITERATURE REVIEW

The notable contributions to the research on transracial adoption focus on
transracial adoptees and their adoptive parents. After discussing the literature on
transracial adoption, a brief review of work on the topics of birthparents and
African-American families provide additional context to the transracial adoption
phenomenon in the United States. f
Transracial Adoption Literature

As previously explained in the background chapter, Rita J. Simon and

Howard Altstein are responsible for much of the contemporary information on

 

transracial adoption due to their longitudinal study and efforts to compile relevant
research on the topic. Their work has resulted in four primary contributions:
Transracial Adoption 1977, Transracial Adoption: A Follow Up 1981, The Case
for Trapsracial Adoption 1994, and Adoption Across Borders 2000. In Adoption
Across Borders they explain that the federal government stopped gathering
adoption data in 1975 and subsequent research on the topic is fragmented and
incomplete resulting in approximations and estimates from foster care placement
ﬁgures and Immigration and Naturalization Service visas (Simon and Altstein,
Adaptionjlcross Borders: Serving the Children in Transracial and lntercountry
Adoptions). Simon and Alstein’s contribution to a greater macro-level
understanding of transracial adoption statistics and trends is informative, yet
emphasizes a need for more accurate and complete data on the topic.

The other contribution of Simon and Alstein’s work is a more micro-level

insight into the experiences of transracial adoptees in the United States.

11

Beginning with 204 White families who had adopted at least one non-White child
by 1975, Simon and Alstein gathered information on the socioeconomic proﬁles
of the adoptive families, relationships among families and neighbors, as well as
the racial identity and attitudes of the adopted children. Transracial Adoption.
published in 1977, had primarily positive conclusions noting that families
adopting Black and Indian children were successful in measurements of child 3-
adjustment, parental satisfaction, racial preferences and racial identity (Simon
and Altstein, Transracial Adoption). Transracial Adoption: A Follow Up, released

in 1981, included responses from 71% of the initial subject group and included

 

questions about broader topics such as relationships among siblings and racial
compositions of schools and neighborhoods. Their conclusion was that the
positive elements outweighed the negative ones, yet issues with parental guilt
and challenges with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities were more
apparent (Simon and Altstein, Transracial Adoption: A Follow-Up). Subsequent
research included responses from 50% of the original subject group. As young
adults, the transracial adoptees were able to discuss their opinions of the
experience. The results were primarily positive noting good measures of
psychological and social adjustment, strong senses of racial identity, and
disproportionately high rates of college attendance and employment (Simon and
Altstein, Adoption across Borders: Serving the Children in Transracial and
lntercountry Adoptions).

As previously explained, although a number of articles and reports on

transracial adoption statistics and trends have been published by various

12

researchers since the 1970s, their conclusions were often summarized and
reviewed in Simon and Alstein’s work. The two most notable contributions to the
scholarship on transracial adoption in addition to Simon and Alstein’s work were
published in 2000 by Sandra Patton and Rhonda Roorda.

Roorda’s In Their Own Voices: Tra_nsracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories
included highly ethnographic, qualitative interviews with twenty-four Black adults :-
who were adopted into White families as children. Roorda worked with Simon to
frame the interviews with transracial adoption history and statistics in the

introduction and conclusion. Similar to Simon, Roorda found that although

 

issues with transracial adoption were identiﬁed, the adoptees supported
transracial adoption and felt that it served them well (Simon and Rhoorda).
Patton’s Birthmarks: Transracial Adoption in Contemporary Americ_a_
employed similar research methods to Roorda’s including excerpts from in-depth
interviews with twenty-two Black and multiracial adults who were adopted into
White families as children. Patton’s ﬁndings are a stark contrast to Roorda’s
qualitative work and Simon and Altstein’s longitudinal studies. Patton concludes
that high rates of college attendance, employment, and positive relationships with
parents cannot outweigh a continuous struggle with self and racial identity.
Additionally, Patton calls attention to the fact that research on transracial
adoption is portrayed as a win-win situation; adoptees are placed with people
who desperately desire to be parents. Patton notes that in order for adoption to
occur some parents, usually poor women of color, are not able to parent their

biological child: a win-win-lose situation (Patton).

13

Patton’s 2000 work revisits the broader complexities of the transracial
adoption phenomenon which characterized the controversy in the 19705 and
19805. She notes that she is not opposed to transracial adoption, but
emphasizes that it must be considered in a larger context:

Transracial adoption is a particularly rich site for exploring contemporary

U.S. understandings of race, identity, gender, class, and family. Indeed, in

my view transracial adoption has [relemerged as a highly charged social

issue at this historical moment precisely because it embodies the
ambiguities of race, identity, gender, and family that characterize the lives
of so many people living in the United States at the turn of the century

(Paﬁon)

Consequently, this dissertation uses the unique experience of transracial
adoption to learn about race, class, families, and inequality in the United States.
Although a contribution to the scholarship on transracial adoption is expected,

insight into public opinion, racial attitudes, media portrayals and the

interconnected relationship with public policy is explored.

Birthparents: The Invisible Portion of the Adoption Triad

In reviewing the literature a trend was identiﬁed in which most of the
information available on adoption, especially transracial adoption, were
ethnographic portrayals of the families created by adoption: adoptees and their
adoptive parents. Stories about individuals adopting children dominated the
literature. Broad, sociological research was difﬁcult to locate. These trends were
conﬁrmed by a content analysis of sociology and family studies textbooks which
noted that abortion received much more coverage and formal recognition than

the topic of adoption determined by the number of index citations and page

14

 

space. Adoption was often portrayed only at the micro-level, depicted as an
option for infertile couples to obtain children, and a concern only to those in the
adoption triad (Shepherd Stolley and Hall).

The section on transracial adoption reviewed the literature available about
adoptee and their adoptive parents. Scholarship on birthparents of transracial
adoptees was non-existent but there was information on birthparents who
relinquished a child for adoption. This literature was consistent with the
previously noted trends focusing on the clinical or psychological concern of the
individuals involved, including little sociological, structural, or macro-level
research or discussion.

Mary O’Leary Wiley, Ph.D. practices independent counseling of individuals
involved in the adoption process. Her 2005 article in, The Counseling
Psychologist, focused on the shame, stigmatization, and marginalization felt by
birthparents whose loss is “shrouded in secrecy,” stemming from being the
invisible portion of the adoption triad (O'Leary Wiley and Baden).

...birthparents are the least studied, understood, and served members of

the adoption triad. Birth parents are often the invisible members of the

adoption triad. For some, this is by choice; for others, it is an artifact of
the adoption system and its historical legal requirements of full
relinquishment, secrecy, and anonymity. In international adoptions, birth
parents are often permanently invisible and silent as a result of the cultural
norms and structures related to relinquishing their children (O'Leary Wiley
and Baden).

Two additional contributions to research on birthparents are books similar

to Patton’s and Roorda’s on transracial adoption in the respect that they provide

a venue for birthmothers to tell their stories: The Adoption Reader: Birth Mothers.

15

 

Ad0ptive Mothers, and Adoptive Daughters Tell Their Stories, 1995 and
Birthmothers: Women Who Relinguish Babies for Adoption Tell Their Stories.
1993 . Yet, unlike Patton and Roorda’s work, the story sharing seems to have an
individual, therapeutic purpose rather than a broader, socIo-historical exploration
of the adoption phenomenon (Wadia-Ellis; Bloch Jones).

The most sociological and structural work on the role of birthparents in
families (or lack thereof depending on the perspective) is Rickie Solinger’s,

Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Ad0ption, Abortion

 

and Welfare in the United States, 2001 and Wake Up Little Susie: Single
Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade, 1992 (Solinger, Beggars and

Chooser5' Solinger, Wake up Little Susie). Solinger explains that the post Roe v.

 

Wade adoption market is a clear example of how some women’s choices depend
on the choicelessness of other women. She calls attention to the fact that, “...all
the trafﬁc goes in one direction - babies from the third world transferred to the
developed countries; the more powerful nations...’robbing” [poor] countries of
their children,” (Solinger, Beggars and Choosers). Including a consideration of
gender and socioeconomic status in addition to race, Solinger demonstrates that
motherhood is a luxury, not a right, for all Americans (Solinger, Beggars and
Choosers; Solinger, Wake up Little Susie).

Solinger uses social, political, and economic contexts to frame the
experiences of the Concerned United Birthparents (CUB), a group of parents
who decided to “surrender” their children for adoption.

To us surrender ﬁt the experience. We had been involved in a social war
to which we had surrendered without options and without compensation

16

 

for our loss. Lee Campbell -- CUB originator (Solinger, Beggars and

Choosers)

In Beggars and Choosers, Solinger explains that during the mid-20th
century, single pregnant women were prohibited from being “legitimate mothers”.
Factors such as community, religion, and social class, compounded the
detrimental affect of their marital status leaving them with the “choice” to
relinquish their child for adoption. Although it is clear that members of the CUB
beneﬁt from being able to share their individual experiences, the primary purpose
of the group, and Solinger’s research analysis, focus on the group’s ability to
inﬂuence policy and legislation to humanize adoption and secure more post-
adoption rights for birthparents with speciﬁc attention to the structural inequality
identiﬁed in the adoption phenomenon (Solinger, Beggars and Choosers).

In Mke Up Little Susie, Solinger focuses on the choices available to
White and Black single pregnant women prior to 1965. Solinger’s research
shows that White women were able to (or forced to) access maternity homes in
which their children were cultivated for White adoptive parents. Black mothers
were excluded from most maternity homes and instead relied on informal
adoption networks of relatives, friends, and neighbors. These choice constraints
made transracial adoption a non-issue prior to the 19705 (Solinger, Wake up
Little Susie). It may have also resulted in hypersexualized, morally irresponsible
stereotypes of Black women who were more publicly caring for “illegitimate”

children.

17

 

Black Americans

The characterization of Black women and their families is essential to a
study on transracial adoption in the United States. As previously explained by
O’Leary Wiley, international birthparents are not only silent but permanently
invisible. The face of birthparents of transracial adoptees in the United States is
Black for a number of reasons. First, birthparents in the United States
experience a more “open” adoption than international birthparents meaning the
adoptee and adoptive parents have more information about the birthparents
and/or the birthparent may play a role in the adoptees’ life (B. C. Services).
Second, the adoption of Black children by White parents is the greatest racial
contrast and may be considered to be the most controversial in contemporary
America since the Indian Child Welfare Act prohibits the adoption of Native
American children by White parents. Third, adoption legislation and its media
coverage focus on the disproportionate number of Black children available for
adoption and the lack of Black families serving as adoptive parents (Aldridge;
Kinder Smith MA). The heart of the Multiethnic Placement Act is a growing need
to place minority (read Black) children in different race (read White) homes
(Kinder Smith MA; Exchange).

Sandra Patton analyzed the only commercial ﬁlm fully dedicated to the
topic of transracial adoption, Losing Isaiah, to explore the implicit message that
Black people are unable to take care of their own children. In Losing Isaiah, a
White social worker “saves”, and appropriately socializes, a Black infant

abandoned by its drug-addicted Black mother in a trash heap. Patton explains

18

that the contemporary problems of crime, poverty, gang violence, and drug
abuse were historically considered a Black problem and are now considered a
threat to White families. In the creation of the Multiethnic Placement Act,
transracial adoption was presented as a means to regulate Black women’s
reproductive behavior and address the ability of unwed mothers to properly
socialize their children. Consequently, Black women are stereotyped as
“breeders” and White women as “saviors” and redeemers of “family values”
(Paﬂon)

These stereotypes of Black familial issues are grounded in US. history
and most evident in post-emancipation discussions of Black families. The
Moynihan Report of 1967 is the center of the Black family pathology controversy.
Moynihan cited demographics in martial status, illegitimate births, female headed
households, unemployment and welfare rates to support his assertion that Negro
society was deteriorating due to the breakdown of the nuclear family structure
among Blacks in the United States. Moynihan attributed this breakdown to the
devastation of slavery on the institute of the African American family and the
further denigration of Black males in the Jim Crow era (Rainwater and Yancy).

In a similar vein, E. Franklin Frazier and Nathan Glazer agreed that
African cultural patterns, including family formations, were destroyed in slavery
leaving Negros with fragile fragments used to raise slave children. Frazier and
Glazer attribute the post-emancipation matriarchal household to the dissolution of
numerous slave marriages and the sacriﬁces slave mothers made to prevent

separation from their children. Frazier and Glazer attribute inappropriate sexual

19

 

hunger of Blacks to temporary unions which were subject to change by external
forces. These patterns developed by post-slavery Blacks resulted in working
mothers, unsupervised or abandoned Black children, and underpowered,
irresponsible, un- or underemployed Black men (Frazier).

This idea of the dysfunctional Black family and its associated social issues
were contested by additional research on the subject. Herbert G. Gutman
emphasized that the post-emancipation Black family was adapted from African
culture. Gutman felt that denying the fact that slaves did develop and sustain
meaningful domestic and kin arrangements, portrayed Blacks as “disorganized”
and “pathological”. Gutman cites high rates of marriage, fidelity, dual-headed
households, and work arrangements to dispute the breakdown of the Negro
family (Gutman). Similarly, Andrew Billingsley asserted that:

A number of African family patterns survived the American experience,

diluted and transformed by it, but not destroyed (Billingsley Ph.D.).

Billingsley explained that a distinctive feature of African family patterns
which survived in the United States was the primacy given to extended families
versus nuclear families. A child-centered society which also held great respect
for the elderly and the needs of the group over the rights of the individuals also
represented African family values (Billingsley Ph.D.). Both Gutman and
Billingsley note that although there may be distinct characteristics in the post-
emancipation African-American families, they do not represent disconnection
from African family patterns, nor are they disproportionately causing social

dysfunction in society.

20

 

To solidify the connection between the Black family pathology and
transracial adoption is the 1974 work, All Our Kin. The author, Carol Stack,
studied the extended Black family focusing on the inter cooperation and
dependence of the unit as a whole. In a chapter entitled “Child-Keeping”, Stack
describes the care of children, not necessarily by their biological mothers, but the
older women in the family. This informal adoption network was also identiﬁed by
Solinger as the alternative for Black women who were not allowed in maternity
homes. Unwed, young Black mothers were limited in their Options and cared for

by their surrounding kinship network within which, young unwed women were

 

encouraged not to have children, yet not banished if they chose to do so (Stack; .3
Solinger, _V_V_ake up Little Susie).

Bonnie Thorton DiIl’s work compares and contrasts the experiences of
women in various racial groups throughout US. history. Dill identifies a theme
similar to the one Solinger emphasizes in the activities and perceptions of Black
and White women. Putting womanhood and motherhood into a sociohistorical
context, Dill explains that the organization of slave labor enforced a type of
gender equity between Black men and Black women as well as an emphasis on
inter cooperational family networks. Black women were considered to be ﬁeld
and manual laborers in addition to their role as mothers. In sharp contrast, White
womanhood was almost synonymous with motherhood (Dill). In reference to
transitions that occurred post-emancipation, Dill goes as far as to state:

Black women were severely criticized by Whites [women] for removing

themselves from ﬁeld labor because they were seen to be aspiring to a
model of womanhood that was considered inappropriate for them (Dill).

21

Although considered appropriate for the time, White women struggled with
their sole activities and identities as mothers and homemakers. Black women
had many responsibilities outside the home and despite being envied by some
White women of the period, were not considered the model for womanhood (Dill).

Carol Stack and Linda M. Burton focused on the importance of extended
Black families in their research on families, race, and gender. Unlike White
families, many Black young adults would leave their infants and children to be
cared for by a network of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and others who
functioned in familial roles. Post-emancipation, young Black adults would
migrate north to secure jobs and send money back to their kinship network.
Stack and Burton explain that Black mothers working outside of the home and a
dependence on kin to care for infants and children are not necessarily
dysfunctional, but thoughtful adaptations to structural circumstances. They
suggest that kinship networks are being used by contemporary divorced families
(Stack and Burton).

The works of Sollinger, Dill, Stack, and Burton illustrate that Black women
and mothers experienced and dealt with motherhood in qualitatively different
ways than White women which is important to this research on transracial
adoption and the understanding of motherhood for Black and White women.
Sociohistorical research and analysis shows that this difference is due to
strategies in response to structural conditions, not a psychological or cultural
dysfunction or pathology as it has commonly been perceived (Solinger, Beggars

ail Choosers; Solinger, Wake up Little Spsie; Dill; Stack; Stack and Burton).

22

Unfortunately, the Black family pathology has had an impact not only on
Black and White families in the US, but how Black and White women are
perceived, and consequently experience adoption phenomenon. The hidden
process in which White women were encouraged place their illegitimate children
up for adoption in maternity homes until abortion, single-parenting, and working
mothers became socially acceptable has had an effect on the picture of White
women in the adoption process (Solinger, Wake up Little Susie). Due to the lack
of White infants available, White women are often seen in the role of desperately
wanting to sacriﬁce time, effort, and ﬁnances to parent a child of any color
(Paﬁon)

Simultaneously, a 50-year history of single Black women keeping their
infants by their seemingly dysfunctional, morally indifferent kinship networks has
had an effect on the picture of Black people in families. Black men are perceived
as having a promiscuous sexual hunger, yet unwilling to work and not
accountable for their familial responsibilities. Black women are also perceived as
sexually promiscuous, but also particularly irresponsible in the area of birth
control. The efforts by Black women and their families to care for their children
are interpreted as an attempt to avoid work and capitalize on social welfare
programs. Ilack women and the matriarchal household are considered to be
inefﬁcient in appropriately socializing children and are often the focus of
discussions of involuntary relinquishment. The middle-class, nuclear Black
families who are considered morally and ﬁnancially stable, are convicted for not

adopting the surplus of Black children available. The Multiracial Ethnic

23

 

Placement Act provides middle-class White families, with the opportunity to
“civilize the natives” and address the social destruction of society one child at a
time (Patton; Solinger, Beggars and Choosers; Solinger, Wake up Little Susie;

Rainwater and Yancy; Frazier).

 

24

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The theory section is framed by what Robert K. Merton would refer to as
grand and mid-range theories. Theory serves multiple purposes: it troubles the
individual to ask speciﬁc questions, yet it is also employed to explain the
phenomena discovered in research. The Intersections/Structural Inequality
perspective was the paradigm of reference during the creation of the central
research questions. Although the Intersections/Structural Inequality paradigm
cannot be considered a widely accepted grand theory compared to historically
revered structural-functionalism or conﬂict theory, it is a broad, structural, macro-
Ievel orientation that is increasingly being used to interpret social phenomena.

Mid-range theories on the topic of racism and the interrelationship
between media, public opinion, and public policy were identiﬁed as providing the
greatest insight into the dissertation ﬁndings. Students and critics of Parsonian
(Talcott C. Parsons) and Mertonian sociological theory acknowledge the
relationship between micro and macro- sociology (Ritzer; Nichols Clark).
Although Randall Collins rejects macro-concepts and theories by explaining that
all macrophenomena can be translated into combinations of micro-events, his
criticism identiﬁes the link between macro and micro-level theory. Grand, macro-
theories and concepts can be used to refer to the cumulative effect of mid-range,
micro-level situations and observation (Collins). George Ritzer’s critical analysis
of Collins’ work concludes that although previous grand theories of structural
functionalism and conﬂict theory may not dominate contemporary sociology and

mid-range theories are being acknowledged for their explanatory success, Ritzer

25

expects exciting work in macro-theory in the future (Ritzer). The
Intersections/Structural Inequality paradigm is the type of “exciting work” to which
Ritzer refers. The mid-range theories of racism, public opinion, media, and
public policy identify micro-situations which further inform and contribute to the

Intersections/Structural Inequality framework.

Intersections/Structural Inequality Perspective

One of the main themes evident in the current research on transracial
adoption is the flow of children primarily from women in oppressed minority
groups to privileged, White couples. Additionally, a review of international trends
reveals that the more afﬂuent countries adopt children from the less afﬂuent
countries (Solinger, Mars and Choosers). With speciﬁc attention to the
relational nature of inequality, it is clear that in order for privileged people to
adopt a child, a less privileged woman or couple must give up the right to parent
their child.

Privilege and oppression is a controversial subject in the United States.
Although many would like to believe that the social status of an individual (e.g.
economic standing, level of education) is solely a reﬂection of the individual’s
specific efforts, talents, and personality, it is apparent that being privileged or
oppressed is often determined by forces outside the individual’s control. Often
referred to as “structural forces”, these external Inﬂuences have an undeniable
effect on social life, including the creation and shaping of families. In order to

better understand transracial adoption, research must consider the broader

26

structural, social environment within which transracial families are situated
(Hansen and Garey; Weber).

Conﬂict theory could be considered the mainstay of the mid-20th century
civil rights and women’s movements. Women and people of color identiﬁed
racism and sexism as tools the privileged group employed to maintain their
status. By the 19805 a related, yet theoretically different movement emerged.
The experiences, concerns, and desires of Black women were not being
addressed by either the civil rights or women’s movements. It was
acknowledged that there was not one dominate group, nor one characteristic that
determined dominance or oppression, but a matrix of inequalities. Black women
were the catalysts and champions of thinking about social life not only
structurally, but in a more integrative sense resulting in the
Intersections/Structural Inequality framework (Doherty et aI.; Baca Zinn,
Hondagneu-Sotelo and Messner; Hull, Bell Scott and Smith; Dilworth-Anderson,
Burton and Johnson)

According to the Intersections/Structural Inequality framework, race, class,
and gender are the primary social structures that organize society as a whole
and create the different environments within which families live. These social
structures intersect to place families and their members in particular social
locations (Baca Zinn and Eitzen). A social location is the social “place” that an
individual or group occupies in the race, class, and gender hierarchies, as well as
other social hierarchies such as marital status and sexuality. Intersectionalists

(those using the Intersections/Structural Inequality perspective) assert that social

27

location is a determining factor of structural inequality creating patterns of
privilege and oppression based on group membership. Consequently, there is
an unequal distribution of society’s resources and power which is more
accessible to those at the top of the social hierarchies than to those at the bottom
(Weber).

The Intersections/Structural Inequality Framework is an integrative model
focusing not only on the multiple social systems that shape families, but also the
culture of the family, and how the family members use their human agency in
response to their structural environment. Intersectional scholars use a wide
range of intellectual traditions to understand how families operate at multiple
levels of social life: the micro and macro-level. Macro-level research and
analyses provide insight into how structural environment and social location
affect individuals and shape families. The micro-level research and analyses
help to identify the strategies and activities individuals employ in response to
their social situations (Dilworth-Anderson, Burton and Johnson; Baca Zinn and
Eitzen; Hansen and Garey; Coontz, Parson and Raley).

Intersectionalists call attention not only to the importance of analyzing
social life by considering a person’s social location, but ensuring that the
perspectives of people in various social locations are represented, speciﬁcally
those in historically marginalized groups (Hill Collins, "Moving Beyond Gender";
Hill Collins, "Toward a New Vision"; Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thwﬁ). The
importance of diversity with an emphasis on marginalized people and their

families is essential in research on transracial adoption since those whose social

28

location is at the top of various hierarchies (White, married, middle-class) are
able to “choose” to adopt babies who were surrendered by those who are
disproportionately represented at the bottom of social hierarchies (people of

color, single, poor).

Racism

As explained in the introductory paragraphs, the broad
Intersections/Structural Inequality paradigm can be informed by mezzo or micro-
level theories. In 21$t century America, attempts to identify and/or understand
structural inequality must include a consideration of race and racism. Yet, unlike
previous centuries, the 219‘t century sociologist is the ﬁrst to explore which “type”
of racism best explains the phenomena due to more varied attitudes, motivations,
beliefs, and behaviors among Americans about race in the contemporary United
States. The following three theories of racism were used to interpret the
dissertation findings: old fashioned racism, symbolic racism, and group-position
theory.

Old fashioned racism is often referred to as “Jim Crow” racism since it is
characterized by explicit negative attitudes and portrayals of African Americans
as well as legal and socialized separation of Whites from people of color. This
classic model of prejudice is highly psychological in the respect that individuals
believe people of color are biologically inferior and/or condoned the separation of
racial groups. The hostility lies in theoretical, socialized dispositions rather than

objective reality. Old fashioned racism is evidence in the most overt, explicit

29

forms of racial prejudice, discrimination, and oppression (L. Bobo; Sears, Van
Laar et al.; Sears, Hetts et al.)

Symbolic racism could be considered sociopsychological in the respect
that individuals may have residual antiblack attitudes and beliefs from old
fashioned/Jim Crow racism, yet justify their beliefs of inequality in broader
traditional American values, such as self-reliance or hard work, which are not
race-speciﬁc. Symbolic racists’ beliefs are fruits of their negative images about
the culture and behavior of African Americans. Symbolic racists’ understanding

of inequality is not a seemingly irrational, theoretical prejudice, but rooted in what

 

is considered to be evidence that Blacks have not tried hard enough to overcome
their disadvantage: unemployment rates, use of social welfare programs.
Symbolic racists are not prejudice against Blacks or other people of color, but
any group whose culture is perceived as fostering values that are at odds with
the “pull yourselves up by your bootstraps” American creed (Sears, Van Laar et
al.; Sears, Hetts et al.; Hughes and Tuch; L. Bobo).

Group-position theory is the most structural of the three theories explored.
It is an extension of Herbert Blumer’s group-conﬂict theory used to explain racial
beliefs with the race-neutral motivation of securing group-position in society.
Lawrence Bobo purposes that the more White Americans feel collectively
oppressed and unfairly treated by society, the more they are likely to perceive
Black Americans as potential threats. Consequently, not only do Whites hold
negative stereotypes about Blacks, but Whites also deny social responsibility for

racial inequality. These opinions about Blacks are not necessarily reﬂective of

30

individual feelings,-but are shaped by ideas about in and out-groups to justify and
maintain existing inequalities. Racism is a tool the dominant group employs to
create and perpetuate the inequality essential to their privileged status in society
(Bobo and Hutchings; Krysan; Sidanius and Pratto).

The connection between theories of racism and transracial adoption is due
to the relationship between public opinion and public policy. Research
conducted on racism is usually discussed and analyzed in the context of
afﬁrmative action (a race-based policy) or welfare and crime (concepts which are
highly associated with speciﬁcally Black Americans) (Gilens). Research has
found that in general, more highly racially prejudiced individuals are less likely to
support all three (Krysan; Sears, Hetts et al.). Research on transracial adoption
must include a discussion of theories of racism and the possible inﬂuences on

adoption policy and attitudes towards transracial adoption.

Public Opinion, the Media, and Public Policy

The relationship between public opinion, the media, and public policy is
complex and a continuously developing topic of research. In Patton’s
Birthmarks, she makes connections between public opinion and policy when she
notes that the Multiracial Ethnic Placement act was a response to a growing
social concern about children being socialized by unwed women, who were
disproportionately women of color. I-ler content analysis of the ﬁlm Losing Isaiah,

discusses the fact that the images of White women as saviors, and Black women

31

as breeders is not only a reﬂection of public opinion, but a simultaneous
reinforcement of the stereotypes (Patton). Patton explains:
“Who decides what makes a mother?” This was the question used as the
tag line in advertisements for the 1995 film, released at the height of
political and public policy discussions about “ﬁt” versus “unfit” mothers in
the context of welfare reform and transracial adoption
legislation..Legislative agendas do not exist in isolation from popular
culture and public opinion (Patton).
In order to better understand the relationship between public opinion, the

media, and public policy, relevant literature and theories were reviewed. The ﬁrst

area of exploration was public opinions of racial groups, which Patton believes

 

has an important impact on families involved in transracial adoption. 2"
Lawrence Bobo’s research on racial attitudes found that Whites were
steadily improving in their racial attitudes, especially towards Blacks which Bobo
attributed to the growing influence of the Black middle-class. Bobo notes that
despite these positive trends evidence of negative stereotyping of racial
minorities persists. Bobo’s in-depth research on stereotyping found that Whites
were more likely to rate themselves positively and rate other racial groups less
favorably. Similarly, Hispanics and some African Americans were not only
stereotyped more negatively by other racial groups, but also within their own
racial groups (L. D. Bobo; Bobo and Massagli). Research by Lee Sigelman and
Steven A. Tuch also found that Blacks believed Whites hold many negative
stereotypes about Blacks including laziness, low moral standards and abuse of

drugs and alcohol (Sigelman and Tuch).

32

In attempts to understand differing racial public opinions, research was
conducted on people considered to have varying degrees of racial prejudice and
stereotypes. It was found that high prejudice people were more likely to ascribe
to stereotypes, whereas low prejudice people although aware of stereotypes,
speciﬁcally decided that stereotypes should not be used as a basis for behavior
(Devine). Similarly high prejudice people seemed to be theory driven, whereas
low prejudice people seem to be data driven. High prejudice people judged
people in various racial groups based on pre-determined expectations of the
group, yet low prejudice people were more concerned about the attributes about
the individual in question (Pefﬂey, Hurvvitz and Sniderman). Research on
perceived and actual rates of undesirable behaviors found that Whites actually
underestimated rates of out-of-wedlock births and use of welfare amongst
Blacks. Combined with the previous information on low prejudice people, it could
be theorized that Whites could develop more negative attitudes towards Blacks if
Whites were educated on the accurate rates of undesirable behavior among
Blacks (Kaplowitz, Broman and Fisher).

As previously noted, media venues simultaneously reﬂect and create
public opinion. Martin Gilens’ work on media distortions noted that vivid, visual
stories and news articles are more inﬂuential on public opinion than aggregate
information or statistics. His analysis of visual representations of poverty in three
nationally renowned magazines found that from 1967 through 1992, Blacks
averaged 57% of the poor people pictured which was about twice the true

proportion of Blacks among the nation’s poor (Gilens).

33

 

Similar research conducted on the representation of African Americans in
television news concluded that, “The choices television journalists make appear
to feed racial stereotypes, encouraging White hostility and fear of African
Americans,” (Entman). Robert Entman found that Black defendants were more
likely to be shown in still photos or mug shots without a name, whereas White
defendants were individually identiﬁed and represented in many visual images
including motion picture. Blacks were also more likely to appear in physical
custody of the police than Whites. Entman was concerned not about individual
misrepresentation of Blacks, but the cumulative affect that partial, selective
representations could have on the public, and the dangers of “lumping” all Blacks
together into a homogenous group with negative associations (Entman).

The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what

to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think

about (Cohen).

A ﬁeld of scholarship has been dedicated to agenda setting: the ongoing
competition amongst people in power to direct media attention to certain topics.
Speciﬁcally relevant to work on public opinion are the concepts of priming and
framing. Priming describes how media venues choose to cover a topic or issue,
at the expense of others. As Bernard Cohen explains, mass media may not tell
people what to think yet it is highly inﬂuential in determining which topics and
issues are being thought about. Similarly, framing describes the subtle selection
of certain aspects of an issue by the media to determine the overall importance

of phenomena. “What” and “how” certain information is covered by the media

34

drives not only what the general public thinks about, but which facets of the topic
are important, and consequently how individuals will evaluate the issues (Dearing
and Rogers; lyengar, Peters and Kinder; lyengar).

In 1991, Shanto Iyengar posed the question, “is anyone responsible?” in
reference to agenda setting and television news frames. Noting that media
affects public knowledge and opinion, are media venues responsible for public
knowledge and opinion? Although there are no consensual answers to these
questions it is clear that although some media venues (e.g. newspapers,

television news reporting) serve to provide the public with information, their

 

 

l

existence and relevance depend on a level of public satisfaction and 3
entertainment. Some assert that we need more accurate and fair
representations of racial groups in the media, yet it has been found that
exceptional and interesting stories determine what is “news” (lyengar; Ripley).

Stephen Hilgartner and Charles Bosk ponder the deﬁnition of “news” as
they explore how social problems are created using a public arenas model. They
ask:

Why, for instance, does the plight of the indigenous people of South

America (who are suffering from the rapid destruction of their cultures, and

who in some cases are being killed off in large numbers) receive less

public attention than the plight of laboratory animals used in scientiﬁc

research? (Hilgartner and Bosk)

Hilgartner and Bosk conclude that public attention is a scarce resource
allocated through competition in a system of public arenas. Public arenas are

places where the deﬁnitions of social problems evolve. These arenas are not

limited to news media, but also include institutions such as branches of

35

government, social action groups, religious organizations, and professional
societies. Each institution is an arena within which social problems are,
“discussed, selected, defined, framed, dramatized, packaged, and presented to
the public.” Consequently, the coverage (or lack thereof) of a topic is not
necessarily representative of the topics’ importance, but the way in which the
arena would like to portray the topic to the general public, if at all. Public arenas
are powerful institutions in determining prevalent social problems and deﬁning
news (Hilgartner and Bosk). Although topic framing and selective portrayals are

essential for appropriate communication with various groups, fair representations

 

and ethical decisions must be part of the discussion. L

Media venues have been accused of racial discrimination and even
squandering their power (Ripley). One research project discussed systematic
racism in the newsroom evidenced by the lack of journalists of color (Pease,
Smith and Subervi). Yet the images and stories communicated by the media are
not necessarily incorrect. Entman notes that, “reporters do not construct
messages from scratch. The images that dominate local and network TV news
are grounded in elements of reality,” (Entman). Similarly, Gilens explains that
editors may not make a conscious effort to misrepresent the racial complexion of
the poor, but may be more concerned with making recognizable and emotional
connections with readers (Gilens).

As previously stated by Patton, public policy is shaped and created within
the realm of media representations and public opinion. The Vietnam War and

the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 are used as examples of how media coverage can

36

affect public opinion and consequently foreign policy and affairs (Harris).
Dearing and Rogers characterize the media-policy relationship as symbiotic:
journalists need access to sources of news and policymakers need coverage of
their proposals and actions (Dearing and Rogers).

Martin Gilens 1999 book, Whv Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and
the Politics of Antipovertv Policy provides the most relevant information about the
interplay between the media, public opinion, and public policy. Gilens ﬁnds that
stereotypes about Black Americans affect seemingly non-race-related policies

such as welfare and crime. Speciﬁcally, the fact that most White Americans

 

believe that Black Americans are less committed to the work ethic than Whites is 2;"
strongly related to opposition of welfare. Beginning with a review of racial
attitudes and stereotypes, explaining the role of the media in the creation and
sustenance of stereotypes, and concluding that stereotypes play a large part in
public policy, Gilens research provides the most comprehensive understanding of
the relationship between the three entities (Gilens).

Although the extent to which the media, public opinion, and public policy
are influenced by each other is debatable, it is clear that an effectual relationship
exists. An increased understanding of the relationship between media, public
opinion, and public policy is directly relevant to the topic of transracial adoption
because adoption policies and programs are affected by dominant public
opinions and public opinions are highly influenced by the media. For this reason
the mid-range theories about racism, public opinion, public policy, and the media

were employed to provide insight into the research ﬁndings. Each of the

37

identiﬁed trends provides cumulative support for the overarching

Intersections/Structural Inequality paradigm.

 

38

RESEARCH METHODS
The review of literature and relevant theories resulted in the delineation of
three primary research questions:
1. What are the actual statistics and trends of the transracial adoption
phenomena?

2. How do newspapers portray the transracial adoption phenomena?
3. Do newspaper portrayals reflect actual statistics and trends?

Research Parameters
Infant Adoption

Preliminary research on the topic of transracial adoption found that the
information available was primarily about special needs children (non-infantlolder
children, mentally or physically disabled, sibling groups) who were either
removed from their parent(s) home or relinquished clue to factors other than race.
In the state of Michigan, special needs children are handled by the Department of
Human Services. Infant adoptions are referred to private adoption agencies
unless the infant is part of a sibling group in foster care (S. o. M. D. o. H.
Services, Adopting a Child in Michigan; Faasse). To keep the focus on racial
factors rather than disabilities or the foster care system, permanent, infant
adoption is the focus of this dissertation and private adoption agencies are

considered to be an important source of information.

State of Michigan
The state of Michigan was chosen as the research site to investigate

these questions for a number of reasons. Most importantly, Michigan is home to

39

 

the national headquarters of Bethany Christian Services, a private, not-for-profit,
Christian adoption agency. Bethany considers itself the largest national adoption
agency in the United States with 75 national locations and 15 international
locations (B. C. Services). Combined with the understanding that infant
adoptions are handled by private agencies, Bethany’s headquarters are
considered to be a prime access point for information on national and
international adoption.

The second reason for choosing Michigan as the research site is its

unique type of racial diversity. Although it continues to be a highly White/Black I

 

state (7.89 million/1.45 million respectively), Michigan has recently experienced .2.
growth in its Asian (220,000) and Hispanic (375,000) populations (Kellogg).
Additionally, the city of Detroit is home to one of the largest, consolidated Black
populations in the United States (Massey; Bureau). Not only does Michigan
provide the opportunity to study adoption across racial lines, but also adoption
into primarily White or Black communities.

Finally, Sandra Patton theorized that the Multiracial Ethnic Placement Act
may have been less about the best interests of the child, and more about
creating a parachute for children of color soon to be displaced by welfare-to-work
legislation. Patton briefly explores the possibility that as resources are removed
from poor families due to the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation
Act (PRWRA), rates of children available for adoption could increase. Patton
notes that the Multiracial Ethnic Placement Act not only provides more

opportunities for children to be placed into homes, but in conjunction PRWRA, a

40

greater number of children available to middle and upper-class, White families
seeking to adopt (Patton).
In effect, the legislation made it more difﬁcult for poor women to keep their
families together, while making it easier for middle-class people to adopt
the children removed from their mothers. Policymakers’ explicit removal
of racial barriers to adoption revealed their desire to regulate the
reproductive behavior of women of color and White women who “cross[ed]
the color-line” and gave birth to multiracial children (Patton).
Since Michigan is the catalyst in the welfare-to-work movement, F
Michigan’s adoption statistics provide insight into Patton’s theory (University;

House).

 

2r

1985 — 2005

As discussed in the literature review, in the 19805 the debate changed
from a macro-level assessment about whether transracial adoption should occur,
to a micro-level focus on the best interest of individual children. Preliminary
research found that compilation of information on adoption seemed to follow a
similar pattern due to the decreasing number of public and private organizations
collecting comprehensive Information on adoption trends. Similarly, newspaper
articles seemed to focus on the transracial adoption experience, rather than the
transracial adoption controversy. In order to gain a better understanding of the
contemporary (1995-2005) transracial adoption phenomena, the previous two

decades are the focus of statistical and media research.

41

Research Hypotheses
A consideration of the broad research questions and the outlined research
parameters resulted in the following eight hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: During the period of 1985 — 2005, statistics and general
information will be available on infant transracial adoption in Michigan, yet the
information will be incomplete and fragmented.

Hypothesis 2: During the period of 1985 - 2005, newspaper articles on ..
transracial adoption available to Michigan residents will communicate a positive r
portrayal of the phenomenon.

Hypothesis 3: Newspaper articles on transracial adoption available to Michigan
residents will communicate an increasingly positive portrayal of the transracial
adoption phenomenon beginning in 1985 through 2005.

 

Hypothesis 4: During the period of 1985 — 2005, adoptive parents and adoption -2"
agencies will be the source of information for most newspaper articles available

to Michigan residents on transracial adoption. Birthparents will rarely be the

source of information for newspaper articles to Michigan residents on transracial

adopﬁon.

Hypothesis 5: During the period of 1985 — 2005, newspaper articles on
transracial adoption available to Michigan residents will communicate a positive
portrayal of adoptive parents and adoption agencies and a negative portrayal of
birthparents.

Hypothesis 6: Newspaper articles on transracial adoption available to Michigan
residents will communicate an increasingly positive portrayal of adoptive parents
and adoption agencies and an increasingly negative portrayal of birthparents
beginning in 1985 through 2005.

Hypothesis 7: During the period of 1985 — 2005, editorial letters on the topic of
transracial adoption submitted by individuals to newspapers available to
Michigan residents will communicate a positive portrayal of the transracial
adoption phenomenon.

Hypothesis 8: During the period of 1985 - 2005, editorial letters on the topic of
transracial adoption submitted by individuals to newspapers available to
Michigan residents will communicate a positive portrayal of adoptive parents and
adoption agencies and a negative portrayal of birthparents.

42

Data Collection Methods
Statistics and Trends

A feasibility study was initially conducted to determine the speciﬁcs of the
research plan. The feasibility study began with an exploration of the Michigan
Department of Human Services website. A brief review of the adoption process
in Michigan is available as well as associated forms and information on recent
legislation in the area of adoption. Statistics on the number of wards in the state,
foster care, and permanent placements are available in PDF format and
categorized by race, age, sibling groups, and disabilities. The person
responsible for this information is the State of Michigan Adoption Specialist in the
Adoption Services Division of the Department of Human Services. In a phone
conversation in March of 2005, the State Adoption Specialist explained that the
Adoption Services Division had various types of data on adoption rates in
electronic format for the previous three or four years. Adoption information was
available in hard copy reports beginning in 1990. The storage of this data, as
well as pre-1990 data could probably be identiﬁed if research were to be
conducted in the area (Johnson).

The second part of the feasibility study involved contacting Bethany
Christian Services about their information available on adoption with the hope
that the organization would have detailed information on available infants, rates
of relinquishment, individuals applying to be adoptive parents as well as race and
social class information on each of these populations. In March of 2005, a face-

to-face interview was conducted with Bethany’s Director of Adoption Services on

43

 

the topics of adoption practices and data collection. Similar to the State of
Michigan, most of the information was in hard copy. At that point in time Bethany
did not have any plans to compile or report the information. The Director did
explain that information on ﬁnalized adoptions are reported to the Adoption
Services Division of the Department of Human Services in the State of Michigan
through a form entitled, The Facilitator Clearinghouse Recog (Faasse). Further
investigation into the topic found that all private agencies and attorneys which
facilitate adoption must submit a completed form for each ﬁnalized adoption (S.

o. M. D. o. H. Services, Adopting a Child in Michiggg).

 

The result of the feasibility study was a research plan to gather and e
compile all of the hard and electronic statistical data available on adoption from
the Department of Human Services and Bethany Christian Services. If speciﬁc,
detailed information could be collected it would be entered into SPSS for storage,
analysis of trends, and used to create reports. If only broad reports on trends
were located, the reports themselves would be analyzed. The type of information
available and the areas lacking Information would be identiﬁed. The information
from the private agency would be compared and contrasted with the Department
of Human Services to assess consistency. The results would be considered in
regard to hypothesis one and used to provide insight into contemporary

transracial adoption trends in Michigan.

44

Newspaper Portrayals

In consideration of the 1985 through 2005 time frame, four years were
chosen upon which to collect newspaper articles on transracial adoption: 1987,
1993, 1999, and 2004. The initial year selected was 1993 due to the
establishment of the Multiracial Ethnic Placement Act in 1994. The previous six
years and the following six and twelve years were selected to benchmark the
portrayal of transracial adoption throughout the twenty year time period. r

Three newspaper organizations were chosen to represent the type of

information available on transracial adoption to Michigan residents. The Detroit

 

News has the largest state-wide circulation and is probably the most E
representative of general news in Michigan. The Grand Rapids Press was
chosen because although it is a city newspaper, it could be argued that it is the
primary source of print news in the western part of Michigan. The New York
Times was chosen to represent the national media presence in Michigan.

Electronic and paper indexes of each newspaper for the delineated years
were searched using the following terms: adoption, orphan, foster care. Articles
within which transracial adoption was discussed or portrayed in the content, title,
or picture were selected.

Each selected article was coded by the primary researcher, a multiracial
female considered to be a young adult. The method of coding could be
considered to be quantifying, qualitative data: the qualitative content and

presentation of the article was assessed and a quantitative value assigned.

45

Each article was initially read casually with notations of striking points and
the presentation of the information. The article was read a second time with
greater attention to the portrayal of transracial adoption and the stakeholder
groups involved. The primary researcher handwrote the assessments on a pre-
printed coding grid noting the three types of information: portrayal of transracial
adoption stakeholders, sources of information, purpose of article (Appendix A).

The three primary stakeholders of focus in this dissertation are adoptive
parents, birthparents, and adoption-related agencies. The term adoption-related

agency is used because some non-profit agencies place infants and children in

 

adoptive homes, although it was not the organizations’ primary mission.
Secondary stakeholders also considered are the adoptees, the United States
government and international governments.

The primary researcher assessed whether the stakeholder group was
portrayed very positively, somewhat positively, neutral, somewhat negatively,
very negatively, if the article included both positive and negative portrayals, and if
it was not possible to categorize. The primary researcher also assessed how
transracial adoption was generally portrayed in the article using the same scale.

The source of information for the article was determined by the type of
information provided and the stakeholders quoted. Most articles clearly identiﬁed
the source of information and many of the articles had multiple sources of
information.

The primary researcher then wrote brief summations about how the

concept of race was attended to, the primary topic, and the subtopic of the

46

article. The ﬁnal step was to categorize the article into a type: Report,
Informational, Personal, or Call-to-action. Reports are considered to be broad,
comprehensive pieces with the purpose of reporting information to the general
public. Informational articles are similar to reports in the respect that the primary
purpose is to provide information to the general public, yet this information is not
a formal report on trends but speciﬁc information about phenomena. Personal
articles could be considered “human-interest” stories about an individual or small
group with the purpose of telling a story. Calls-to-action can include aspects of
the previously identiﬁed types yet it is clear that the objective is to prompt the
reader to act on the information provided.

Once the coding began this portion of the coding was adjusted to include
three additional categories. “Primarily informational”, for a certain number of
articles which could not be completely categorized as informational. Similarly,
“primarily personal”, which could not be easily restricted to the personal category.
Also, ﬁfteen letters to the editor included the topic of transracial adoption. These
articles were identiﬁed as such and coded to the extent possible.

The coding grid was attached to each article. The information was data
entered into SPSS with general information such as the newspaper, date, day of
the week, section, type of section (e.g. Metro, National), page number, name of
author, and type of author (e.g. local, AP, UFS). At this time the primary
researcher noted whether a picture, chart, or graph was present and determined
how the title and picture (if present) portrayed transracial adoption using the

following scale:

47

1 — Very positively

2 — Somewhat positively
3 — Neutral

4 -- Somewhat negatively
5 — Very negatively

6 — Both

7 — Can’t tell

This numeric scale was also used for the previously coded portrayals of
transracial adoption and stakeholders. Upon analysis, these variables were F
recoded into an ordinal scale.

1 — Very positively and somewhat positively

2 — Neutral, Both, Can’t Tell
3 — Somewhat negatively and very negatively

 

This compilation and recoding allowed for the calculation of means for
each group during different time periods for comparison. Consequently, smaller
means indicate a more positive portrayal and larger means a more negative
portrayal.

Example:

Excerpt from Table 14: Portrayal of Transracial Adoption by Year

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year Overall Mean
1987 1.8

1993 1.5

1999 1.2857

2004 1.4167

 

 

 

An analysis of the above example concludes that the most positive
portrayal of transracial adoption occurred in 1999. The least positive portrayal
was observed in 1987, yet in general the means hover around the
neutral/diplomatic portrayal midpoint. Details on initial coding and recoding can

be found in the codebook (Appendix B).

48

Once the quantitative ﬁndings and analyses were completed the articles
were reviewed for qualitative trends. Headlines, pictures, and content details
which were not previously quantified were identiﬁed. Four primary qualitative
observations were made and are included in the qualitative section of the
Analysis and Findings chapter along with a discussion of the results for
hypothesis one on statistics and trends. The quantitative conclusions are

discussed in the quantitative section of the Analysis and Findings chapter.

Contextual Information

It should also be noted that in order to have a more complete
understanding of the transracial adoption phenomena, additional information was
gathered. Most importantly, although this dissertation focuses on transracial
adoption, general adoption practices and policies were reviewed in addition to
those speciﬁc to transracial adoption. Information was also gathered on the
government foster care system, African-American kinship networks, and the
experiences of the various adoption stakeholders (adoptive parents, birthparents,
adoptees).

Additionally, the social context of the previous two decades is considered.
Policy and statistical trends in the areas of welfare and abortion were reviewed to
gain a better understanding of resources, options, and choices of the
stakeholders during the various periods of time. After the transracial adoption
article coding was completed, articles included in the speciﬁed time periods were

read for additional insight into the priorities, ideologies, concerns, and events of

49

 

the time. Although the contextual information is not speciﬁcally reported in the

ﬁndings or discussion, it helped to inform the research and ﬁndings.

50

 

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

Hypothesis one on the topic of transracial infant adoption statistics and
trends is not able to be directly addressed. Research discovered that little
information on infant adoptions is being collected in the research site of
Michigan. Consequently, there is no compilation or publication of Michigan infant
adoption statistics and trends. These ﬁndings are discussed in the latter section,
Qualitative Findings. Hypotheses two through eight regarding newspaper
portrayals are quantitatively analyzed in this next section, Quantitative Findings,
followed by qualitative observations in the Qualitative Findings section. A
discussion of the implications of these analyses and ﬁndings can be found in the

ﬁnal chapter, Discussion and Conclusions.

Quantitative Findings
General Observations

A total of 75 pieces were identiﬁed as including information about
transracial adoption. Fifteen of these were letters to the editor which were not
considered newspaper articles and were analyzed separately.

Fourteen articles from The Grand Rapids Press were included as well as
22 articles from The New York Times. The Detroit Free Press represented the
greatest proportion of general articles with a signiﬁcant amount (13, 22% of the
articles) in 1993. A review of The Detroit Free Press in 1993 revealed an
increase in reporting on the number of African-American males available for

adoption with attention to a speciﬁc Detroit-based program (Table 1).

51

 

Table 1:

Crosstabulation: Source v. Year

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source Total
GRP DNS NYT GRP
Year 1987 Count 2 5 9 16
% within Year 12.5% 31.3% 56.3% 100.0%
0/0 Within 0 O O O
Source 14.3/o 20.8/o 40.9%: 26.7%)
1993 Count 3 13 2 18
% Within Year 16.7% 72.2% 11.1% 100.0%
% within 0 o o 0
Source 21.4 /o 54.2 /o 9.1 /o 30.0 A:
1999 Count 5 3 6 14
% within Year 35.7% 21.4% 42.9% 100.0%
% within 0 o o 0
Source 35.7/0 12.5/o 27.3% 23.3/o
2004 Count 4 3 5 12
% within Year 33.3% 25.0% 41.7% 100.0%
0 . .
g W'""" 28.6% 12.5% 22.7% 20.0%
ource
Total Count 14 24 22 60
"/0 within Year 23.3% 40.0% 36.7% 100.0%
% within
Source 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

 

 

Articles with information on transracial adoption were most likely to appear
on Sunday (26.7%) and least likely to appear on Saturday (6.7%, Table 2). Half
of the articles appeared in section A, the ﬁrst section of each newspaper (50.9%).
Articles also appeared in sections B (10.5%) and C (14.0%) yet were not found
as often in other sections (Table 3). One-third of the articles appeared on the
front of the section (33.3%) and one-fifth appeared on the ﬁrst page of the
newspaper (18%, Table 4).

One-fourth of the articles appeared in the “National” portion of the
newspaper (23.5%). Articles were also likely to appear in the ﬁrst section of the

newspaper (19.6%) and the Metro portion of the newspaper (15.7%, Table 5).

52

The Grand Rapids Press and The Detroit Free Press were likely to display the
article in the ﬁrst section of the newspaper (28.6% and 40.0% respectively), yet
articles on transracial adoption in The New York Times were primarily displayed
in the “National” section (50%, Table 6).

One-third of the articles were considered to be primarily informational
(35.0%) and another third were considered to be primarily personal (36.7%).
Personal articles were human interest, individualistic stories or recounts

compared to informational articles which seemed to provide general information

 

about adoption and reports (16.7%) which focused on broad, macro-level
adoption policies and trends. A few articles were categorized as a call-to-action
(11.7%) meaning the article went beyond providing information to encouraging
the reader to respond in a specified manner (Table 7). Unsurprisingly, The New
York Times articles were primarily informational (44.5%) and included a
signiﬁcant number of reports (5 reports, 22.7%) whereas The Grand Rapids
Press had primarily personal articles (57.1%) and The Detroit Free Press fell in-
between the two extremes (Table 8).

Only four of the articles included a chart, graph, or presentation of
statistics (Table 9). Thirty-three of the articles included a graphic picture (55.0%
of the articles) which were most likely to accompany a primarily personal piece

on transracial adoption (30.3% of articles including a picture, Table 10).

53

Table 2: Frequency: Day of the week

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valid
Frequency Percent

Sunday 16 26.7%

Monday 9 15. 0%

Tuesday 7 1 1 .7%

Wednesday 5 100%

Thursday 12 20.0%

Friday 6 10.0%

Saturday 4 6.7%

Total 60 100. 0%

Table 3: Frequency: Section of Newspaper

Valid
Frequency Percent Percent

Magazine 1 1.7% 1.8%
A 29 48.3% 50.9%
B 6 10.0% 10.5%
C 8 13.3% 14.0%
D 2 3.3% 3.5%
E 2 3.3% 3.5%
F 3 5.0% 5.3%
G 1 1.7% 1.8%
K 1 1.7% 1.8%
R 1 1.7% 1.8%
S 2 3.3% 3.5%
BB 1 1.7% 1.8%
Total 57 95.0% 100.0%
Missing System 3 5.0%

Total 60 100.0%

Table 4: Frequency: Fag:

Valid
Frequency Percent

First 20 33.3%
Third 6 10.0%
4-7 13 21.7%
8-10 5 8.3%
11-20 11 18.3%
21-30 3 5.0%
30+ 2 3.3%
Total 60 100.0%

 

 

 

 

 

54

 

 

Table 5: Frequency: Type of section

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valid
Frequency Percent Percent

First 10 16.7% 19.6%
Metro 8 13.3% 15.7%
City/Region 3 5.0% 5.9%
Neighborhood/Community 5 10.0% 1 1.8%
National 12 20.0% 23.5%
Sports 2 3.3% 3.9%
Religion 2 3.3% 3.9%
Entertainment 2 3.3% 3.9%
Editorial 1 1.7% 2.0%
Financial 1 1.7% 2.0%
lntemational 4 6.7% 7.8%
Total 51 85.0% 100.0%
Missing System 9 15.0%

Total 60 100. 0%

 

 

 

 

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56

Table 7: Frequency: Tng of Article

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Freguency Percent
Report 10 16.7%
Informational 15 25.0%
Personal 13 21 .7%
Call to action 7 11.7%
Informational/Personal 5 10.0%
Personal/I nformational 9 15.0%
Total 60 100. 0%

 

57

 

 

Table 8: Crosstabulation: Source v. Lype of Article

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source Total
GRP DNS NYT
What Report Count
type 0“ 2 3 5 10
article
was it?
% within What type 0 o o o
of article was it? 20.0 /o 30.0 /o 50.0 A: 100.0 A:
% within Source 14.3% 12.5% 22.7% 16.7%
Informational Count 2 4 9 15
% within What type 0 o o o
of article was it? 13.3 A: 26.7 /o 60.0 A) 100.0 /0
% within Source 14.3% 15.7% 40.9% 25.0%
Personal Count 8 5 0 13
% within What type 0 o o o
of article was it? 61.5 /o 38.5/0 .O/o 100.04:
% within Source 57.1% 20.8% .0% 21.7%
Call to action Count 2 5 0 7
% within What type 0 o o o
of article was it? 28.6 A; 71.4 /o .0 /0 100.0 /0
% within Source 14.3% 20.8% .0% 11.7%
lnformational/ C t
Personal Gun 0 3 3 6
% within What type 0 o o o
of article was it? .0 /o 50.0 A) 50.0 A: 100.0 A:
% within Source 0% 12.5% 13.5% 10.0%
Personal/
Infomtational Count 0 4 5 9
% within What type 0 o o o
of article was it? .0 /o 44.4 /o 55.6 /0 100.0 /0
% within Source .0% 16.7% 22.7% 15.0%
Total Count 14 24 22 60
% within What type 0 o o o
of article was it? 23.3 /o 40.0 /o 36.7 /0 100.0 A)
% Within Source 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

 

58

 

 

Table 9: Crosstabulation: Graph, Chart, or Statistics Present? v. Type of Article

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is a graph,
chart, or
statistics
present? Total
Yes Yes
What type of Report Count 3 3
article was 't? % within What type of o 0
article was it? 100° /° 100° /°
% within Is a graph,
chart, or statistics 75.0% 75.0%
present?
Informational/Person Count 1 1
a' (2/ within What e of
attticle was it? typ ”00% 100-0%
% within Is a graph,
chart, or statistics 25.0% 25.0%
present?
Total Count 4 4
% within What type of o 0
article was it? 100.0 /0 100.0 /0
% within Is a graph,
chart, or statistics 100.0% 100.0%
present?

 

59

 

 

Table 10: Crosstabulation: Picture Present? v. Type of Article

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is there a picture present Total
Yes No Yes
What Report Count 0 10 10
”£2,“ % within What type
33's :2 of article was it? 0% 100.0% 100.0%
% within Is there a 0
picture present .0% 37.0% 16.7 /o
Informational Count 9 6 1 5
% within What type
of article was it? 60.0% 40.0% 100.0%
% within Is there a
picture present 27.3% 22.2% 25.0%
Personal Count 10 3 13
% within What type
of article was it? 76.9% 23.1% 100.0%
% within Is there a
picture present 30.3% 1 1.1% 21 .7%
Call to action Count 3 4 7
% within What type
of article was it? 42.9% 57.10/0 100.0°/o
% within Is there a
picture present 9.1% 14.8% 1 1 .7%
Informational/Personal Count 5 1 6
% within What type
of article was it? 83.3% 16.7% 100.0%
% within Is there a
picture present 15.2% 3.7% 10.0%
Personal/Informational Count 6 3 9
% within What type
of article was it? 66.7% 33.3% 100.0%
% within Is there a
picture present 18.2% 1 1.1% 15.0%
Total Count 33 27 60
% within What type
of article was it? 55.0% 45.0% 100.0%
% within Is there a
picture present 100.0% 100.0% 1 00.0%

 

 

6O

Hvootheses

Hypothesis 2: During the period of 1985 — 2005, newspaper articles on
transracial adoption available to Michigan residents will communicate a positive
portrayal of the phenomenon.

Hypothesis two was supported with 50.8% of the articles portraying
transracial adoption “very positively” and only 17% considered negative or very
negative (Table 11). Titles of the articles could be interpreted as a more “neutral”
portrayal of transracial adoption than the content of the article (41.7% very

positive, 20.0% neutral, 13.3% both) but it is important to note that articles which

included pictures of transracial adoption (e.g. adults with children of an obviously

 

different race than their own) were primarily positive (63.6% very positive, 9.1% __L
positive) and seemingly neutral titles had a more positive connotation by
association (Table 12, Appendix B).

Additionally, the article’s portrayal of transracial adoption seemed to be
consistent with the title’s portrayal of transracial adoption. A few articles that
portrayed transracial adoption positively or very positively had titles that were
considered “neutral” or both positive and negative, but none of the positive
articles had titles that portrayed transracial adoption negatively. Similarly, none
of the articles that portrayed transracial adoption negatively or very negatively
were prefaced by positive titles (Table 13).

Based on these analyses, it can be concluded that the title and picture
accompanying an article about transracial adoption had a portrayal consistent
with the content of the article. The majority of the articles portrayed transracial

adoption positively.

61

Table 11: Frequency: How does the article seem towards TRA?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valid
Frequency Percent Percent

Very Positive 30 50.0% 508%
Positive 9 15.0% 1 5.3%
Neutral 4 67% 6.8%
Negative 7 11.7% 11.9%
Very Negative 3 5.0% 5.1%
Both 6 10.0% 10.2%
Total 59 98.3% 100.0%
Missing System 1 1.7%

Total 60 100.0%

 

Table 12: FrequeLcy: How does the picture seem towards TRA?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valid
Frequency Percent Percent

Very Positive 21 35.0% 63.6%
Positive 3 5.0% 9.1%
Neutral 3 5.0% 9.1%
Negative 5 8.3% 15.2%
Very Negative 1 1.7% 3.0%
Total 33 55.0% 100.0%
Missing System 27 45.0%

Total 60 100.0%

 

62

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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64

Hypothesis 3: Newspaper articles on transracial adoption available to Michigan
residents will communicate an increasingly positive portrayal of the phenomenon
beginning in 1985 through 2005.

Table 14: Crosstabulation: Portrayal of TRA v. Year

 

 

 

 

 

Year Positive Neutral/Both Negative Overall Mean
1987 n=15 60% 0% 40% 1.8

1993 n=18 61.1% 27.8% 11.1% 1.5

1999 n=14 78.6% 14.3% 7.1% 1.2857

2004 n=12 66.7% 25.0% 8.3% 1.4167

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although similar to hypothesis two, this hypothesis proposes a longitudinal
increase in positive portrayals of transracial adoption. The 5-point Likert scale
was recoded into an ordinal scale with positive and very positive articles being
assigned the value of one, articles that portrayed transracial adoption neutrally or
both positive and negatively assigned the value of two, and articles that were
negative or very negative assigned the value of three.

A review of the frequencies for each year shows that in 1987 although
most of the articles were positive (60%), a signiﬁcant amount (40%) were
negative. The positive proportion of articles increases overtime with a high of
78.6% in 1999. The proportion of negative articles decreased to single digits in
1999 and 2004 (7.1% and 8.3% respectively; Table 14). The overall mean
decreased from 1.8 in 1987 to 1.4167 in 2004. These ﬁgures support the
hypotheses that transracial adoption will be portrayed more positively over time

(Table 14).

65

 

 

 

Hypothesis 4: During the period of 1985 - 2005, adoptive parents and adoption
agencies will be the source of information for most newspaper articles available
to Michigan residents on transracial adoption. Birthparents will rarely be the
source of information for newspaper articles available to Michigan residents on
transracial adoption.

Table 15: Frequency: Source and Quotes of Stakeholders

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stakeholders Source Quoted
Adoptees 10.0% 11.7%
Adoptive Parents 58.3% 61.7%
Birthparents 6.7% 6.7%
Adoption-related agencies 36.7% 31.7%
US Government 28.3% 23.3%
I nternational Government 5.0% 1.7%
Individual - not a stakeholder 5.0% 3.3%

 

Adoptive parents were the primary sources of information (58.3%) and
were quoted more often than any other stakeholder group (61 .7%). Adoption-
related agencies were the second most common source of information (36.7%)
and were quoted in one-third of the articles (31.7%). The United State
government or its associated agencies were also a significant source of
information (28.3%) and quoted in one-quarter of the articles (23.3%; Table 15).

During the media analysis it was noted that a small but signiﬁcant number
of individuals not previously identiﬁed as stakeholders contributed information to
the article or were quoted in the article (e.g. neighbors, community members
making general comments about adoption). These non-stakeholders had the
same minimal amount of presence as the international government (5% source,
less than 5% quoted). Most importantly, the most relevant stakeholders,
adoptees and birthparents were also not likely to be a source of information for

the articles. Adoptees (many of whom were elementary age) themselves were

66

 

 

the source of information for 10% of the articles and their comments were quoted
in a similar 11.7%. Birthparents were the sources of information for only 6.7% of

the articles and were quoted in the articles to which they contributed information

 

 

 

 

(Table 15).

Table 16: Frequency: Source and Quotes of Stakeholders

Stakeholders Together Source Quote

Adoptive parents and 4.3% 6.4%

birthparents

Adoptive parents and adoption- 26.1% 21.3%

related agencies

Birthparents and adoption-related 2.2% 0.0%
_agencies

 

 

 

 

 

To further investigate hypothesis four, articles were considered to

 

understand which of the three main stakeholders (adoptive parents, birthparents,
adoptive-related agencies) contributed to the same articles. Adoptive parents
and adoptive-related agencies were more likely to be the source of information
for the same article (26.1 %) and quoted (21.3%). Adoptive parents and
birthparents were the source of information and quoted in about 5% of the
articles, yet birthparents were rarely the source (2.2%) and never quoted in
congruence with adoption-related agencies (Table 16).

These trends show ovenNhelming support for hypothesis four which
purports that adoptive parents and adoption-related agencies are more likely to
be the source of information on transracial adoption articles in Michigan than

birthparents.

67

 

Hypothesis 5: During the period of 1985 - 2005, newspaper articles on
transracial adoption available to Michigan residents will communicate a positive
portrayal of adoptive parents and adoption agencies and a negative portrayal of
birthparents.

Table 17: Frequency: Portrayal of Stakeholders

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Positive Neutral/Both Negative

Adoptive Parents 78.9% 15.8% 5.3%
n=57
Birthparents 22.6% 22.6% 54.8%
n=31 f
Adoption-related 71.4% 11.4% 17.1%
Agencies
n=35

Building on hypothesis four, hypothesis ﬁve further delineates that EV

adoptive parent and adoption agencies will be portrayed positively and -
birthparents will be portrayed negatively. The most signiﬁcant trend relating to
this hypothesis is the fact that adoptive parents are discussed in most of the sixty
articles (57) whereas birthparents are only discussed in half of the articles (31).
Although the proportions reveal that adoptive parents are portrayed more
positively in the articles (78.9%), birthparents, when they are discussed, are
more likely to be portrayed negatively (54.8%). Adoption-related agencies are
also the topic of discussion in approximately half of the articles (35), yet when
they are discussed they are more likely to be portrayed positively (71.4%; Table
17).

The data was reviewed for additional trends such as a correlation between
the type of article (e.g. report), which stakeholder group was portrayed, and how
the stakeholder group was portrayed yet nothing signiﬁcant was identiﬁed. A

crosstabulation with the data from hypothesis four also did not provide any

68

additional insight since adoptive parents were the primary source of information
for all articles and various portrayals of stakeholder groups.

The most signiﬁcant conclusion for hypothesis ﬁve is the fact that although
the data seems to support the general direction (adoptive parents and adoption
agencies portrayed positively, birthparents portrayed negatively), it is important to
note that birthparents are 50% less likely to be included in an article on
transracial adoption than adoptive parents, and when they are included, it is likely

to be a negative portrayal (Table 17).

 

69

Hypothesis 6: Newspaper articles on transracial adoption available to Michigan
residents will communicate an increasingly positive portrayal of adoptive parents
and adoption agencies and an increasingly negative portrayal of birthparents

beginning in 1985 through 2005.

Table 18a: Crosstabulation: Portrayal of Adoptive Parents v. Year

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year Positive Neutral/Both Negative Overall Mean
1987 n=16 81.3% 12.5% 6.3% 1.2500

1993 n=17 70.6% 29.4% 0.0% 1.2941

1999 n=13 84.6% 0.0% 15.4% 1.3077

2004 n=11 81.8% 18.2% 0.0% 1.1818
Table 18b: Crosstabulation: Portrayal of Birthparents v. Year

Year Positive Neutral/Both Negative Overall Mean
1987 n=7 14.3% 14.3% 71.4% 2.5714

1993 n=10 20.0% 30.0% 50.0% 2.3000

1999 n=8 25.0% 25.0% 50.0% 2.2500

2004 n=6 33.3% 16.7% 50.0% 2.1667
Table 18c: Crosstabulation: Portrayal of Adoption-related Agencies v. Year

Year Positive Neutral/Both Negative Overall Mean
1987 n=9 33.3% 22.2% 44.4% 2.1111

1993 n=11 90.9% 9.1% 0.0% 1.0909

1999 n=8 87.5% 0.0% 12.5% 1.2500

2004 n=7 71 .4% 14.3% 14.3% 1.4286

 

 

 

 

 

 

Longitudinal patterns related to the portrayal of the three main groups of

stakeholders are difﬁcult to deﬁnitively assess. Except in 1999, adoptive parents

were overwhelmingly portrayed positively throughout the 1985-2005 time period.

With the exception of 1987, adoption-related agencies were also consistently

portrayed positively. The increase in positive portrayals of adoption-related

agencies from 1987 to 1993 could be interpreted as longitudinal increase, yet the

distribution in 1993 is similar to the following years of 1999 and 2004 (Table 18a -

18c)

The portrayal of birthparents shows evidence of becoming more positive

(rather than negative as the hypothesis suggests) over the 1985 — 2005 time

period. Although each year shows a signiﬁcant amount of negative portrayals,

70

 

the proportion of positive portrayals increased from 14.3% in 1987 to 33.3% in
2004 and the means for each year decrease indicating a generally more positive
portrayal (Table 18a-18c).

The longitudinal directions purported by hypothesis six were not supported
by the data. Adoptive parents and adoption-agencies did not show a notable
longitudinal increase in positive portrayals, yet the positive portrayals of

birthparents seemed to increase rather than decrease over the period. F

 

71

Hypothesis 7: During the period of 1985 - 2005, editorial letters on the topic of
transracial adoption submitted by individuals to newspapers available to
Michigan residents will communicate a positive portrayal of the phenomenon.

Table 19: Frequency: How does the letter to the editor seem towards TRA?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frequency Percent Combined
Valid Very Positive 3 57_1%
. . 64.3%
Posrtive 1 7.1%
Negative 1 11%
Very o 21.4% F
Negative 2 14'3 /°
Both 2 14.3% 14.3%
Total 14 100.0% 100.0%
When letters to the editor were identiﬁed as including information on [
transracial adoption (15 letters), they were collected but not included with the

analysis of the general articles. The dissertation focuses on the information that
Michigan residents were exposed to about transracial adoption which includes
the letters to the editor. The coding of these letters was signiﬁcantly different
than the general articles focusing mainly on portrayals of the stakeholder groups
and less on the presentation of the letter (e.g. title) since the way the letter
appears and the actual content of the letter is ultimately determined by the editor,
not the author of the letter.

Comparable to hypothesis two, hypothesis seven also proposes that
letters to the editor will communicate a positive portrayal of the phenomenon.
Although the majority (64.3%) were considered positive, 21.4% were considered
negative including 14.3% categorized as very negative. Another significant
14.3% of the articles included positive and negative portrayals of transracial

adoption. These proportions differ from the general articles in the respect that

72

although 17% of the general articles were considered negative, only 5.1% were
categorized as very negative. Additionally only 10.2% of the general articles
were considered both positive and negative (Table ? and Table 19).

Hypothesis seven is supported by the data in the respect that the majority
of the letters to the editor did portray transracial adoption as positive. A
comparison with the proportions in hypothesis two reveals that the letters to the
editor are more likely to portray transracial adoption as very negative and/or to

discuss positive and negative aspects of the topic than the general articles.

 

73

Hypothesis 8: During the period of 1985 — 2005, editon'al letters on the topic of
transracial adoption submitted by individuals to newspapers available to
Michigan residents will communicate a positive portrayal of adoptive parents and
adoption agencies and a negative portrayal of birthparents.

Table 20: Frequency: Portrayal of Stakeholders

 

 

 

 

 

Positive Neutral/Both Negative
Adoptive Parents 57.1% 14.3% 28.6%
n=14
Birthparents 75.0% 0.0% 25.0%
n=4
Adoption-related 20.0% 20.0% 60.0%
Agencies
n=5

 

 

 

 

Similar to the general articles, adoptive parents are much more likely to be
discussed in the letters to the editor (adoptive parents n=14, birthparents n=4,
adoption-related agencies n=5). A review of the proportions (recognizing that the
sample size is small) shows a different pattern than the general articles in which
the adoptive parents are overwhelming portrayed positively. Although 57.1 %
portrayed adoptive parents positively, a notable 28.6% included a distinctly
negative portrayal. Birthparents are more likely to be portrayed positively
(75.0%) and adoption-related agencies are more likely to be portrayed negatively
(60.0%). Considering the fact that letters to the editor are often in response to a
previous occurrence or article, it is feasible to interpret these letters as providing
an alternate portrayal or perspective to the general articles analyzed in
hypotheses two through six. Submissions to the editor may represent the voice
of the birthparents which is rarely evident in general articles and/or criticism of
adoptive parents and adoption-agencies portrayed positively in the general

articles (Table 20).

74

 

 

Qualitative Findings
Newspaper Portravals

The quantiﬁcation of qualitative information provides a better
understanding of how transracial adoption and the related stakeholders were
portrayed in newspapers during the 1985 - 2005 time period. The actual articles
and quantitative results were reviewed for possible areas of additional insight.
Trends in the increasing proportion of ethnographic portrayals of transracial
adoption, absence of birthparents, and the visual representations of Black

Americans were identiﬁed.

 

As previously explained, Table 8 reveals that The New York Times was L
twice as likely to include formal, comprehensive reports on transracial adoption in
comparison to The Detroit News and The Grand Rapids Press. The New York
Times was also most likely to run informational articles as opposed to personal
articles or calls-to-action (Table 8). A qualitative review of The New York Times
articles revealed a trend which was conﬁrmed by a longitudinal, quantitative
analysis: over the 1985 - 2005 time period, The New York Times decreased the
number of reports and informational articles and increased the number of

personal articles on transracial adoption.

75

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76

A comparison of an article, Ad_option Agency Rules Called Unfair to
m, published in February of 1987 to an article, From Russia, Lookingfor
Q18... published in April of 2004, illustrates this ethnographic longitudinal trend.
Although both articles provide overarching information on transracial adoption,
the former is a diplomatic portrayal of organization-level discussion of possible
institutional racial discrimination in adoption agencies. The latter could be F
considered an advertisement endorsing transracial adoption through an

international adoption agency.

 

After nearly two days of travel from their orphanages in Russia, including L
an hourlong drive from Kennedy Airport, the seven children tumbled out of "
the van into the darkness of Francis and Terry Naumann’s
driveway. . .Among the expectant host families surging around the children
that mid-June night were Paul and Gail Geier...|t didn’t take long to ﬁnd
their two charges. Their own photographs were suspended around the
children’s necks...Mr. Geier wiped tears from his eyes.
Additional New York Times articles on transracial adoption in 2004 were
Foreigners in the Land of Their girth, which followed a group of Chinese
transracial adoptees on a trip to Beijing and Strained by AIDS Orphans. Ethiogia
gases Aggptions by Foreigners, which stressed the need for transracial adoption
due to Ethiopian parental deaths dues to famine, war, and AIDS. Considering
the fact that The Grand Rapids Press and The Detroit News are more likely to
run personal articles, Michigan residents’ access and exposure to broad,

structural, and/or comprehensive discussions of the transracial adoption

phenomenon decreased over the past two decades.

77

The n values in table 17 show that adoptive parents are included as
subjects in most of the articles on transracial adoption (57 of 60). Adoption
agencies and birthparents are subjects in approximately half of the articles (35
and 31 respectively; Table 17). Although this trend seems reasonable given the
conﬁdential, anonymous role of birthparents and the usually easily identiﬁcation
of transracial adoptive families, it is important to note that the perspective,
choices, and experiences of birthparents are rarely attended to even in non-
descript, aggregate terms.

A number of articles within which birthparents are subjects of discussion
follow specific child-custody cases. The birthparents are not only discussed in-
detail in these articles, but also serve as one of multiple sources of information.
An example are two articles which discuss whether a Pakistani couple legally
abandoned their 9 year old daughter which would permit immigration and
adoption by a Michigan Caucasian family. A series of three articles followed the
decisions of a tribal court’s ruling on the adoption of a Navajo boy by White
parents. In these articles transracial adoption and the various stakeholder
groups are generally represented diplomatically, yet these are the few articles
with in-depth representation of birthparents.

The major finding in this area is the fact that adoptive parents and
adoption agencies are the primary sources of information on birthparents.
Although it is expected that adoptive parents would speak about birthparents in

abstract terms, adoption agencies, which one would expect are intimately

78

 

 

involved in the choices and experiences of birthparents, seem to provide little
additional insight, even in aggregate terms.

An article entitled, AdOJQtiOl'l of Black Babies Increases as Stiwaim,
is the only article which portrays the history, choices, and experiences of Black
birthmothers. Special-needs Adgptions Are On The Rise in Kent, includes a
discussion of adoptive parents and the children available, yet in reference to
birthparents only states, “Most have been removed from their parents because of
abuse and/or neglect.” Foster Homes Can Make Difference, is a call for foster 9.

parents with clear implications that birthparents are drug abusers needing time to

 

kick their habits. The children are in need for a family to provide the moral L
training at which the birthparents failed. The source of information for this article
is The Department of Social Services, which feasibly could be removing 150
children a month from substance-abusing parents, but no additional explanations
for these apparently high rates of removal is offered (e.g. ﬁnancial difﬁculties,
widows, orphans).

Notably, information on birthparents who voluntarily relinquished infant
children is practically non-existent. An article published in January of 1993,
displays a front-page chart on longitudinal adoption rates by race noting that the
information was provided by the Michigan Department of Social Services. The
article begins with a qualitative interview with a young, Black single mother who
chose to relinquish her second child for adoption in order to complete college and
better care for her 1-year old daughter. The author then reviews rates of

voluntary infant relinquishments and involuntary child removals in the Detroit

79

area. The article concludes with a socio-historical discussion of a decreased in
Black extended family networks which the author theorizes has increased the
number of Black women choosing to formally adopt children through private
adoption agencies.

The irony lies in the fact that the article discussed in the previous
paragraph provides evidence that broad, statistical information on transracial
adoption existed at some point in time. The article also demonstrates the ability r
of a journalist to provide information about birthparents and their experiences

(including those who voluntarily relinquished children) without breaching the

 

conﬁdentiality and anonymity essential to the adoption process. The lack of
comprehensive information on adoption trends and incomplete portrayal of
birthparents is emphasized by the fact that an article was located which fully
attended to both.

Similar to the discussion on the selective portrayals of birthparents and the
transracial adoption phenomenon in general, is the portrayal of Black Americans
in transracial adoption articles. A visual analysis revealed a trend in which
African Americans seemed particularly demonized. Although various racial
groups were discussed, international adoption seemed to have a neutral racial
portrayal, yet the domestic adoption of Black infants and children had negative
connotations for all types of Black stakeholders.

Titles of articles on international adoption had neutral or positive
connotations such as: CﬁhileaLn Girl is Adopted By Family in Jenison and Gui—up

Aigs Foreign Mentions: Organization Honors Culture of Children’s Birth Cwntrv.

80

As previously explained, transracial adoption articles on domestic adoption
focused on involuntary removal of children from problem homes rather than
voluntary infant relinquishment. The result are titles such as: Counties’ Black
Children Suffer a Foster Care Crisis and Black Children, White Parents.

The interaction between the title and an accompanying picture had
interesting implications. An article entitled, Rise In Ad_options Ad__ds Joy to
Sim, includes a picture of a smiling White mother and Black child with the
caption that they are sharing a happy thought before the adoption hearing.
Although the title is seemingly neutral about transracial adoption and its
stakeholders, the picture makes the article a positive portrayal of transracial
adoption and White adoptive parents with implicit negative implications for the
Black birthparent no longer parenting the adoptee.

A picture of a Black priest with two Black children is entitled, M99
Priest Sets Example for Aﬂtive Parents. It is displayed left of the article,
Program Shelters Black Children which begins, “Thousands of previously
unwanted black children have found permanent homes through an unusual
church and state partnership being forged across the country.” Especially
evident in The Detroit Free Press, although also addressed by The Grand Rapids
Press and The New York Times, is an alarm for the number of Black children
removed from abusive and neglectful parents and the shortage of Black families
willing to adopt these children implying a need for transracial adoption. The
article on shelters for Black children explains, “The crisis comes in the shortage

of African American families that have come forward to provide loving homes for

81

 

these children.” This sentence provides verbal characterization of the titles and
pictures accompanying Blacks, both birthparents and potential adoptive parents,
who are apparently irresponsible and are causing a large number of Black
children languishing in foster care. Even an the article recently praised for its
thorough portrayal of adoption and its stakeholders is entitled, Adoption of Black

_B_a_bies lncregses As Stigma Fades. Although the article is commended for its

 

macro and micro level attendance to transracial adoption, its title associates F
Black children with the term “stigma”.

Unlike the more objective analysis detailed in the section on quantitative
results, these qualitative trends cannot be considered to be statistically signiﬁcant bit

or representative of all of the newspaper portrayals of transracial adoption from
1985 to 2005. Yet, in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the
newspaper articles a visual analysis provides additional insight into the portrayal
of transracial adoption and its stakeholders available to Michigan residents.
§t_§tistics andTrend_s

Despite the importance of adoption to many groups, it remains an under-

researched area and a topic on which the data are incomplete. Indeed, at

this writing, no comprehensive national data are collected by the federal

government.”

Stolley 1993

This excerpt characterizes the search for data on the topic of adoption,
especially infant transracial adoption. One might perceive this dissertation as
failing to collect or begin a comprehensive collection of data on adoption.

Instead, it is more important to state that extremely affordable, possibly free,

personnel and technological resources were made available to the state of

82

Michigan and Bethany Christian Services to compile the existing data on
adoption, yet both organizations chose not to take advantage of the opportunity.
Despite the importance of adoption to both entities, comprehensive research in
this area is not a priority for either.

The contribution this dissertation makes to the scholarship on transracial
adoption is the discovery that neither Bethany Christian Services, nor the State of
Michigan, consider the compilation and reporting of information on infant
adoption a priority or even a concern. Although the initial contacts at each
organization were interested in creating a system for compiling and reporting the
information, neither had the power or the time to begin the process. Efforts with
the appropriate individuals at each organization were fruitless with each
explaining that they needed more information on the proposed research, yet they
did not put forth any effort to gather the information from myself or my initial
contact. After a year it was obvious that not only was compiling and reporting the
information not a priority for each organization, there was also an underlying
resistance to doing so.

Hypothesis one purported that the statistics and general information on
infant transracial adoption during the period of 1985 through 2005 would be
incomplete and fragmented. The primary ﬁnding is that micro-level, ethnographic
information is available through public sources such as newspapers, but
comprehensive information on statistics and trends is not collected or compiled.
Although the data exists, there is little potential to compile or report it to assess

its comprehensiveness.

83

 

 

THEORETICAL RELEVANCE

The research ﬁndings were considered in respect to the theories
previously reviewed. Evidence of racism, speciﬁcally group-position theory and
symbolic racism, were identiﬁed in the results. There was also evidence of
agenda setting and issues identiﬁed in the public arenas model. All of the
ﬁndings and results were consistent with, and provided insight into the broader
Intersections/Structural Inequality framework. A brief summary of the ﬁndings

precedes the discussion on theoretical relevance

Findings Review

The quantitative media analysis revealed a few general observations not
speciﬁc to the hypotheses including the likelihood for transracial adoption articles
to appear on Sunday as well as on the ﬁrst page of the entire newspaper. A
trend was also identiﬁed in which more personal articles appeared in the local
paper and more informational articles appeared in the national news venue. The
scarcity of broad, comprehensive reports on the transracial adoption
phenomenon was the most intriguing discovery.

The hypothesis speciﬁc quantitative analyses resulted in the following

conclusions:

- Transracial adoption was portrayed positively in newspapers and
increasingly positive portrayals were identified over the period of 1985
through 2005 (Hypotheses 2 and 3).

- Adoptive parents and adoption agencies were the primary sources of
information for newspaper articles (Hypothesis 4).

. Adoptive parents and adoption agencies were portrayed positively in

newspaper articles, birthparents were portrayed more negatively
(Hypothesis 5).

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- Adoptive parents were subjects in almost all of the articles on transracial
adoption, whereas birthparents were a topic in only half of the articles
(Hypothesis 5).

- Each of the major stakeholder groups, adoptive parents, adoption
agencies, and birthparents, were increasingly portrayed positively over the
twenty-year period (Hypothesis 6).

- Letters to the editor portrayed transracial adoption as a positive
phenomenon, yet not as positive when compared to the newspaper
articles (Hypothesis 7).

- Letters to the editor portrayed birthparents positively. Adoptive parents
were portrayed both positively and negatively. Adoption agencies were
portrayed negatively (Hypothesis 8). F‘

The qualitative newspaper analysis identiﬁed trends that were not speciﬁc

to the hypotheses, yet are relevant to the theoretical framework and provide

 

insight into the overall transracial adoption phenomenon. Consistent with the L
small ﬁgures of newspaper reports on transracial adoption, broad, structural, and
comprehensive discussions on the transracial adoption phenomenon seemed to
decrease over the twenty-year time period. Also, as identiﬁed in the quantitative
analysis, birthparents were rarely the subjects of newspaper articles. A
qualitative analysis of the same topic revealed that most of the birthparents
discussed in articles had their children involuntarily removed from their home;
birthparents who voluntarily relinquished an infant were infrequently subjects of
articles. Although one article successfully discussed the experiences of
birthparents in confidential, non-descript, aggregate terms, the remainder of the
articles generally lacked the presence of birthparents as sources or subjects of

information.

85

The qualitative media analysis also revealed that Black Americans in
various stakeholder categories were often portrayed negatively. Titles, pictures,
and content of various articles associated Black Americans with inappropriate
activities, irresponsibility, and an unfavorable culture.

A statistical analysis could not be completed due to lack of information.
The ﬁnding in this area was that the two major sources of information on
transracial adoption in Michigan, the State of Michigan Department of Human
Services and Bethany Christian Services, were resistant to compiling and

reporting information on transracial adoption trends.

Mid-Range Theories: Racism, Public Opinion, the Media, and Public Policy
In regard to racism, the theory most clearly evident was group-position
theory: racism is a tool or result of the dominant group’s efforts to secure their
position in society (Bobo and Hutchings; Sidanius and Pratto; Krysan). Identiﬁed
by Sandra Patton and consistent throughout transracial adoption literature,
adoptive parents are stakeholders of power. Most likely to be White, American,
middle or upper-class married couples, adoptive parents’ needs and experiences
drive the transracial adoption phenomenon. The desire to provide these couples
with infants and children of any race has affected the priorities of the US
government (e.g. Multiracial Ethnic Placement Act) as well as the practices of
public and private adoption agencies. Consequently the struggles people in
disadvantaged groups (racial minorities, poor, non-traditional families) have

providing for their children financially, educationally, and emotionally results in a

86

 

 

 

pool of birthparents more likely to relinquish their children for adoption (Patton;
Solinger, Ms and Choosers; Simon and Altstein, Transracial Adoption).

Overwhelmingly positive portrayals of adoptive parents combined with the
relative absence of information on or from birthparents identiﬁed in hypothesis
ﬁve were consistent with biases towards the dominant group. As noted in the
qualitative and quantitative general observations, transracial adoption articles
were not necessarily news, but could be considered advertisements to support
the flow of children of color into White homes. Newspaper articles
simultaneously deﬁned a societal need for transracial adoption and praised
adoptive parents for meeting the need; both serving the interests of the dominant
group.

In the transracial adoption phenomenon, the racism aspect of group-
position theory is a symbolic rather than old-fashioned. Qualitative and
quantitative analyses conducted in effort to provide insight into stakeholder
portrayals speciﬁed in hypotheses ﬁve and six revealed that newspaper articles
did not portray people of color as biologically inferior which would be consistent
with old-fashioned racism theories. Quite oppositely, children of color were
portrayed as innocent, blank slates whom could be nurtured into positive,
productive adults in the appropriate family environment. The culture of the
birthparents was identified as the fundamental issue and cause for the need of
transracial adoption which is evidence of symbolic racism. Financial,
reproductive, and familial irresponsibility among parents of color were identiﬁed

as causing a surplus of children of color available for adoption. Homes of White,

87

 

 

American couples were the only solution offered to this surplus problem.
Consistent with the work on symbolic racism, birthparents were not portrayed
poorly because of their biological race, but because of a culture that is perceived
to be at odds with American values of self-sufﬁciency, hard-work, and familial
responsibility (Sears, Van Laar et al.; Sears, Hetts et al.; Hughes and Tuch; L.
Bobo)

Racism and racial attitudes are highly connected with the other reviewed
mid-range theories regarding public opinion and the media. The work on agenda
setting and public arenas focuses on how dominant groups shape the media and
potentially public opinion. According to the previously reviewed literature, the
government (legislators and the Department of Human Services) and private
adoption agencies prioritize the needs and desires of adoptive parents (Patton;
Solinger, Beggars and Choosers; Simon and Altstein, Transracial Adoption).
Agenda setting theorists and those who ascribe to the public arenas model would
suggest that these groups (adoptive parents, adoption agencies, adoption-related
government entities) would be the most inﬂuential in determining what
information is available to the public on transracial adoption as well as priming,
framing, and packaging the information so that it is favorable to their interests
(lyengar; Dearing and Rogers; Hilgartner and Bosk). The dissertation results
support these theories.

The ﬁndings in regard to media analysis hypothesis four show that
adoptive parents and adoption agencies are practically the sole sources of

information to newspaper articles about transracial adoption. Interestingly,

88

 

 

although both the State of Michigan and Bethany Christian Services have served
as sources of information for newspaper articles, the statistical research found
that both organizations were resistant to a neutral, social scientiﬁc compilation
and reporting of their transracial adoption history, trends, and practices. It was
clear that the State of Michigan and Bethany Christian Services monopolized
information on adoption in Michigan and strategically chose what information to
share with the public indicative of controlling information in the public arena of
adopﬁon.

The results of hypotheses ﬁve reveal that adoptive parents and adoption
agencies are likely to be portrayed positively, whereas birthparents are more
likely to be portrayed negatively. Findings in regard to hypotheses two and three
conclude that the transracial adoption phenomenon in general is portrayed
positively. Combined, the results of these hypotheses demonstrate that media
portrayals of transracial adoption serve the interests of the dominant group.
Additionally, considering the fact that the dominant group is also the sole source
of information can lead one to conclude that the information available to
newspaper journalists is most likely primed, framed, and packaged.

Providing additional insight into the dominance aspect of agenda setting
and controlling public arenas are the results of hypotheses seven and eight
regarding the letters to the editor. Although the letters to the editor about
transracial adoption were positive, they were not as overwhelmingly positive as
the newspaper articles authored by journalists. The portrayal of adoptive parents

was more nuanced than the newspaper articles. Very differently from newspaper

89

 

 

articles, birthparents in letters to the editor were portrayed more positively and
adoption agencies more negatively.

These identified differences in how journalists portrayed transracial
adoption and its stakeholders compared to submissions of the general public to
the editor speak directly to theories about agenda setting and the controlling of
public arenas. As gatekeepers of information on transracial adoption and its
associated trends, adoption-related government entities and private adoption
agencies seem to provide information that is favorable to the needs and desires
of adoptive parents. Letters to the editor include a number of public perspectives
including a consideration of the needs and experiences of birthparents resulting
in more varied portrayals of adoptive parents and negative portrayals of adoption
agencies.

The final insight into agenda setting and the public arenas model provided
by the transracial adoption research is the fact that although a variety of subjects
could be discussed in articles on transracial adoption (e.g. access to reproductive
services, racial discrimination, structural inequality in housing and employment),
most of the articles included antidotal information on transracial adoption trends
(speciﬁcally the surplus of children of color available for adoption) and a
successful transracial adoption story authored by adoptive parents. This
dissertation cannot address what information was provided to newspaper
journalists, but information identifying the need for homes for children of color as
a social problem, accompanied by a positive story on transracial adoption reads

as a set of well-packaged information. Understanding that mass media cannot

90

 

 

tell people what to think but what to think about, explains why adoption-related
government entities and private adoption agencies limit the information available
to the public on transracial adoption (lyengar, Peters and Kinder). Similarly,
noting that public attention is a scarce resource and that social problems are not
covered by importance, but based on how the arena would like portray the topic,
provides rationale for why adoption-related government entities and private
adoption agencies may be directing newspaper journalists to the success stories
of the dominant group in transracial adoption, adoptive parents (Hilgartner and

Bosk).

Grand Theory: Intersections/Structural Inequality Perspective

These dissertation results reveal evidence in support of the mid-range
theories of symbolic racism, group-position theory, agenda setting, and the public
arenas model. As mid-range theories, they inform the broader
Intersections/Structural Inequality grand theory in two primary ways. First, it was
concluded that symbolic racism was used as a tool to further the interest of the
dominant group: adoptive parents. Little attention was given to the needs and
experiences of the birthparents who are disproportionately represented in
disadvantaged groups. These ﬁndings are consistent with the premise that
social location is a determining factor in structural inequality, privilege and
oppression (Baca Zinn and Eitzen; Weber).

Second, although the policy and media related theories about agenda

setting and public arenas are seemingly unrelated to the Intersections/Structural

91

 

Inequality framework, the mid-range theories’ focus on the ability of dominant
groups to set agendas and direct public attention in arenas. Themes of
dominance, minority status, and unequal distribution of society’s resources and
power are central to the Intersections/Structural Inequality framework (Baca Zinn
and Eitzen; Weber). The ﬁndings demonstrate that media coverage and public
attention are a few of society’s resources dominated by those at the top of social
hierarchies at the expense of those in disadvantaged groups. Structural r
inequality is evident in the coverage, framing, and positioning of transracial

adoption in the media.

 

 

92

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Although the ﬁndings of this dissertation are numerous, the analysis
revealed three important, primary themes: lack of broad systematic collection
and/or publication of information on domestic infant adoptions including
transracial adoptions, positive newspaper portrayals of the transracial adoption
phenomenon, and negative portrayals of Black Americans. These themes are

outlined, relevant theories are reviewed, and implications are discussed.

Discussion

The ﬁrst major ﬁnding of this dissertation is the lack of comprehensive,
systematic collection and/or publication on domestic infant adoptions. Although
federal regulations require the state of Michigan’s Department of Human
Services to track detailed information on wards of the state, there is no external
legislation or programs which compel the Department of Human Services to track
information on infant adoptions since infants are facilitated by private adoption
agencies and attorneys. The State of Michigan does request that private
agencies and attorneys complete and submit a form containing information on
ﬁnalized infant adoptions, yet the State of Michigan does not compile or publish
this information.

A review of literature available on the transracial adoption phenomenon
since the 19705 found public and private research efforts on the topic have
decreased over each decade. Research in the area of adoption in general has

shifted from broad collection of statistics and trends to qualitative, ethnographic

93

 

 

work on the experiences of adoptees and their adoptive parents. Similarly the
focus of the 19703 and early 19803 debate were the larger implications for
various racial groups (specifically minority groups) in the United States including
decimation of culture. The more contemporary discussion revolves around the
best interests of individual children.

The topics of abortion, welfare, and familial societal norms were reviewed
to provide social context to these trends. Transracial adoption rates increased in
the 19703 when abortion and increasing social acceptance of single parenthood
limited the number of White infants available for adoption. Decreasing efforts for
macro-level research on adoption trends was simultaneous with increasing public
and political support for transracial adoption. The 1994 Multiracial Ethnic
Placement Act was enacted at a time when very limited information on broad
statistics and trends on adoption were available, yet Rita J. Simon’s and Howard
Alstein’s longitudinal work on the experiences of individual transracial adoptive
families demonstrated that transracial adoption was often in the best interest of
the child.

These ﬁndings show evidence of group-position theory. More complete
research on transracial adoption occurred until public and private entities became
more concerned about the best interest of the child rather than larger
ramiﬁcations for racial groups and ethnic culture. Legislation decreased the
importance of racial matching in determining adoption placements providing
greater opportunity and ability for middle and upper-class White parents to adopt

the children of birthparents disproportionately represented in disadvantaged

94

 

 

groups (e.g. race, class, gender, marital status). Now that the needs of the
dominant, privileged group are being met, research efforts have focused on
micro-level positive experiences rather than macro-level trends. A more
complete and comprehensive understanding of adoption trends might threaten
the ability of people in privileged groups to continue to adopt the children of
people highly represented in disadvantaged groups.

These findings are also relevant to the topic of agenda setting in public
arenas. Adoption-related organizations (public and private) are an arena within
which discussions of transracial adoption occur. These organizations select,
deﬁne, frame, dramatize, package and present information to the public on
adoption. The public Michigan Department of Human Services focuses on
“special-needs” children who are involuntarily removed from their birthparents’
home. The Department of Human Services collects information on the adoptive
placement of infants who were voluntarily relinquished by their birthparents, yet
they are resistant to compile or report it.

Private adoption facilitators, agencies and attorneys, may provide general
finalized infant placement ﬁgures to the public, yet they do not compile or report
any additional information. Conﬁdentiality and anonymity could be kept by
providing aggregate details about the number of infants available, the choices
and experiences of birthparents, the people who applied yet were not selected as
adoptive parents, and other information that would provide a more complete

understanding of adoption trends, including transracial adoption trends, in

95

 

 

Michigan. Bethany Christian Services was resistant to the compilation of this
information.

News media venues constitute another public arena relevant to the topic
of transracial adoption. Although newspaper portrayals of transracial adoption
will be discussed in the following two ﬁndings, in reference to lack of
comprehensive research on the topic it is important to note that newspaper
journalists seem to publish the information made available to them by adoption-
related organizations. Furthermore, newspaper journalists do not seem to
publicly question why the organizations with this information are not compiling
and/or making it available to the general public.

Agenda setting and the power of dominant groups in certain arenas to
provide the general public with “what” to think about is evident in these trends.
The fact that the few entities with information on transracial adoption trends
(State of Michigan, Bethany Christian Services) are resistant to compiling the
information, yet still choose to share the information they deem appropriate for
the public demonstrates their power in the adoption arena. Consequentially,
newspaper readers are presented with the surplus of children of color as the
social problem and provided information on transracial adoption as a solution.
Transracial adoption articles could include information on access to reproductive
services, education and employment, housing, or racism. Government and
private adoption-related organizations could work to research the factors behind
the surplus of children of color. The resistance to gathering and publishing more

comprehensive information on the phenomenon reveals an agenda and efforts

96

 

amongst those in power in various arenas to determine “how” the general public
thinks about the topic of transracial adoption.

The major implication of this ﬁnding is that without external pressure by
news media or adoption policies and legislation for public and private adoption-
related agencies to compile and publish detailed information on various adoption
statistics and trends, it will not be a priority in these organizations. More
accurately, these organizations are resistant to doing so with few internal
reasons to compel them to be accountable. Transracial adoption will continue
with little opportunity for macro-level information or broad critical thinking on the
topic by the general public. The structural inequality inherent in transracial
adoption (ﬂow of the children in disadvantaged groups to those in more privileged
groups) will not be identiﬁed or addressed.

The second major theme identiﬁed in the dissertation ﬁndings is the fact
that newspaper attention to transracial adoption presents it as a primarily positive
phenomenon. Ethnographic, micro-level, human-interest type stories depict
transracial adoption to be a win-win situation in which people who desperately
desire to be good parents are able to save a child who would have grown up with
poor parents or in foster care. The absence of the perspectives of birthparents,
with the exception of those who neglected or abused their children, never attends
to the fact that in order for adoption to occur, someone has to lose the ability to
parent the child they bore. Although some birthparents might consider the

adoptive placement of their child to be a positive opportunity to secure a good

97

home for their child as well as pursue their individual interests, the complexities
involved in the decision to relinquish a child should not be minimized or ignored.

Evidence of group-position theory can be identiﬁed in this ﬁnding within a
similar vein as previously discussed; positive media portrayals of transracial
adoption legitimize the continuance of people in privileged groups to adopt
children from those highly represented in disadvantaged groups. The additional
consideration is the fact that by deﬁnition, newspaper journalists are responsible
for reporting news, not creating biased advertisements. By reporting only the
limited information provided by adoption-related agencies and adoptive parents,
failing to question why more comprehensive information on statistics and trends
is not available, and failing to represent the perspectives of stakeholders such as
birthparents and rejected adoptive parents, newspaper journalists are not
reporting a story, they are supporting a cause. The failure to demand more
complete information from adoption-related agencies makes it clear that the
authors of these articles are not providing information for critical thinking about
the topic, which could potentially endanger the interests of the stakeholders in
positions of power. These authors are portraying the phenomenon from the
perspective of privileged groups without holding them accountable for the lack of
information available or calling attention to the rights and experiences of those in
oppressed groups.

The selective representations of transracial adoption and privileged
stakeholders also illustrate evidence of media framing. As Bernard Cohen

explained, the media may not be successful in telling its audience what to think,

98

 

but what to think about (Cohen). Vivid, visual, ethnographic stories about
adoptees and their adoptive parents do not necessarily dictate that the reader
think positively about transracial ad0ption, but do focus the reader on the more
positive aspects of the adoption phenomenon. When birthparents are only
represented in situations where they have been deemed to be abusive and
neglectful towards their children, and rarely when they voluntarily relinquished
infants, readers are likely to make judgments on the information readily available
to them, rather than to critically think about perspectives missing from the
discussion.

Robert Entman’s work on the representation of African Americans in
television news reviewed the potential implication of cumulative exposure to
selective representations. Entman was not concern that individual news stories
about African Americans were incorrect or false, but that the decision to
continuously portray Blacks in negative frames would result in the audiences’
cumulative picture of Blacks as a negative one (Entman). Without alternative
representations the general audience may tend to “lump” Blacks together with
the few images to which they were exposed.

Consequently, readers of newspaper articles may “lump” birthparents
together with images of irresponsibility, abuse, and neglect of children. The lack
of information on the choices and experiences of birthparents who voluntarily
relinquished children could result in few readers thinking about factors such as
furthering education or realistic division of familial resources as part of well-

thought out, conscientious choices of birthparents. Structural forces such as

99

 

 

unemployment, access to medical resources, or access to preventative birth
control are absent. The coloring of adoptive parents as sacrificial saviors of
unwanted children demonizes the birthparents, whether they are represented or
not, and portrays transracial adoption as the only opportunity for these children
born into disadvantaged groups to have a “good” life.

Additionally, the absence of macro-level information or discussion portrays
transracial adoption as experience between individuals, with little broader
considerations. Although the debate on transracial adoption on racial groups and
minority cultures was previously kept alive by opponents to transracial adoption,

the disappearance of the debate from public discourse does not mean that larger

 

implications have been attended to. The lack of information only means that the
needs of the privileged stakeholders are being met and further critical
considerations could only endanger the ﬂow of children born to people in
disadvantaged groups to those in more privileged groups.

The third and ﬁnal trend identiﬁed is the way in which Blacks in various
stakeholder groups are consistently portrayed negatively in newspaper articles.
When birthparents are discussed in newspaper articles it is usually in reference
to the large and increasing number of Black children removed from Black
birthparents proved to be abusive and neglectful. These articles include
information on transracial adoption because it is presented as the only
opportunity for Black children to be placed in permanent, stable homes since so

few Black families are adopting the Black children available. Even though these

 

articles are calling attention for a need for permanent adoption of Black children,

100

these children are referred to as “special-needs” due to their minority status and
the public is encouraged to overlook the “stigma” that once accompanied Black
children in US. society.

It was found that even neutral or diplomatic articles on the topic of
transracial adoption offering nuanced portrayals of various stakeholder groups
were accompanied by titles and pictures that conjured negative thoughts about
Black Americans. Articles that included positive pictures of Black individuals and
families adopting Black children were implicitly or explicitly implying that only a
few responsibly Blacks who stepped up to “adopt their own" while simultaneously
blaming Black birthparents and potential adoptive parents for the
disproportionate number of Black children languishing in foster care facilities.

Again, group-position theory can be employed to view this negative
portrayal of Black Americans as justiﬁcation for the transracial adoption of their
children by middle and upper-class Whites. Even more relevant is the symbolic
racism theory. A clear message of these newspaper articles is that Black culture
is inferior, especially in the ability to appropriately care for and socialize children.
Old fashioned/Jim Crow racism is not evident because the children are not
portrayed as biologically inferior, yet sympathetically needing appropriate
socialization and moral guidance. Black children could be successful if raised in
stable home environments which middle and upper-class Whites can provide. It
is even implied that middle and upper-class Blacks are either unable to, or
choose not to, provide a “good” home environment for these “special-needs”

children. Whether Black adults are perceived as sexually irresponsible, abusive,

101

 

 

 

neglectful or having little familial obligation to take care of the children in their
own race, Black Americans are portrayed as having a culture at odds with
American values of family, individual responsibility, and self-sustenance.

Similar to the framing conclusions previously discussed, the selective
representation of Blacks in various adoption stakeholder groups conveys a
picture of the role Black Americans play in the transracial adoption phenomenon.
Even seemingly positive representations of potential Black adoptive children or
Black adoptive parents include negative connotations about Black culture.
Considering Entman’s theories about the cumulative effect and lumping, readers
of articles on transracial adoption are likely to perceive Black Americans in
general, in addition to in their roles as adoption stakeholders, as irresponsible
and familial dysfunctional.

This ﬁnding has important implications for the perpetuation of the myth of
the Black family pathology. Multiple, vivid representations of Black Americans as
neglectful, abusive, unwilling to take care of their own, or possibly “problem”
children feeds negative stereotypes about Blacks. The portrayal of certain
Blacks as positive exceptions to Black culture is a double-edged sword in its
continuation of broad negative connotations about a racial group. Considerations
of racial structural inequality and critical thinking about symbolic racism in the
media are dwarfed by images that seemingly confirm myths essential to the

continuation of racism in the United States.

102

 

Overall Conclusion

These three major trends identiﬁed illustrate how structural inequality
based on group membership is perpetuated through the lack of broad, macro-
level information on adoption as well as selective representations of the
transracial adoption phenomenon. Newspaper portrayals which advertise, rather
than investigate and report on transracial adoption serve a dual purpose: expose
readers to only positive portrayals of transracial adoption and fail to hold
adoption-related institutions accountable for comprehensive information on the
topic. Consequently, the ﬂow of children borne to people in disadvantaged
groups to those in more privileged groups is justiﬁed by media messages and
upheld by similar legislation. Critical thinking about the topic is shaped by the
limited information made available by adoption-related agencies to newspaper
journalists. Concerned citizens are satiated by micro-level portrayals of
transracial adoption as a win-win situation and the needs and perspectives of
stakeholders in oppressed groups are ignored. Meanwhile few forces are
compelling a more comprehensive, nuanced coverage of the topic and the
interests of those in power are left unthreatened.

The major contribution this dissertation makes to the scholarship on
transracial adoption is a call-to-action. First, the State of Michigan should be
held accountable for the information they are collecting, yet failing to compile or
report. Media exposure of this situation may compel the Department of Human
Services to take advantage of the low and no—cost opportunities to create a

systematic method for entering and analyzing the data.

103

 

 

Second, Michigan state and federal legislators should be lobbied to make
private adoption facilitators responsible for the reporting of information relevant to
the topic of adoption including detailed information on individuals and families
who applied, yet were not selected as adoptive parents. Since many of the
adoption-related organizations have religious afﬁliation, it is unclear what type of
information they are required to report to the government and general public.
These organizations’ designation as adoption facilitators should include an
obligation to report extensively on their practices to either the government or
general public via an annual report or publication.

Finally, media venues, especially newspaperjournalists, should be
educated about the various factors involved in adoption, including transracial
adoption. They should be held accountable for some reporting on broad,
structural considerations and the perspective of underrepresented groups. This
could be accomplished through letters to the editor, allocation of advertising

monies, and expressions of appreciation of more nuance reporting on the topic.

Limitations

Three areas should be considered when attending to the methods and
findings of this dissertation. First, newspapers were chosen as the source of
media information on the topic of transracial adoption because the primary
objective of the newspapers is to inform the public. Actual “news” seems to
compete with entertainment in television and ﬁlm. It should still be noted that this

dissertation only examines one facet of many media venues. Michigan residents

104

 

are exposed to information through sources such as the Internet, magazines,
academic journals, as well as ﬁction and non-ﬁction books. This dissertation
attends to one of many methods Michigan residents may use in learning about
transracial adoption.

Second, an objective of the dissertation was to review the articles on
transracial adoption to which Michigan residents were exposed. Although local,
state, and national newspapers were selected, The Detroit News and The Grand
Rapids Press only catalogued articles of local authors in the years of 1987, 1993,
and 1999. The electronic catalog in 2004 revealed that the only articles
displayed on transracial adoption in these newspapers were also local authors.
In addition, a review of articles within these newspapers revealed a trend in
which local authors used a local human-interest story to introduce a nationally
covered topic. Since the proportion of the number of articles located for each
year for each newspaper were similar, the articles located were considered to be
a fair representation of the articles available to Michigan residents from 1985
through 2005.

Finally, revisiting the literature on stereotypes it was found that low
prejudice people were less likely to ascribe to popular group stereotypes and
more likely to judge behavior by the individual in question. Yet, it was also found
that Whites underestimate rates of out-of—wedlock births and use of welfare
amongst Blacks. Kaplowitz theorized that presented with more accurate
information on Black Americans, Whites might develop more negative attitudes

towards Blacks (Kaplowitz, Broman and Fisher). Similarly, more accurate

105

 

statistical information on transracial adoption might only reinforce stereotypes
and myths of dysfunctional Black families. Structural inequality is a difﬁcult
concept for Americans to grasp due to ﬁrm beliefs in individualism, unlimited
opportunities and the power of self-determination. Although it is clear that more
comprehensive information on transracial adoption is needed, it could have

detrimental effects for Black Americans (Berg) .

106

 

APPENDIX A

EXAMPLE OF CODING INSTRUMENT

 

General Quote Source

 

Adoptees

 

Adoptive
Parents

 

Birth
Parents

 

Agencies

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gov’t

 

Race —

Primary Topic —
Secondary Topic —
Type —

107

 

APPENDIX B

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE CODEBOOK

 

Variable
Label

Variable Description

 

ID

Article identification number

 

Source

Newspaper in which the article appeared
1 — Grand Rapids Press
2 — Detroit Free Press
3 - New York Times

 

Date

Date of Article mm/dd/yy

 

Year

Year of article yyyy

 

DayofWk

Day of the week on which the article appeared
1 — Sunday
2 — Monday
3 — Tuesday
4 — Wednesday
5 - Thursday
6 — Friday
7 - Saturday

 

SectionLt

The alphabetical letter of the section on which it appeared
O — Magazine or insert
1 — A
2 - B

ze—z
27—AA
28—BB

 

PageNo

On which page of the section did the article appear?

 

Pager

What was the spatial location of the article?
1 — First page
2 — Second page
3 — Third page
4 — Fourth through Seventh pages
5 — Eighth through Tenth pages
6 - Eleven through Twenty pages
7 — Twenty-one through Thirty pages
8 — More than Thirty pages

 

 

Section

 

Type of section
1 - First
2-Mam
3 - City/Region

 

108

 

 

 

4 — Neighborhood/Community

5 — National

6 — Sports

7 — Religion

8 — Entertainment
9 — Editorial

10 — Financial
11 — International

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LocAuth Location of the article’s author
1 - Local
2 — State
3 - AP
4 — UFS
5 - Freelance/Independent
6 - National
7 - International
8 - Individual
Author Name of Author
Title Main title of article
SubTitle Subtitle of article
TitIePos How does the title portray transracial adoption?
1 — Very positively
2 - Somewhat positively
3 — Neutral
4 — Somewhat negatively
5 — Very negatively
6 - Both
7 - Can’t tell
ArtPos How Does the article portray transracial adoption?
ArtOrd* 1 — Very positively
2 - Somewhat positively
3 — Neutral
4 — Somewhat negatively
5 - Very negatively
6 — Both
7 — Can’t tell
PicPres Was there a picture present?
1 - Yes
PicPos How did the picture portray transracial adoption?

 

1 —- Very positively

2 - Somewhat positively
3 - Neutral

4 - Somewhat negatively
5 - Very negatively

6 - Both

 

109

 

 

7 - Can’t tell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chart Is a graph or chart present?
1 — Yes
AdGen How were adoptees portrayed?
AdOrd* 1 — Very positively
AdCom** 2 — Somewhat positively
3 — Neutral
4 - Somewhat negatively
5 — Very negatively
6 — Both
7 — Can’t tell
ApGen How were adoptive parents portrayed?
ApOrd 1 — Very positively
ApCom 2 - Somewhat positively
3 — Neutral
4 — Somewhat negatively
5 - Very negatively
6 — Both
7 — Can’t tell
BpGen How were birthparents portrayed?
BpOrd 1 — Very positively
BpCom 2 - Somewhat positively
3 — Neutral
4 — Somewhat negatively
5 - Very negatively
6 — Both
7 — Can’t tell
AgGen How were adoption-related agencies portrayed? (Any organization
AgOrd that placed adoptees into homes were included in this categorization
AgCom including general or faith-based non-proﬁt agencies that also
practiced adoption placements)
1 — Very positively
2 — Somewhat positively
3 - Neutral
4 — Somewhat negatively
5 - Very negatively
6 - Both
7 — Can’t tell
UsGovt How was the United States government and/or its agencies
USOrd portrayed?
USCom 1 — Very positively

 

2 — Somewhat positively
3 - Neutral

4 - Somewhat negatively
5 - Very negatively

6 - Both

 

110

 

 

 

7 — Can’t tell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lntGen How were international governments and/or their agencies
lntOrd portrayed?
lntCom 1 - Very positively
2 — Somewhat positively
3 — Neutral
4 — Somewhat negatively
5 — Very negatively
6 — Both
7 — Can’t tell
AdQuote Were adoptees quoted?
1 — Yes
ApQuote Were adoptive parents quoted?
1 — Yes
BpQuote Were birthparents quoted?
1 - Yes
AgQuote Were adoption-related agencies quoted?
1 — Yes
USQuote Was the US government or its agencies quoted?
1 - Yes
lntQuote Were international governments or agencies quoted?
1 — Yes
IndQuote Were individuals not previously determined as stakeholders quoted?
1 — Yes
AdSource Were adoptees a source of information?
1 - Yes
ApSource Were adoptive parents a source of information?
1 — Yes
BpSource Were birthparents a source of information?
1 — Yes
AgSource Were adoption-related agencies a source of information?
1 — Yes
USSource Was the US government or its agencies a source of information?
1 — Yes
lntSource Were international governments or agencies a source of
information?
1 - Yes
IndSource Were individuals not previously determined as stakeholders a source

 

of information?

 

111

 

 

 

1—Yes

 

Race

How is race attended to?
Comment field

 

PT

What is the primary topic of this article?
Comment ﬁeld

 

ST

What is the subtopic of this article?
Comment ﬁeld

 

 

Type

 

What “type” of article was this?
1 — Report
2 — Informational
3 — Personal
4 — Call to Action
5 - Primarily Informational but some Personal
6 - Primarily Personal but some lnforrnation
7 - Letter to the Editor

 

* _Ord: The portrayal of the various stakeholder groups were compressed into
an ordinal scale with 1=positive and very positive, 2=neutral and both,
3=negative and very negative. “Can’t tell” was not included

** _Com: The portrayal of the various stakeholder groups were compressed
into a non-ordinal scale with 1=positive and very positive, 2=negative and very

negative 3=both, 4=neutral. “Can’t tell” was not included.

112

 

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