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quote user="Dr
.Loretta"]
It's a very complex, personal decision. And it's one only you can make.
There are some people who don't believe they should exclude any race, and should rather work within their families and communities to make it less of an issue for those around them. On the other hand, there are some people who live in communities with little/no diversity, and/or have family members with racial/ethnic bias. They feel that it would be easier for themselves and for their children to not have to subject them to the attitudes that their families and communities may have.
FWIW, I don't think being color-blind is the answer (re: your comment about your DH not seeing the color of his child's skin). We need to be aware of the differences in people as well as their similarities, and deal with the people who may have prejudices against them.
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I agree with all this, especially the part about being prepared to help your child deal with the differences in how races are preceived and any possible racism they may encounter throughout life. My husband and I are (for all intents and purposes) white, and we adopted two Latin American boys. They are still young, 9 and 6, but we have already started preparing the way for more intense conversations about race. We acknowledge differences in skin color, talk about how people often live in communities with others of the same skin shades, and talk about how they can do anything they want in life, provided they work towards it. We talk about freedom and about how people don't always get all the choices, but how we are lucky to have many opportunities. With time, we'll talk more about how people perceive skin tone and what that may mean for them, and how they can present themselves and advocate for themselves so that they will face as few hindrances as possible.
There are a lot of people who believe that you should never adopt interracially, because you can't truly know what it's like to live as a minority race if you aren't one and so you can't teach your child about his heritage or racism with any accuracy. There are also thoughts that it's not fair to adopt a child that looks so different from you that their adoption is always out in the open, as some children prefer to be more private about that information. I, personally, disagree with these thoughts, because I know my boys are much better off with us than aging out of an orphanage, which is likely the fate they would have otherwise had, given that there aren't enough Latin American/Hispanic adopters.
But, as Dr. L. said, this ultimately is a question that only you can answer for your family. It is an extra commitment to adopt interacially, one that you cannot leave unaddressed throughout your child's life. Is it one that you and your husband will both willingly take on? One thing that my husband and I decided while in process was that we'd never do anything that we weren't both completely comfortable with. It was our way of ensuring that we wouldn't breed resentment if challenges arose down the line.