Adoption, Race, and Identity: From Infancy through Adolescence

This volume examines the innovative placement of nonwhite (predominantly black) adoptees with white parents. In addition to reviewing recent court decisions involving race as a factor in child custody, Simon and Altstein examine the research to date on this topic, including adoption policy and practice as carried out by some adoption agencies.

Although there are a few anecdotal portraits of typical situations, the work is almost exclusively devoted to actual responses to questions about the experiences of these families. The authors conclude that the majority of families and their adopted children are well integrated into society and that the adoptees now, as adults, do not see themselves as any less "black" than their in-racially raised peers.