[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 22, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S2975]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


        HOW COLORBLIND ADOPTIONS CHANGED AND ENRICHED OUR LIVES

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, for several years I had an 
outstanding staff member, Pamela J. Huey, who, unfortunately for me, 
moved to Minneapolis with her husband and family.
  She was not only a superb staff person but she is a genuine 
humanitarian.
  She and her husband have adopted two African-American children. I 
have seen Benjamin develop into a fine young man and their new child, 
Anthony, I am sure will do the same.
  She has written for the Minneapolis Star Tribune an article titled, 
``Colorblind Adoptions Changed and Enriched Our Lives.''
  I ask that her article be printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

           [From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jan. 29, 1995]

          Colorblind Adoptions Changed and Enriched Our Lives

                            (By Pamela Huey)

       The national debate on welfare reform, teenage pregnancy 
     and orphanages demands another look at transracial adoption 
     as one positive alternative for children who need stable, 
     loving homes.
       While some within the African-American community and other 
     minorities continue to oppose the adoption of children of 
     color by Caucasian parents, I would argue that such adoptions 
     are not only successful but desirable, producing benefits for 
     parents, children and society as a whole.
       Five years ago, childless and wanting to start a family, my 
     husband and I approached an agency in Washington, D.C., 
     specializing in foreign adoptions. But the paperwork, red 
     tape, cost and prospect of spending an undetermined amount of 
     time in another country were daunting.
       We learned our agency did receive ``domestic'' placements 
     but these children were nearly always black or biracial. We 
     wondered why, if there were babies in our own country in need 
     of loving, nurturing homes, would anyone travel halfway 
     around the world for a baby? Skin color seemed the only 
     answer. We told the agency that the race of the child did not 
     matter--a baby was a baby--and within seven months we were 
     parents of a beautiful black 17-day-old boy. This Christmas, 
     we became parents of Anthony, a 6-week-old African-American 
     baby, also born in Washington, D.C.
       Adopting Benjamin and Anthony has changed and enriched our 
     lives in profound ways that we did not anticipate.
       When we moved to the Twin Cities in 1992, we chose an 
     integrated neighborhood in south Minneapolis.
       The church we chose, Park Avenue United Methodist, has a 
     spiritual mission to increase understanding between the races 
     and to bring people together as one to worship God.
       Benjamin attends Seed Academy, a private school with an 
     Afrocentric curriculum.
       We've attended classes for multicultural families. We've 
     participated in the YMCA's ``home team'' program for 
     multicultural families. The Twin Cities area seems to have no 
     end of opportunities for us.
       But most importantly, we have a perspective on race 
     relations and racial prejudice that we otherwise would never 
     have had. The love of parent for child has no equal, and 
     loving Benjamin and Anthony was given us a window on a world 
     previously closed to us. Now, as parents, we hurt for the 
     young black males who are considered threats just because of 
     their race.
       Interracial adoption breaks down barriers and increases 
     understanding in new ways that filter through the extended 
     family. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters and 
     cousins, even neighbors and family friends, also are exposed 
     to this new understanding and a family love that crosses 
     racial lines.
       We hope growing up in our racially blended family will give 
     Benjamin and Anthony skills for living in both white and 
     black worlds and that their worlds will be more human and 
     loving, rather than divided along racial lines.
       Harvard Law Prof. Elizabeth Bartholet wrote in the May 1991 
     issue of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review that 
     ``transracial adoptees appear more positive than blacks 
     raised inracially about relationships with whites, more 
     comfortable in those relationships and more interested in a 
     racially integrated lifestyle.''
       American University Prof. Rita Simon, who has done 
     exhaustive studies on the long-term effects of these 
     adoptions, has written that transracial adoptees perceive 
     ``their world as essentially pluralistic and multicolored.''
       We hope we are not being naive. We know Benjamin and 
     Anthony will face racism and hatred in future years, and we 
     are trying to prepare them for that.
       As we prepared for our second adoption, I asked Benjamin 
     what kind of sister or brother he would like. His first 
     response was ``black.'' But then he thought for a moment and 
     responded, ``Any color would be OK.''
       Pamela Huey is a journalist who lives in 
     Minneapolis.
     

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