Part 5 in a 5-part series

Now that the school year is in swing, teachers will soon be assigning the “discovering your roots” activity (my eighth grade son brought his home last week).

In Jaiya John’s memoir, Black Baby White Hands, he recounts a fifth grade assignment in which his teacher laid out a large map of the world on the classroom floor and instructed the students to point out to the class where their ancestors originally came from.

Everyone was excited to do the activity—except John—who was horrified and panicked because:

1. He had always downplayed his Blackness from his friends by speaking and acting like them (i.e. White).

2. He was going to be forced to announce his ethnicity to the entire class. He would have to come out of hiding. He writes:

“Now all of a sudden, in plain and close-up view of everyone, I was going to be asked to, in essence, stand before them and acknowledge my shame, like I was in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting: ‘My name is John Scott Potter, and I am an…African American.’”

3. He was confused as to his ancestors really were. Were they the predecessors of his (adoptive) parents? Were they his “blood” ancestors?

“The lack of clarity spawned a new hurt inside of me, as I realized I was some type of mutant—an offspring lost somewhere between worlds.”

“I knew I might have a ‘Europe exemption’ or an honorary White status for this game because I could claim my parents as my lineage because of adoption. But I wasn’t sure. Was adoption allowed as a substitute for blood in this game? I was suddenly faced straight up with questions that I had to resolve: Where do I come from? Which group am I more a part of: my adoptive family’s ancestors or my Black ancestors. Who in the heck am I?”

Jaiya John’s experience brings up good lessons for parents who adopt transracially to remember:

1. Prepare your school-age child for such activities. Discuss with your child the intent of such assignments. Talk about the feelings it brings up in your child. Plan how your child can approach the assignment, and give your child permission to identify both his birth and adoptive heritage as his or her ancestry.

2. Prepare your child’s teacher(s) for how the minority and adopted children in the class may react emotionally to such an assignment.

Other posts in this series:

Part 1: Review: Black Baby White Hands by Jaiya John


Part 2: Excerpts from Black Baby White Hands –The pervasiveness of White culture

Part 3: Black Baby White Hands – Growing up Black in a White Culture

Part 4: from Black Baby White Hands – Adoptive Siblings: Black Brother, White Sister


For more news and information about adoption, please visit my Web site, christianson.com.