Double Consciousness And Avoiding Stigma Assignment Help

Describe the concerns held by both adoptive parents and adopted children in transracial families.

What other concerns would you add that were not discussed and why? Explain how the concerns you discussed in the first two questions relate to the concept of double consciousness.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of race and ethnicity covering and passing.

Address how covering and passing can be used to both cause and resolve identity conflicts for both transracial adoptees and in general.

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Preface               

Transracial adoption is one of the recent times issues of Stigma, creating considerable concerns in the stakeholders related with the issue. White parents when adopting black children, they are also facing stigma due to the race of the children they are adopting, they are being treated differently and this is actually not expected from them. Same is the case with the blacks adopting white children. The children are facing challenges in their identity and they are not actually comfortable with their identity in fact. They could not avoid the discrimination and sometimes are not being able to cope up with the feeling of difference that they are experiencing in transracial adoption. The main challenge that the child facing is developing a positive or ethnic identity and the most challenging life skill, ability to cope with the discrimination. When adopted parents do face the issue of social stigma and discrimination due to the race of the kid they adopted, the adoptee is facing the challenge of establishing the ethnic and racial identity for herself or him. This is different experience from the traditional sociological perspective, visualizing the scenario from the aspect of Phenomenology sociological theory do provide necessary basis to understand the situation in the given scenario. Phenomenological social theory will help on to understand what is real but not real and what is false but existing in the life. In any case, the transracial adoption creates such a unique situation of double consciousness and associated stigma to the stakeholders in the current society. The following part of the report discusses in more detail the concerns of the transracial adoptive families, the concerns they held, the concerns that they do not want to discuss about, the concerns as they related to the double consciousness. Also the advantages and disadvantages of race and ethnicity covering and passing is discussed in the report along with discussion on the covering and passing as they are applied for cause and resolving the identity conflicts. 

Concerns:

Transracial parents at the outset need to face two different type of challenges one from inside the family and the second from outside the family. The inside family challenge is due to the fact that the family members need to be accustomed with the new challenge that they need to face and make the transracial journey of adoption a healthy and successful experience and secondly the external challenge lies in facing the stigma of discrimination that adopted parents do face due to the race of the children. The first one can be faced by cultivating a different approach towards the culture and identity of their children. It is very much required for them to create an environment in the family that speaks about bi-cultures and being themselves comfortable with it too. Else, the child will face serious identity problem. Adopted children main challenge lies in becoming comfortable and facing the issue of difference. When his fellow children do not face this challenge, adoptee child will face the challenge of difference and it is very much required for him to get accustomed to without stress. Ofcourse parents and society has greater role to play in this context. The concern is whether the parents can able to manage this stigma and whether they can get the necessary support from the society too to cope up with this unique situation (Moore,2017).

Other concerns:

There can be concerns from society as well. For example the white kid grown in a black family or a black kid grown in a white family does experience a different set of perceptions in life. Their outlook towards the race and ethnicity will be different and also it may become difficult for them to adjust with their own race and established traits in the later part of their life (Rosenblum, 2016). 

Concept of double consciousness:

Double consciousness is about two different levels of identities of the persons. At the first level, they do face the issue of identity due to their color and birth and at the second level they do face the identity due to the environment they are in. For children adopted by different race parents it is a challenge to face the difference and for the parents who adopted different racial children, the challenge lies in getting accepted by their own race. In any case, each of these stakeholders obviously experience the double consciousness which will not be there seen in straight racial adoption cases (Brannon et al., 2015). 

Advantages and Disadvantage of covering and passing:

Passing is the sociological phenomena of getting accepted by a different identity ethnicity and race which in turn can enable them get certain privileges, rewards, increased social acceptance as well. It may enable get the social and economic security to the individual and also can benefit him to cope up with the stigma that they face in life. However it is possible that the passing may let the individual loose his own identity and it will create a different identity and environment for the kid. He may loose his original identity altogether. When passing is a true acceptance of the individual into the different identity group, covering is all about just imitating the new group and is not true from inside. Covering may be advantageous in the circumstances where there is need for a quick and temporary acceptance but it is disadvantage for long term sustenance and will not be valid, unless is allowed a free pass. Passing can allow the child to cope with the stigma where as the covering will provide temporary solace in identity mocking with the different group(Powell,2017).

Cause and resolve identity conflicts for transracial adoptees using covering and passing:

Passing is the most convenient scenario, where in the individual will get advantageous position of acceptance by the different community group. It is advantages as the individual will be getting the privileges and the rewards for the passing. However the problem lies in the passing itself, to what extent they will be passed is the issues, if they not, then definitely is a disadvantage. Same time Covering can be used as a temporary solution for resolving the identity conflict, however the disadvantage lies in the fact that it cannot be a permanent solution.  

Conclusion

Transracial adoption can act as a new way and procedure to mitigate the identity differences and discrimination. However still the society is still not totally ready to accept the transracial adoption and concerns of double consciousness and discrimination are evident still due to the prevailing social culture. However still passing and covering, either natural and by intentional attempts can let the individual face the challenge and cope with the pressure of identity conflict to some extent.