White parents of adopted Black children in an era of racial reckoning: Challenges, tensions, and strategies

Objective: This study explores White middle-class adoptive parents\u27 experiences with parenting Black children (M age = 12.3), attending to how intersections of children\u27s race, gender, and developmental stage informed and nuanced parents\u27 approach to racial socialization. Background: Scholarly debate regarding the adoption of Black children by White parents centers on parents\u27 ability to facilitate positive racial identity development. Limited work has explored how White parents\u27 approach to racial socialization is shaped by Black children\u27s gender and developmental stage, particularly as children grow older and encounter intensified racialized stereotypes. Method: Twenty-five White parents (11 lesbian mothers, seven gay fathers, seven heterosexual mothers) were selected from a larger sample of 128 adoptive families because they adopted Black (including biracial/multiracial) children, and were interviewed as their children entered adolescence. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Results: A typology emerged that captured parents\u27 racial awareness and racial socialization approach: Minimizing and Reluctant, Worried and Fumbling, Aware but Cautious, and Reflexive and Purposeful. Additional cross-cutting themes centered on the role of the sociopolitical climate, gender, and developmental stage in racial socialization. Conclusion: Contemporary adoptive parents of Black children are often constrained by their own White racial frame, but some parents, especially those who are younger or have monoracial children, are able to translate awareness of the complexities involved in raising adopted Black children into meaningful action and understanding