In Their Siblings' Voices: White Non-Adopted Siblings Talk About Their Experiences Being Raised with Black and Biracial Brothers and Sisters

by Rita Simon, Rhonda Roorda

Overview

In Their Siblings' Voices shares the stories of twenty white non-adopted siblings who grew up with black or biracial brothers and sisters in the late 1960s and 1970s. Belonging to the same families profiled in Rita J. Simon and Rhonda M. Roorda's In Their Own Voices: Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories and In Their Parents' Voices: Reflections on Raising Transracial Adoptees, these siblings offer their perspectives on the multiracial adoption experience, which, for them, played out against the backdrop of two tumultuous, politically charged decades. Simon and Roorda question whether professionals and adoption agencies adequately trained these children in the challenges presented by blended families, and they ask if, after more than thirty years, race still matters. Few books cover both the academic and the human dimensions of this issue. In Their Siblings' Voices helps readers fully grasp the dynamic of living in a multiracial household and its effect on friends, school, and community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231148504
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	05/20/2009
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late Rita J. Simon was a University Professor in the School of Public Affairs and the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C. She published forty-three books, edited nineteen, and was the editor of Gender Issues.

Rhonda M. Roorda was adopted into a white family and raised in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Roorda is the recipient of the 2010 Judge John P. Steketee Adoption Hero Award from the Adoptive Family Support Network (MI). In 2017, Rhonda was awarded the Friend of Children and Youth Award from the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC). The author of a chapter in the Handbook of Adoption: Implications for Researchers, Practitioners, and Families, she currently works at an educational advocacy organization in Lansing, Michigan.

Table of Contents

Preface, by Rhonda M. Roorda
Acknowledgments
Part I. Argument, Rhetoric, and Data for and Against Transracial Adoption
Legal Status, History, and Review of Empirical Work
Part II. Siblings Tell Their Stories
Introduction
Shecara's Siblings: Dan Baker and Tom Baker
Laurie's Sibling: Adam Goff
Chantel's and Nicolle's Siblings: Scott Tremitiere and Michelle Zech
Rachel's Siblings: Kathy Mulder, Mary Ann Pals, and Lynn Miller
Rhonda's Siblings: Christopher "Duffy" Roorda and Jean Roorda
Keith's Sibling: Hilary Tomasson
Daniel's Siblings: Yvonne Thornton, Annette VanVoorst, and Michelle Mennega
Tage's Sibling: Anika Larsen
David's Siblings: Chuck Adams and Mike Adams
Pete's Sibling: Catherine Tyler
Britton's Siblings: Amanda Perry and Seth Perry
Part III. Implications of Siblings' Voices on Transracial Adoption
Closing Comments
Afterword, by Rhonda M. Roorda

What People are Saying About This

Richard Fischer

In Their Siblings' Voices provides a gateway to understanding the emotional and social adjustments that siblings of transracially adopted children make in blended families. An indispensible resource for parents who are considering or have adopted transracially, for professionals who advise adoptive parents, and for teachers of children in families formed through transracial adoption.

— Richard Fischer, publisher of Adoption TODAY and Fostering Families TODAY

Frank Wu

This volume is the capstone in a landmark trilogy. There is no other work like it. It is historic, important, and provocative, with many findings that will be the primary source for scholars, as well as anyone interested in this complex subject, for generations to come.

— Frank Wu, former dean, Wayne State University Law School

B. Bryan Post

Simon and Roorda have done it again! They have captured the sly fox of adoption, exposing the many facets of an experience that so many have experienced yet so few understand. In Their Siblings' Voices is yet another superb presentation of adoption that so few have rarely considered, much less examined in depth. As an adoptee and an adoption professional, I believe this entire trilogy should become a part of the adoption home-study requirement. I have never read a series that so eloquently and compassionately lifts the veil on a subject that many find difficult to broach.

— B. Bryan Post, founder of the POST Institute for Family-Centered Therapy

Editorial Reviews

(E)xtremely innovative work

Families in Society Online - Yvonne P. Haynes

this is an important book that fills a gap in the adoption literature by providing the voices and experiences of a rarely heard contingent.

Choice

In Their Siblings' Voices can guide any parent's education on transracial adoption.

Adoptive Families

(E)xtremely innovative work

— Yvonne P. Haynes

Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Sciences Online

(E)xtremely innovative work

— Yvonne P. Haynes

Families in Society Online