Somebody's Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption

by Laura Briggs

In Somebody's Children, Laura Briggs examines the social and cultural forces—poverty, racism, economic inequality, and political violence—that have shaped transracial and transnational adoption in the United States during the second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first. Focusing particularly on the experiences of those who have lost their children to adoption, Briggs analyzes the circumstances under which African American and Native mothers in the United States and indigenous and poor women in Latin America have felt pressed to give up their children for adoption or have lost them involuntarily.The dramatic expansion of transracial and transnational adoption since the 1950s, Briggs argues, was the result of specific and profound political and social changes, including the large-scale removal of Native children from their parents, the condemnation of single African American mothers in the context of the civil rights struggle, and the largely invented "crack babies" scare that inaugurated the dramatic withdrawal of benefits to poor mothers in the United States. In Guatemala, El Salvador, and Argentina, governments disappeared children during the Cold War and then imposed neoliberal economic regimes with U.S. support, making the circulation of children across national borders easy and often profitable. Concluding with an assessment of present-day controversies surrounding gay and lesbian adoptions and the struggles of immigrants fearful of losing their children to foster care, Briggs challenges celebratory or otherwise simplistic accounts of transracial and transnational adoption by revealing some of their unacknowledged causes and costs.

Genres: Adoption, Nonfiction, History, Academic, Sociology

376 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Laura Briggs is the Chair of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[EB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Briggs makes a convincing argument for a re-telling and rethinking of adoption both domestically within the US and transnationally. Written from a feminist and critical perspective, she documents the history of how foster and adoption systems came into being and makes a general argument that we ought to give more attention to how children end up there (as opposed to what ought to be done with them). She contends that adoption has been a symbolic and political arena whose potency has been out of proportion to its practical significance. Further, adoption is a sort of looking glass which gives us insight into the gendered, racial, and political order of policy and events from African slavery to the modern day.

I've been reading this book for a child welfare course in pursuit of a graduate degree. Many of my classmates and myself have found Briggs' writing and rhetorical style difficult to follow at times. She certainly takes plenty of artistic license in her use of commas. With regard to the structure of her arguments, I think one of my classmates put it best: she continually folds them like overlapping layers of bread that never quite bake into anything.

My own opinion is that she is definitely more descriptive than prescriptive in many aspects of the book (e.g. reproductive technology and its effect on LGBT prospective adoptive parents). It is difficult at times to surmise her propositions and perspective, though at other times she is quite explicit (e.g. when writing about hypocrisy and bigotry of the Christian Right on gay adoption). Despite the density of content and meandering rhetorical style I think her perspective is a welcome addition to ongoing debates in child welfare, and it has helped me to think more critically about the forces that influence policy and practice in the field.

[Maureen Flatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone working in adoption and international child welfare today.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my way of thinking about so many things: Reagan, the war on drugs, right wing politics of the 2nd half of the 20th century, welfare, foster care, adoption, etc. Frankly, I was just uninformed before. I learned SO much from this book. Bottom line is we need to do everything we can as a society to keep families together. We need to help support mothers and fathers to raise their children.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Briggs explores the history of taking children from women through societal or political force: various ideations of black women, Native American women, political targets in Guatemala, immigrants to the US. An interesting exploration of how we in the US see adoption, the women whose children are adopted or put into foster care, and the children who are adopted.

[Michael Lệ Moore]

As an adoptee, this book was life-changing for me in how it illustrates the interconnectedness of child welfare, institutional racism, and US interventionism in 20th/21st century US history. A very important book to me.