Loving Across the Color Line: A White Adoptive Mother Learns About Race

by Sharon E. Rush

What would a liberal, white, civil rights law professor have to learn about race? When Sharon Rush adopted an African American girl, she quickly discovered the need to throw out old assumptions and start learning all over again. This is the moving, heartfelt memoir of a mother and daughter's loving relationship that opened the author's eyes to the harsh realities of the American racial divide. Only by living with her daughter through the day-to-day encounters and life passages did Rush learn that racism is far more devastating to blacks than most whites can ever imagine. Some of the stories are funny, others are sad, a few are almost unbelievable. But they all are poignant because they illustrate how insightful a little black girl of three can be about race and justice. With love and spirituality, Rush and her daughter live a deeply joyous life, just as they both have become increasingly active in working publicly and privately against racism. Dr. Sharon Rush lives in Gainesville, FL, where she is Professor of Law at the University of Florida.

Genres: Adoption

208 pages, Hardcover

First published May 25, 2000

About the author

Sharon E. Rush teaches constitutional law and federal courts. She practiced law at the firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft before joining the faculty at DePaul University in Chicago where she taught for two years prior to joining the Florida faculty. Prof. Rush is an expert on separation of powers, federalism, children’s rights, equal protection, due process, and race relations. She co-founded the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations, one of a few law school centers that focuses on race. She is the author of Loving Across the Color Line: A White Adoptive Mother Learns About Race (2000), which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and Huck Finn’s “Hidden” Lessons: Teaching and Learning Across the Color Line (2006). Her articles have been published in law reviews and journals at many of the top law schools and she also has contributed numerous chapters to books published by acclaimed academic presses such as Vanderbilt University, New York University, Cornell University, North Carolina Press, and Oxford University.
Prof. Rush achieved the honor of being cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in Ankenbrandt v. Richards, Inc. 504 U.S. 689 (1992), a case that raised questions about the scope of the domestic relations exception to federal jurisdiction. Professor Rush’s teaching influence extends around the world to South Africa, Poland, Germany, Mexico, and France and she has been a visiting professor at several law schools, including Cornell University, her alma mater. She also has received several Outstanding Teaching Awards. Prof. Rush’s current research projects focus on the relationship between group political power and an individual’s right to equal protection.

Reviews

[Dayspring · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether you are interested in a more narrative discussion of race and adoption, or a more sociological and academic perspective, this book is a great read. The author speaks primarily from her own experiences, but also incorporates history and other literature. Although the book appears to be a centered on transracial adoption, its actually more focused on race in the United States, particularly issues of White privilege. I definitely would recommend the book.

[Alina Borger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is written by a law professor and white adoptive mother. She and her African-American daughter have navigated some rocky racial waters together, and share their story powerfully. The end of the book offers the author's theory about something she calls "transformative love"--the kind of love that helped her move from being a sympathetic white person to someone who understands and can see racism more clearly "from the inside"...because of the way it wounds her beloved daughter.

[Rachel Leigh]

I was excited to read this book. Honestly, I was. I even designated it as my "fun-book-to-read-on-my-lunchbreak" book. But I just couldn't do it.

I thought that the book would be more anecdotal and therefore better organized - i.e., "Chapter 1. This happened to my daughter. This is what we should learn from it. Chapter 2. Repeat." However, it was much more like a textbook from my Minority Studies days. Not enough linear thought, too much discourse. Disappointing.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

White privilege, racial identity, discrimination; true stories of a white mom with an adopted bi-racial daughter and the lessons she learns about race in America.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eye opening account of a white mother adopting a bi-racial child.