Adoption and Race

I've encountered a number of topics on yahoo groups about adoption and race...mostly in the context of white families adopting children from Ethiopia. Obviously, I'm very interested in these discussions. My internet wanderings took me to this article by a mom of a boy adopted from Vietnam. I've read about half of it. I look forward to finishing it later today. It certainly raises important issues about how to incorporate birth culture in a meaningful way while also addressing issues of race and what it means to grow up as an ethnic minority in America. Though Zeke's racial difference is literally lost on me when I look at him (I just see Zeke, I don't see a child who "looks Vietnamese"), there will be people who only see how he's physically different from "white folk." It's too bad. Like Martin Luther King, Jr. said....I want people to judge him on the content of his character, not on the color of his skin. My heart breaks to think my children will face any kind of unkindness, discrimination or hatred. No parent wants that. We pray for wisdom to know how to equip Zeke and Quilla to love themselves as beautiful children of God and to know how to deal with stupid people. And God grant me the patience not to punch the idiot who has the audacity to be a jerk to my children.