Mixed-Blood

Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging, by Eleana J. Kim, was this week’s reading. Part one of this reading covered the foundation for the politics involved in adopting international. The children in this narrative are perceived as needy, orphaned, and/or abandoned individuals. Thus, giving those who adopt these children the heroic persona, since it is considered to be Christian charity and divine selection for those adopted to be rescued from the harsh living environments they had been exposed to and brought to the United States where they would live a better life. Serviceman who took part in adopting these children were considered to be heroic to say the least, they not only were servicing their country but being of service to a “troubled” country. However, what is problematic about this is that the majority of the orphaned/abandoned children were “mixed-blood”, meaning their fathers were the same servicemen that were adopting them. As with American government and media they took this and turned it into something that could be viewed as positive. Giving these men who were sleeping with the “enemy” a heroic title for taking on the paternalistic role to children they were in fact parents to. Korean government was comparable to the Jamaican government discussed by Gina Ulysse brought up in Downtown Ladies. The Korean government, much like the Jamaican government saw an area for opportunity and took it. They had no pre-developed social welfare programs put in place to protect these thousands of children, so the United States servicemen stepped in and helped set up and establish theses orphanages and adoption opportunities to bring these children back to the United States was more of a problem solver. The United States also stepped in and helped them developed a social welfare system, very much similar to the one in the United States to help regulate these adoptions and orphanages.

            These international adoptions were very popular, the media publicized ways in which you could adopt your very own Korean baby. These adoptions were bringing increasingly large numbers of pure blood Korean children and mixed-blood Korean children to the United States at a time when there was also a baby boom going on. With the influx of these adoptions the number of national adoptions had to see a decrease, the reading stated that it assumed the popularity in adopting internationally came because of the decrease in Caucasian baby boys, which are the most popularly adopted children in the United States. The typical blue eyed, blonde haired, baby was not highly available and with that they took the next best thing the children who were being publicized as needy and abandoned. Furthermore, their upbringing in the United States is not completely an easy transition there is not only a language barrier but a racial/color distinction. Also, they are removed from their Korean culture and brought into a foreign environment to be given a new American name to help “normalize” them with efforts to ease the transition.

            This type of adoption profiling still does exist it is considered honorable when the nuclear family or a couple with the high potential to be the ideal nuclear family adopts.  It is disturbing to know that single servicemen were able to cut through the “red tape” to adopt these children, however, the ability for a single male to adopt within the United States is almost impossible, same goes for a homosexual couple. Is this because there is more value placed on the upbringing of an American child in a nuclear home than an international child? Or is this simply because it is not the idea of what the nuclear family has been defined to be? My analysis of this information is not to discredit all of the servicemen but to raise question in regards to whether those who were in fact fulfilling their paternalistic duties should be considered heroic for doing what they were supposed to do.