Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race: Korean Adoptees in America

Chapter 7: Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race

CHAPTER 7 Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race In this concluding chapter, we take a step back from examining the “groundlevel ” experiences of Korean adoptees to reflect upon the larger significance of our findings. An assumption we have made throughout this study is that identity exploration is important for Korean adoptees to pursue. Many scholars have documented the link between identity development, psychological well-being, and mental health (see especially Arroyo and Zigler 1995; Basow et al. 2008; Erikson 1963; Martinez and Dukes 1997; Thoits 1983; Vleioras and Bosma 2005; Wakefield and Hudley 2007). Jean Phinney (1989, 1992, 1996b), in particular , has emphasized the importance for racial minorities of engaging in identity exploration to counteract shame or the development of a negative self-image from being considered undesirable or inferior by white norms. Exploration is important for racial minorities because it enables them to make sense of who they are in a society where race matters and gives them a chance to develop a healthy self-image. A strong ethnic and racial identity can also offer protection from negative stereotypes by providing a positive counternarrative about one’s group (Lee 2003b, 2005; Rivas-Drake 2008). The unique life circumstances of Korean and other transracial adoptees make identity exploration especially important to pursue. But exploration is also a more complicated process given that adoptee families are white (Friedlander 1999; Hollingsworth 1997; Johnston et al. 2007; Lee 2003a; Song and Lee 2009; CHOOSING ETHNICITY, NEGOTIATING RACE 139 Westhues and Cohen 1998; Yoon 2001, 2004). As Susan Basow and her colleagues (2008, 474) have argued, “In contrast to minority individuals whose parents are also members of racial minorities, transracial adoptees with Caucasian families must be deliberately exposed to ethnic and racial groups other than the dominant one within their homes if they are to experience cultural socialization.” We now return our attention to Caleb Littell, whom the reader may remember as the adoptee who became caught up in armed robbery, drugs, and general debauchery during his youth. We opened this book with a detailed discussion of his adolescence, and we return to him at the close because his narrative embodies many key elements of the Korean adoptee experience, albeit taken to extremes. Today Caleb is happily married and experiencing success as a producer of extreme sports videos. He is also taking small steps toward learning about Korean culture and interacting with other Asians, both of which he would have resisted until recently: “I’m finding myself, not drawn, but more interested in learning that stuff.” Psychologists would view Caleb’s current state as one where he is moving toward greater psychological health and an achieved identity. As sociologists, our attention is drawn to the broader social contexts and personal relations that compel adoptees like Caleb to give greater consideration to their identities. In accounting for his gradual change in attitude, Caleb had a revealing conversation with the interviewer: CALEB: And I think the reason, the main reason why I do that for myself, is, so I don’t have such a negative view on Asian people [sigh]. . . . INTERVIEWER: Okay. And why did you feel like you had to start working on that? CALEB: [pause] . . . My wife! [laughs] My wife told me I was racist! [laughs] I’d say things at dinner parties, or I’d say things around her that weren’t, that to me were totally [pause] . . . whatever, normal. But I could see, either in other people’s eyes or in her eyes, that that’s not a normal way to talk. That’s not a good way to be. . . . So I, [pause] . . . yeah. So when I say I had a complex with it, I mean I had a complex with it! [laughs] I was not a happy Asian person. And not happy with other Asian people. Caleb’s words speak volumes about the ambivalence that many Korean adoptees feel toward their ancestry and why exploration is so important to 140 CHOOSING ETHNICITY, NEGOTIATING RACE pursue. If Caleb had the option of ignoring his race, the stakes would be low. His feelings about being Asian would simply be a matter of individual preference . This is the case today for white ethnics, who can choose the racial and ethnic elements they wish to identify with or wish to discard (Alba 1990; Gans 1979; Waters 1990). A different picture emerges for racial minorities and Asian Americans in particular (Macias 2006; Song...