A changing world

for the better, if you ask me!

If you haven't already seen it, this is California's "I Voted!" sticker. Trilingual - English, Chinese and Spanish! How cool is that??!!

It's about time that we act like the Great American Melting Pot that we profess to be.

Now we're cooking!

We've had this cookbook for a while, but hadn't tried any of the recipes until last night. Our friends M and B were coming over for dinner so we thought we'd try something new.

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Our menu:

• Vegetable Bird Nests (from Trader Joe's - yummy!)
• Rainbow Salad
• Steamed Prawns in Mixed Bean Sauce
• Stir-Fried Scallops in Oyster Sauce
• Stir-Fried Broccoli and Chinese Mushroom
• Tsing Tao beer

We messed up a little the scallops (a little over cooked and some mistakes in following the recipe), but everything else was wonderful. Next I want to make the Eight Treasure Vegetarian Assemblage shown on the cover of the book.

We had a great time at the Asian grocery yesterday afternoon and I'm feeling pretty comfortable that we can find just about any ingredient we might need. By the way, we found some delicious bottled iced green tea with honey - very refreshing and just slightly sweet. If I'd known how good it would be, I'd have bought more.

On the way home we also had a good discussion about whether we were being cultural tourists by shopping at this store. I think it's borderline, but leaning toward believing it's ok because we went there because we wanted to and liked it for itself. I continue to struggle with how to best provide Nora with experiences of Chinese culture that are meaningful and real ... and in ensuring that we are properly motivated in seeking these connections.

New addition for Nora's library

I was at our local Target the other day and stopped by the children's book section, which I almost always do, and was happily surprised by a new addition to the shelf - Whoever You Are by Mem Fox.

I had seen this book once before and we had it on Nora's library wishlist. It is an exceptional book about diversity and humanity - and it comes in board book (which is the edition that they had at Target). Someday I'll probably get the hardcover, but for now, the board book is perfect and the message will never get old - people are much more alike than they are different. I know that race and racism are much more complex, but I think this is a fantastic introduction for young children.

Mandarin Chinese Committee

Today I went to my first meeting with the Mandarin Chinese Committee. It turns out that they did get the grant money, but weren't able to find a teacher in time for Fall semester. They would still like to start in January - either as a before/after school program or as part of the regular curriculum. We are all tasked with looking for potential instructors and will reconvene next month.

If we aren't able to find a Mandarin instructor, they will probably pursue some other language or culture program. The grant money won't apply, but the district, it seems, is committed to "global literacy". I left feeling pretty good about Nora's future school.

Has anyone read Languages and Children: Making the Match: Foregin Language Instruction for an Early Start Grades K-8 by Helena Curtain and Carol Ann Dahlberg? What about anything by Stephen Krashen? I think I need to do some background reading and these all came up in this afternoon's meeting.

Ni hao! Yo! ¡Hola!

So I'm a little bit behind in newspaper reading - I'm reading yesterday's Star Tribune - and noticed a great article about diversity in children's television programming. This was also mentioned in yesterday's transracial parenting workshop, but of course I forgot about it until I saw it again in the paper this morning.

It talks about how much more common diversity is in children's programs than it is in adult prime time television. "Sesame Street" included people of color from the beginning. I remember that from my own childhood. "Zoom" too - remember "Zoom"? Morgan Freeman was the Easy Reader. Yet prime time tv only has four shows that feature people of color in lead roles.

The other great thing about the new kid's shows like "Dora the Explorer", "Go Diego, Go!" and "Ni Hao, Kai-lan" is that they make multi-lingualism cool. How great is that?!

You can read the whole article here (click on the word here). You can also learn more about "Ni Hao, Kai-lan" on Nick Jr's website at http://www.nickjr.com/shows/ni-hao-kai-lan/index.jhtml

Transracial parenting

Today Rob and I went to a transracial parenting workshop at Children's Home Society. The main speaker was Deb Reisner who is the program director of The Harambee Village. Deb is a terrific speaker who is the mother of five transracially adopted children . It was a very good program and I'm so glad that Rob and I were able to attend together. More that anywhere else, this is one area where we need to be on the same page for the sake of our child(ren).

One of the resources we learned about today was a PBS documentary about race. It's from 2003, but is still very relevant. Here's a link to the companion website (click on the work link). Part of what's included on the website are ten things everyone should know about race:

1. Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide people according to physical distinctions, but according to religion, status, class, even language. The English language didn't even have the word 'race' until it turns up in a 1508 poem by William Dunbar referring to a line of kings.
2. Race has no genetic basis. Not one characteristic, trait or even gene distinguishes all the members of one so-called race from all the members of another so-called race.
3. Human subspecies do not exist. Unlike many animals, modern humans simply haven't been around long enough or isolated enough to evolve into separate subspecies or races. Despite surface appearances, we are one of the most genetically similar of all species.
4. Skin color really is only skin deep. Most traits are inherited independently from one another. The genes influencing skin color have nothing to do with the genes influencing hair form, eye shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic ability or forms of intelligence. Knowing someone's skin color doesn't necessarily tell you anything else about him or her.
5. Most variation is within, not between, "races". Of the small amount of total human variation, 85% exists withing any local population, be they Italians, Kurds, Koreans or Cherokees. About 94% can be found within any continent. That means that two random Koreans may be as genetically different as a Korean and an Italian.
6. Slavery predates race. Throughout much of human history, societies have enslaved others, often as a result of conquest or war, even debt, but not because of physical characteristics or a belief in natural inferiority. Due to a unique set of historical circumstances, ours was the first slave system where all the slaves shared similar physical characteristics.
7. Race and freedom evolved together. The U.S. was founded on the radical new principle that "All men are created equal." But our early economy was based largely on slavery. How could this anomaly be rationalized? The new idea of race helped explain why some people could be denied the rights and freedoms that others took for granted.
8. Race justified social inequalities as natural. As the race idea evolved, white superiority became "common sense" in America. It justified not only slavery but also the extermination of Indians, exclusion of Asian immigrants, and the taking of Mexican lands by a nation that professed a belief in democracy. Racial practices were institutionalized within American government, laws and society.
9. Race isn't biological , but racism is still real. Race is a powerful social idea that gives people different access to opportunities and resources. Our government and social institutions have created advantages that disproportionately channel wealth, power and resources to white people. This affects everyone, whether we are aware of it or not.
10. Colorblindness will not end racism. Pretending race doesn't exist is not the same as creating equality. Race is more than stereotypes and individual prejudice. To combat racism, we need to identify and remedy social policies and institutional practices that advantage some groups at the expense of others.

The website has a lot more information. I encourage everyone to check it out. You may also be interested in http://www.understandingrace.org/ which a project of the American Anthropological Association and is related to the Race exhibit that was at our local science museum last Spring. I could have sworn that I wrote something about that at the time, but I can't seem to find the post.

One somewhat unsettling observation I made today was that in a room full of people only very few had Asian or Latin American children. Most of the parents in attendance had African American children. I'm hoping that has something to do with the timing of families moving through the processes of the agency hosting the event. I would not like to think that parents of Asian and Latin American children do not realize that their families are multiracial. Racisim and white privilege are very real, important issues that will affect our children and it is our responsibility to educate ourselves so that we can support and advocate for them.

Another resource is Anti-Racist Parent at http://www.antiracistparent.com/ if you haven't already discovered this site.

Ok, so that was a bad choice of words

I'll concede that this lady's experiment is not necessarily racist, but it is most definitely anti-China. This sort of thing has been a topic of discussion at our house a couple of times because hubby had been prone to making offhanded comments suggesting that Chinese products are "cheap" or "low quality". These things bother me because I don't want Nora to ever infer that anyone (and certainly not her daddy) thinks that she is low quality because she came from China.

That'll teach me to read the newspaper

Two weekends ago we were in IL visiting family and I happened to read the Sunday Chicago Tribune. There was an article on the front page of the business section that caught my eye -- A family tries 12 months without 'Made in China'

At first I thought it was a pro-American kind of thing, reduce the trade deficit, etc. That part all sounded pretty good; we should all be concerned about the trade deficit. Then I read the article. They aren't about addressing the trade deficit - Legos from Denmark and expensive Italian shoes are apparently ok, only Chinese goods are forbidden. European good, Asian bad. Racist much?

I also totally discounted the whole experiment when I read that they didn't realize that Hong Kong is part of China.

Read the article. Let me know if it rubs you wrong too.

More about transracial adoption

I received an e-newsletter from Minnesota Adoption Support and Preservation (MN-ASAP) yesterday afternoon (although I'm just now reading it) that has got to be one of the most thought-provoking 12 pages that I've ever read. If you are part of a transracial family or are thinking of adopting transracially, this is a must-read. Here's a link. Be sure to check out "Externalizing Racism: A Parenting Tool in Transracial Adoption" by Deb Reisner on page 3 and "Parenting Tips for White Parents With Adopted Children of Color" by Sun Yung Shin on page 8.

BTW, I've heard great things about Deb Reisner from one of my coworkers. We are planning on attending a workshop of hers this Fall.

Would you move??

Tomorrow is book club at work. We're discussing Beyond Good Intentions by Cheri Register. This book made me think about a couple of things, one of them was about where we live. Here's an excerpt from the book:

Given this tendency [to seek people like us], we can't really fault parents who object when adoptees advise them to relocate. If you have spent your life in a small town, the same one where your family has lived for generations, why should you have to uproot yourself to add a child to your family? Why should you give up your low-rate mortgage and your well-funded suburban school to move to the city where the houses are aging, the crime rate is higher, and the teachers are busy dealing with social problems? You know you wouldn't feel happy or safe there, so how could that be good for your child? Just keep in mind that he has the same instincts you do: to seek the comfort and safety of the familiar, which, as he grows up and becomes more self-aware, may mean faces less like yours and more like his. Remember, too, that he has traveled a great distance to fulfill your dreams of family. Your move across town or to a neighboring city or even to another state is a minor adjustment compared to the upheaval he has endured.

This same topic has come up in a couple of our adoption network meetings. Last month one of the adult adopted people on our panel mentioned an exercise that one of the local adoption agencies does with their clients. You start with an empty jar and a bunch of black and white marbles - then you go through the people in your life - the ones your interact with regularly like your neighbors, your hair person, your doctor, etc. - and put a marble in the jar representing each of those people. If they are white, you put a white marble and if they are a person of color you put a black marble. Then you look at your jar. It tells you something about the diversity of the environment into which you'll be bringing your child. The good thing about doing this is advance is that you have time to make changes - like look for another doctor or another community all together.

I'm ashamed to say that I don't have to do this exercise to tell you that my jar is mostly white. I also don't especially want to move. I like where we live. Anyone else struggling with this?