Capitalism & Transracial Adoption

Hat tip to Harlow's Monkey, for this post on Racialicious, quoting from an interview with Rebecca Walker on capitalism and transracial adoption at Bitch Magazine:

It is beautiful that people can open their lives to human beings of any background, but I think that all of us – every human being – runs the risk of being commodified in a hypercapitalist culture. For example, I feel that as a biracial person I have more social currency now that we have a biracial president. So when we think about which bodies have currency, it’s an interesting question.

One of the writers [whose piece] didn’t make it into One Big Happy Family wrote about how the process of adopting a child from another country made her more aware of human trafficking. Ultimately, she had to question whether her child had been put up for adoption or was stolen. If we look at plunging fertility in developed nations and raging underdevelopment and poverty in others, we can see how children can become the ultimate product.

The comments at Racialicious are very interesting. I was particularly struck by a comment by Atlasien, whose Upside Down Adoption blog is terrific, by the way:

I agree 100% that human trafficking and adoption should not be compartmentalized. There’s a growing awareness of adoption corruption (I touched on a couple stories here) and in most adoptive parent communities, the degree of denialism about adoption corruption is just staggering. It’s a major reason I participate in adoptive parent communities VERY rarely.

Gee, I wonder why it rang a bell?! (Don't worry, I'm getting over it! A very good friend said something that made me realize I was taking it too much to heart because I've got the @#$% flu (as do the girls) and that, combined with fatigue, is making me over-emotional).

I don't wholly agree with Rebecca Walker's opinions on adoption, but this excerpt touches on a thought-provoking subject with some intelligent comments. And it's always interesting to check out Racialicious anyway!