Tired Adoption Tropes

Why do all bloggers and editorialists think they know something about adoption?  The description of this guy who opines in the Guardian (UK) reads, "Ed West is a journalist and social commentator who specialises in politics, religion and low culture."  Nowhere in there does it say he knows anything about adoption in general or transracial adoption specifically.  Yet here he goes:

There’s nothing more noble in this world than adoption, giving an unwanted child a chance in life, where otherwise the alternative is a care home, abuse, violence and eventually prison or the streets. And I would like to think that I may do it myself one day. Personally I’d go for a Chinese kid, because they’re good at maths and I can train him to do my accounts.

But in all seriousness it doesn’t matter where a child’s ancestors came from, and if this is different to where his adopted parents’ forefathers sprung up; the only thing that matters is that they love them, and give them a home.

Yeah, love them and give them a home where racial stereotypes flourish -- good at maths, indeed. And where all the tired old tropes are trotted out -- "noble" to adopt, children up for adoption "unwanted," if not adopted, the alternative is mayhem, prison and death.  Even the obligatory "I may do it myself one day" -- seeing how he's noble and all that.

And he says all this to criticize a piece where the author makes the rather unremarkable statement that we still live in a racialized world; and if transracial adoption is to happen white parents need to show what they will do to mitigate their white European view of the world so they can help their children form positive racial identities and navigate a racialized world.

Sigh.