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Showing posts from January, 2017

"This is Us" Honors the Complexity of Adoption

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It’s a rare moment when I can turn on a T.V. show that has adoption as part of its storyline and not cringe, roll my eyes and talk back to the T.V. about how they just don’t get it.   Sometimes it’s just downright painful to watch the same old stereotypes and adoption rhetoric play out. I don’t have that same experience when I watch NBC’s This is Us .  In fact, there are so many “ I can’t believe they got it right ” moments that it would take a whole series of blogs to ponder them. What the writers really get, is the complexity, that is adoption.  It appears that the writers did their research and interviewed transracial adoptees and read adoptee blogs to understand the complex experiences of being a transracial adoptee. Here is a list of some of the issues that are addressed in This is Us : *loyalty *fear of loss *abandonment *fear of being different *racial and sexual identity *identity crisis *reunion *family secrets *being gifted *sibling riva