What are the microaggressions or stigmas in the world of adoption and how do they impact adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents? We talk with Dr. Amanda Baden, a Professor and the Doctoral Program Director at Montclair State University in the graduate counseling program and a licensed psychologist in private practice in Manhattan. She is an adult adoptee from Hong Kong and an adoptive parent of a daughter from China.

In this episode, we cover:

• What are microaggessions in general and how do they apply to adoption?
• These microaggressions apply to all members of the adoption kinship network (adoptees; adoptive parents, grandparents, siblings; first/birth parents/grandparents).
• Where do some of the unconscious attitudes and stigmas toward adoption come from?
• Common microaggression themes for adoptees:
  • biology is best/normative is based upon the belief that biological ties are superior, more permanent, and more authentic than ties formed through adoption or foster care
  • bad seed adoptees or damaged goods
  • grateful adoptees, a third theme, refers to the idea of adoptees as both lucky and privileged to have been adopted
  • cultural limbo and invalidation of heritage
• What are some of the microagressions against birth parents?
• What are some of the microaggressions against adoptive parents?
• Lack of intent to hurt.
• How can microsaggressions impact the mental health?

Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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