What White Parents Should Know about ..., Melissa GuidaRichards
What White Parents Should Know about ..., Melissa GuidaRichards
22 Rating(s)
List: $34.95 | Sale: $24.47
Club: $17.47

What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption
An Adoptee's Perspective on Its History, Nuances, and Practices

Author: Melissa Guida-Richards, Paula Guida

Narrator: Stacy Gonzalez

Unabridged: 6 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/04/2022

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

The White Fragility for transracial adoption--practical tools for nurturing identity, unlearning white saviorism, and fixing the mistakes you don't even know you're making.

If you're the white parent of a transracially or internationally adopted child, you may have been told that if you try your best and work your hardest, good intentions and a whole lot of love will be enough to give your child the security, attachment, and nurturing family life they need to thrive.

The only problem? It's not true. What White Parents Need to Know About Transracial Adoption breaks down the dynamics that frequently fly under the radar of the whitewashed, happily-ever-after adoption stories we hear so often.

Written by Melissa Guida-Richards--a transracial, transnational, and late-discovery adoptee--this book unpacks the mistakes you don't even know you're making and gives you the real-life tools to be the best parent you can be, to the child you love more than anything.

From original research, personal stories, and interviews with parents and adoptees, you'll learn:
  •  What parents wish they'd known before they adopted--and what kids wish their adoptive parents had done differently
  •  What white privilege, white saviorism, and toxic positivity are...and how they show up, even when you don't mean it
  •  How your child might feel and experience the world differently than you
  •  All about microaggressions, labeling, and implicit bias
  •  How to help your child connect with their cultural heritage through language, food, music, and clothing
  •  The 5 stages of grief for adoptive parents
  •  How to start tough conversations, work with defensiveness, and process guilt

Reviews

Goodreads review by Panda on December 25, 2022

There are so many problems with this book. What’s jumping out right now is the total immaturity and lack of professionalism from the author. Her tone is steeped in the bitterness of her personal negative experience of being lied to about her origins. I’d appreciate if she had written a book about he......more

Goodreads review by Rebecca on February 01, 2022

I can’t even begin to describe how impactful this book is on my life as an adoptive mom and will sequentially be on my son’s life. Know better, do better. I will recommend this book and gift this book to anyone I hear even thinking of adopting.......more

Goodreads review by Adrie on January 22, 2025

A few highlights : “Another unique complication for transracial adoptees is that we experience an umbrella of white privilege when we are with our white adoptive family that protects us, but the second we are out on our own and do not have our adoptive families around to vouch for us, we lose that pr......more

Goodreads review by Zia on October 23, 2022

There were pieces, like chapter 3, that had good research and I was able to formulate my own opinion. There seem to be contradicting statistics as well. Give some information a chapter and you will read something that goes against the authors experience or another statistic. Ok.I understand that it......more

Goodreads review by Holland on February 17, 2022

Absolutely essential! Aside from her lived experience as a transracial adoptee, Melissa Guida-Richards’ writing is incredibly clear, straightforward, and well cited. Her work is really a gift for adoptive families.......more


Quotes

"A powerful, worthwhile addition to the growing body of work on race and parenting."
Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Melissa Guida-Richards lays bare a painful truth: That loss is central to adoption. For those who are adopted transracially and transnationally, the disappearance of culture, familiarity, and language carry added complexity. With grace and sensitivity, Guida-Richards offers clear, insightful guidance for adoptive parents to help their sons and daughters navigate the isolation, racism, and longing they inevitably feel.”
—Gabrielle Glaser, author of American Baby

“Melissa Guida-Richards offers a generous summary of the multifaceted and often-controversial practice of transracial adoption. Part confession, part guide, and part intellectual invitation, Guida-Richards offers expertise with patience and wit. This is a book of experiential knowledge from a transracially adopted person who has thought deeply about the subject. A book that is a true gift to those with enough courage to face it and themselves.”
—Jenny Heijun Wills, author of Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related.

“Guida-Richards provides a powerful and honest look at some of the most important topics in transracial adoption—topics that have historically all too often been avoided in conversations not only between adoptive parents, but between adoptive parents and their transracially adopted child: white saviorism, white privilege, racial identity, and much more. This should be on the mandatory reading and education list for ALL prospective adoptive parents.”
—Christine Heimann, founder of Adoptee Bridge, a nonprofit providing post-adoption support for transracial adoptees and their families

“I’m an adoptive parent, I consult hopeful adoptive parents in their adoption journey, and I’m an avid adoption book enthusiast. This book is the most comprehensive, relevant, and recommended book to anyone connected and wanting to do better in adoption.”
—Paige Knipfer, owner of Love Grown Adoption Consulting

What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption tackles the most necessary yet overlooked intricacies of adoption, refusing to gloss over the realities that children of color face. Guida-Richards has delivered a culturally relevant must-read for parents to advance their anti-racism education and to become strong advocates for their children.”
—Kira Omans, actor, model, advocate, and transracial adoptee