White South African transracial adoptive and foster mothers’ discourses on race

What is it about?

“Transracial” adoption and fostering offer fertile ground for exploring how constructions of race can operate. In this study 17 South African mothers identifying as White who have adopted and who foster transracially were interviewed. Focus was placed on how they talk about race through their discussions of mothering. Through a discourse analysis it was found that race was constructed largely in an ambivalent manner. Aversive racism can co-exist with intentionally devoted mothering. Some mothers in this study, however, did assume a consciously reflexive stance in their deconstruction of race.

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Why is it important?

The literature on transracial adoption and fostering ihas a tendency to treat race as a taken-for-granted notion, rather than as a site of ambivalent meaning struggle. This informs how strategies for the support of families in this situation are then formulated. Further exploration into how the construct of race is formed, viewed, debated and contested affords a more insightful and nuanced understanding of how race operates discursively in this context and how support for adoptive and foster families can be effectively designed. In order to address this gap this article presents findings from a qualitative study using discourse analysis to investigate how mothers who have adopted and who foster transracially talk about race through their discussions of mothering.