Law and Politics Book Review, Vol. 11, No. 11, Nov. 2001:
“[An] empathetic study of meanings of cross-racial adoption to adoptees” --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book Description
Can White parents teach their Black children African American culture and history? Can they impart to them the survival skills necessary to survive in the racially stratified United States? Concerns over racial identity have been at the center of controversies over transracial adoption since the 1970s, as questions continually arise about whether White parents are capable of instilling a positive sense of African American identity in their Black children.

Through in-depth interviews with adult transracial adoptees, as well as with social workers in adoption agencies, Sandra Patton, herself an adoptee, explores the social construction of race, identity, gender, and family and the ways in which these interact with public policy about adoption. Patton offers a compelling overview of the issues at stake in transracial adoption. She discusses recent changes in adoption and social welfare policy which prohibit consideration of race in the placement of children, as well as public policy definitions of "bad mothers" which can foster coerced aspects of adoption, to show how the lives of transracial adoptees have been shaped by the policies of the U.S. child welfare system.

Neither an argument for nor against the practice of transracial adoption, BirthMarks seeks to counter the dominant public view of this practice as a panacea to the so-called "epidemic" of illegitimacy and the misfortune of infertility among the middle class with a more nuanced view that gives voice to those directly involved, shedding light on the ways in which Black and multiracial adoptees articulate their own identity experiences.

Powerful Stories of Adoption and Race, October 12, 2000

The power of this book is in the stories of the adoptees the author interviews. Their life stories answer some of the most pressing questions there are about transracial adoption, including their experiences with racism and their struggles to make sense of who they are. This is a book all adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth parents should read. Yet the stories are engaging and relevant for all readers interested in questions of family and identity. Patton lays bare the process of developing a sense of self in a race-conscious society. But there is more. The author lets the adoptees speak and then puts their words into a larger framework of social analysis. She also includes attention to media and policy issues about adoption and single mothers. Her perspective on the connections between welfare legislation and adoption policy are incisive and chilling. A must read!