A recent article in the LA Times sparked outrage in the adoption community. The article was titled “How to Shop for Kids the Brangelina Way”. The article was written in a flippant manner that most adoptive parents found to be rude and disrespectful.
Here are some of the offensive comments that were made in the article:
•Referring to China as “an adoption machine”
•Saying that Russia is “the next biggest supplier of adoptable moppets”
•When talking about the fact that South Korea does not require the parents to travel to get their child, the writer said “(Angelina) could phone in her baby order from her VIP suite at the Raffles L’Hermitage in Beverly Hills (since) South Korea does not require aspiring parents to visit”.
•When talking about adopting children from the Ukraine, the writer said “A kid needs to be available for a year before she can snatch one”
This article was likely written just as a editorial-type piece intended to simply entertain readers, however, I still feel that it was harmful. The adoption community is already fighting an uphill battle in order to be respected. Most of what we see in the media about adoption is negative and while one small comment may not make a difference, the sum of these comments and stories plays a huge part in forming the public’s opinion on adoption. We may assume that people are too smart to pick up these attitudes; that unfortunately that is not the case. The average American does not understand the value of adoption and I believe that articles like this one are partly to blame.
The adoption triad needs support and encouragement from the public. Articles like this one only help to spread negative ideas about adoption and because of that, perhaps the LA Times should find something else to write about.