Affirming Korean Adoptee Anti-Adoption Self-Expressions As Anti-Racist, Abolitionist, Intersectional Feminist Articulations: Blog Comment Reactions to "Adopter Savior Syndrome"

Background and Purpose: This poster presentation contends with pro-adoption dominant discourses that can normalize oppression in social work and beyond. In conversation with recent adult Korean adoptee rights activism in South Korea, we center the relational possibilities of adoptee solidarity with vulnerable families and BIPOC communities as an alternative to normalizing family separations through international Korean adoption. We conceptualize adult Korean adoptee anti-adoption self-expressions as anti-racist articulations that can contribute to social work’s vision for co-creating justice and inclusion.

Methods: Thematic analysis was used as a flexible tool for the empirical component of this inquiry that revisits the once public comments that responded to the Korean adoptee-authored social justice satire, “Adopter Savior Syndrome.” How do blog comment reactions make visible the pro-adoption, affective status quo? How do blog comment reactions generate alternatives? The data came from 74 comments that were previously posted publicly to Adopter Savior Syndrome in 2013, between January 23 and September 19. As sometimes disclosed through their publicly posted comments, authors included adoptees, adoptive families, families of origin, and non-adopted interlocutors. Initial analysis generated the category labels of “anti-adoption affirmation” and “anti-adoption rejection.” These inductively created category labels imperfectly parallel the binary debate of either pro-adoption or anti-adoption that exists well beyond the scope of this data.

Results: Data analysis indicated the existence of and alternatives to a pro-adoption, affective status quo that prioritized sympathies for typically white adoptive families over adoptees of color and families of origin. Specifically, the Korean adoptee blog author became unsympathetic through expressing an anti-racist critique of international and transracial adoption (e.g., “I hope that your adoptive family has cut all ties with you if you treat them as you sound. Why should they tolerate that?”). Sympathies for adoptive families could create hostilities that could articulate the oppressive intersections between racism and ableism. For example, anti-adoption rejections could advance colorblind racism (e.g., “Jesus doesn't care what color we think he is”) and discredit the adoptee author as mentally and morally deficient (e.g., “The writer is just very angry and bitter. She probably would be even if not adopted...I hope that she is getting some mental health assistance”). Collective affirmation of the adoptee author’s anti-adoption self-expression, however, emerged as an anti-oppressive protective factor that refuted hostilities. Collective affirmation also seemed to create space for platforming the anti-adoption perspectives authored by families of origin (e.g., I fought hard to keep my baby...but the "SAVIOURS CAME" and took my beautiful 9 months-old baby from my arms).

Conclusions and implications: In conversation with abolitionist social work, we conclude by advancing anti-adoption affirmation as an anti-oppressive practice that can protect adoptees and families of origin from isolation within the pro-adoption, affective status quo. Moving forward, social workers can resist the oppressive prioritization of sympathies for adoptive families and, instead, affirm anti-adoption movements to protect vulnerable families and communities of color. As a change resulting from this inquiry, adult Korean adoptee anti-adoption politics can become visible as epistemic oversights in social work’s commitment to justice and inclusion.