Korean Adoptees As Asian Americans - 1799 Words

Transnational Korean Adoptions: Racialization of Korean Adoptees as Asian Americans The practice of Korean transnational adoption has a history of more than fifty years that includes multiple layers that overlap. One history is specific to the end and aftermath of the Korean War and another is the history of racialization of Korean adoptees as Asian Americans, and as a part of an ongoing history of American transracial adoption. This paper will address the history of racialization of Korean adoptees and the way they are viewed as a commodity. In the first section of this paper, I will explain the history behind transnational Korean adoption and in the second part of the paper; I will go into detail of how they were treated as a commodity,†¦show more content†¦The cultural role of the Korean American adoptee was largely established during the 1950s and 1960s as a result of media attention given to this small group of Korean immigrants who arrived in the United States when alm ost all other Asian nationals were barred from legal American immigration. During this time, the U.S. was governed by a strict policy of Asian exclusion that had been in effect in some form since 1882. So, even the trope of the Korean adoptees as â€Å"exceptional† among American peoples of color and among immigrants began with this small group of adoptees, who are now the elders of Korean adoptee communities in the United States and throughout the world. The transnational adoption program that began between the United States and South Korea in 1953 was a direct response to the consequences of American actions in Korea. It included the deployment of troops to the Korean peninsula and the limited occupation of South Korea by American troops that has continued to present day. War orphans, the first adoptees, were configured as â€Å"refugees† from war and as unfortunates who carried the stigma of mixed-race parentage, since many were the offspring of Korean mothers and American G.I. fathers. During this time, being such (mixed raced) was a socially unacceptable situation in Korea in the post-war period. Like the war itself, the practice of transnational adoption was in large, part of a