Comments on: Babies Can Show Racial Bias http://dcentric.wamu.org/jp/babies-can-show-racial-bias/ Race, Class, The District. Mon, 16 Jul 2012 03:01:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Anonymous http://dcentric.wamu.org/jp/babies-can-show-racial-bias/#comment-1621 Anonymous Mon, 07 May 2012 13:32:00 +0000 http://dcentric.wamu.org/?post_type=jiffypost&p=15942#comment-1621 I've seen this firsthand with my daughter. We adopted her from Taiwan when she was 11 months old. We spent several days with her in Taipei before flying back to DC, during which she bonded closely with my husband. In the airport in Detroit on our way back to DC, my husband stepped away briefly, and she screamed and cried and then kept reaching/lunging for another white guy nearby. He didn't actually resemble my husband, but he was the same height and had dark hair like my husband and was wearing jeans & a white shirt, just like my husband was. It dawned on me then that our stop in Detroit was her first time ever outside of an Asian country. In Taipei, my husband stood out as one of very few white men; in Detroit, surrounded by white people, she had a harder time telling him apart. We are going back to Taiwan for a visit this summer, and I am wondering what it will be like for all of us with the situation reversed -- she will blend in, and we will stand out. I am a little bit terrified that I will lose my own daughter in a crowd -- something I rarely have to worry about in DC. I’ve seen this firsthand with my daughter. We adopted her from Taiwan when she was 11 months old. We spent several days with her in Taipei before flying back to DC, during which she bonded closely with my husband.

In the airport in Detroit on our way back to DC, my husband stepped away briefly, and she screamed and cried and then kept reaching/lunging for another white guy nearby. He didn’t actually resemble my husband, but he was the same height and had dark hair like my husband and was wearing jeans & a white shirt, just like my husband was.

It dawned on me then that our stop in Detroit was her first time ever outside of an Asian country. In Taipei, my husband stood out as one of very few white men; in Detroit, surrounded by white people, she had a harder time telling him apart.

We are going back to Taiwan for a visit this summer, and I am wondering what it will be like for all of us with the situation reversed — she will blend in, and we will stand out. I am a little bit terrified that I will lose my own daughter in a crowd — something I rarely have to worry about in DC.

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