by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim
A few months ago my family reached a new milestone in our lives as a multi-racial family. My 14 year-old daughter has her first “boyfriend.” I have to admit that I have long been very curious about who my kids would choose to date. In our home, we have […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey
People all over the world are talking about the return of an adopted Korean child by a Dutch diplomat and his wife. I’ve written about disruptions and dissolutions before, namely here and here. I think one of the aspects of this case that is […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey
People ask me all the time for a “top 10″ list of suggestions or rules that are must-do’s regarding transracial adoption, and I’ll admit that I have a really hard time doing this.
Mostly, it’s because there is no easy prescription or formula for getting […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey
This past Friday was our school’s annual Fall Picnic. As you may recall, last spring I wrote about being snubbed from a Mom’s Night Out event in which several moms from my kid’s school organized an evening of socializing.
As I’ve alluded to before, out […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey
Okay, I’m going to start off being blunt. When a person adopts a child and then disrupts or dissolves that adoption, they are re-traumatizing the child and they should accept full responsibility for that.
Now, I’m not saying that I always blame the parent for […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey
. . . I will be on a plane to South Korea. I am embarking on my third trip to Korea since 2000 (also the third trip to my birth country since I was adopted) - interestingly, I will arrive in Seoul on the […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey
They sat on the cream and floral plushy sofa and matching loveseat. Others pulled out the dining room chairs into the room, making a circle with chairs and bodies. Many of the grown-ups had coffee but I, as the only non-adult in the room, […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey
My family lives in a neighborhood in the city that is very diverse; many of our neighbors are Hispanic Latino, Somali and African American. Our kids go to a public school that has a Montessori core curriculum and because of that there is less […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey
When my daughter was five, one of her favorite movies was Disney’s version of “Annie.” She would kneel on the kitchen floor, dishtowel in hand, and sing, “It’s a hard knock life!” as she swiped the linoleum. Once “Annie” arrived in our house, our […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey

Earlier this week, Rachel from Rachel’s Tavern shared with me a comment left on her blog in response to a post about the U.S.’s decision to end working with Guatemala’s adoption program. Rachel did a fantastic job responding to the points left by this […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey

It’s a precarious position for anyone who tries to be an agent of change within any institution. It can be difficult to balance the needs between individual people and systems that were created to help and instead have become so bureaucratic that it is […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim
Okay, I am totally showing my age here, but when I was a kid in the midwest in the 1970’s and 80’s, my siblings and I spent every Saturday morning watching cartoons and its safe to say that much of what I remember about the 3 R’s (reading, ‘riting […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey
I began to reply to Susanna’s question on Anti-Racist Parent, but realized that my response was too long for the comment box, so I thought I would share my thoughts about how I deal with racist family members, and how that affects both myself […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey
A couple weeks ago, I presented two trainings for MN-ASAP (Minnesota Adoption Support and Preservation) in southern Minnesota, and on the way home, I happened upon the song “Reflection” from the movie Mulan.
Listening to the lyrics, it hit me that the words seemed to […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim
Everytime I hear about an adoptee who has reunited with their families, the green-eyed monster makes a visit. I have witnessed three reunions and have had many more friends reunite with their bio families and while I am beside myself with happiness for them, it also reminds me that […]

by ARP Columnist Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Kimchi Mamas
I was pregnant with my daughter in April of 1992 when the police officers in the Rodney King beating were acquitted and the riots erupted in Los Angeles. I was a student then, and between my classes and work my husband and I would watch […]

by Anti-Racist Parent Columnist Jae Ran Kim
When I think about what it means to me personally to be invited to be a guest blogger on Anti-Racist Parent, it is wholly in contrast to how I was raised in the 1970’s and 1980’s in the Midwest.
I grew up the oldest of three children in a middle […]