Media Sheds Light on African-American Youth Issues and Those Affecting Transracial Adoptees

For those considering adopting transracially through Children's Hope Ethiopia Program, two videos are available online for your review: A Girl Like Me and Struggle for Identity (the first for free full view, the second for purchase).

Sharon Turner Ethiopia Program Director shares A Girl Like Me, a seven minute award winning film on the issues of racism and stereotypes in the African American community. Although those interviewed are not necessarily adopted or of Ethiopian heritage, they do share a powerful statement on the perceptions of African-American youth in American culture today.

Teenager Kiri Davis of Reel Works Teen Filmmaking and winner of the Media That Matters Diversity Award, explains her own documentary:

For my high-school literature class I was constructing an anthology with a wide range of different stories I believed reflected the black girl’s experience. ...When I was accepted into the Reel Works Teen Filmmaking program, I set out to explore the issues [of the standards of beauty imposed on today’s black girls and how this affects their self-image]. I also decided to reconduct the “doll test”, initially conducted by Dr. Kenneth Clark and used in the historic desegregation case, Brown vs. Board of Education. I thought by including this experiment in my film, I would shed new light on how society affects black children today and how little has actually changed.

This documentary may be viewed in its entirety online, at Media That Matters Film Festival. The short film may be incorporated into some regions’ parent education workshops for Ethiopia.

An alternate video, Struggle for Identity, designed to inform adoptive parents about the needs of children of a different race or culture, is available for purchase online.

In this thought-provoking 20-minute video, viewers hear the compelling voices of transracial adoptees and their families as they confront difficult issues of racism, identity and sense of place in America. A thirty second clip is available for preview online at PhotoSynthesis Productions. (After following the link, click the photo for Quicktime play.)