In reading Nurturing Children and Youth by Tracy Hurd, I came upon a section in the chapter on Young Adolecents that underscored that "This can be a particularly sensitive time for transracially adopted, multiracial, or multiethnic adolescents. navigating multiple identities, they may feel the need to choose with whom they will identiry. " and "Early adolescence is the time when youth seek to be with others who seem like themselves, a challeng for youth who are under-represented in many Unitarian Universlist congregations. " " In the process of identigying who they are, multiethcnic and multiracial adoclescents are likely to reject all that they are not. Mutliracial youth often report feeling that they must choose one racial identity in order to fit in somewhere."
I am exploring how we as a congregation might be able to provide a safe space for youth with mulitracial multiethnic and transracial adoptive experiences. Perhaps a peer group of other youth who experience the same challenges. While I personally don't have experience navigating these identity issues, it might be very helpful to seek out an adult in the congregation who might be willing to take up this mission. To provide a youth group meeting once a month or so when youth with mulitple racial identities can come together to share their experience and the means they use to synthesize their identities, so that no one has to go through all of that alone.
Being in a multiracial multiethnic community with a fair amount of transracial adoption, I think we are well poised to start this kind of work. Is there anyone reading who feels that you have the experience to step up to leadership in this area? If not, do any of you have thoughts on how this work can be undertaken by someone who is essentially white while still making a safe space?
No comments:
Post a Comment