Hear Me Out: Being Adopted Is Traumatic

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Slate Podcasts

News Commentary, Politics, News

4.5 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… what? Oh my god, who told you? Adoption is a complicated thing. Raising a child who’s not related to you is challenging — and being that child, in many ways, is even harder. And it’s all too easy for adoption, particularly a white family adopting a black or brown child, to be framed as a heroic act. The truth, as adoptees will tell you, is a lot messier. Angela Tucker, a writer and transracial adoptee, joins us to argue that adoption is traumatic… and with the right reforms, it shouldn’t need to happen as often as it does. If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com Podcast production by Maura Currie You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	A quick update before you listen.
0:02.5	This episode was released on September 26, 2023, and recorded just before that.
0:08.3	On September 29, there was a development about the family at the core of the movie The
0:12.9	Blind Side.
0:14.1	A probate judge in Memphis terminated the conservatorship that the twoies had over football player Michael
0:19.5	Orr.
0:20.5	Orr had alleged that this arrangement allowed them to reap the profits of his story without
0:25.1	giving him his share, or even actually adopting him.
0:28.7	That judge said in her decision that she cannot believe a conservatorship was approved in
0:33.3	the first place.
0:34.3	Okay, back to our original episode.
0:38.2	This is Hear Me Out.
0:39.6	I'm Celeste Headley.
0:41.0	You might have seen a story earlier this summer about the real-life family who story
0:45.0	inspired The Blind Side.
0:47.2	Former NFL player Michael Orr has sued the twoies who he says have profited off the inspiring
0:53.1	story of their white family adopting a black teen out of foster care, without sharing
0:58.5	the profits with Michael or ever actually legally adopting him.
1:03.3	It's a complicated story, but Michael's lawsuit has still resonated with a lot of transracial
1:07.8	adoptees.
1:09.2	Being raised by people you aren't related to brings up a lot of questions about identity,
1:14.3	particularly when these relationships cross racial lines.
	...

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