Invisible Asian By Kim Park Nelson Summary

Many researchers in the past have studied the experiences of Korean-American adoptees, but they heavily focused on the ideas from the adoptive parents. They fixated on child welfare and developmental ideas, so they turned to the parents. Kim Park Nelson’s book “Invisible Asian”, takes a look at the perspectives from the Korean adoptees themselves. Park Nelson interviewed over 60 adult adoptees, and focuses in on the distinctive issues that they had faced themselves. Her findings suggested that the view from the adoptee was quite different from what adoptive parents reported.

Every adult adoptee that was interviewed, mentioned their experience of race. The feeling of isolation was extremely present in their lives growing up. It was obvious to

This desire to be part of a group whom they resemble is extremely important to Korean adoptees. The term “racially invisible” is the outcome when Korean adoptees are constantly discouraged from identifying racially, and rewarded for assimilation into communities. Another common stereo type suggests the idea that Asians don’t experience racism. Model minority puts out the idea that all Asians are successful, naturally smart, and all play the violin. Since people assume that Asians are treated very well, they believe that there is no way that they could experience racism. These stereotypes hinder Asians and make them feel extremely invisible in our

The United States was also involved in the Korean war. There was an increased population of biracial children who were a product of that war. The United States then put money into adoption of these biracial children. It is a win-win situation because they were saving children from war, and giving couples who had a desire to become parents a child.

The topic of birth search, the process of an adoptee trying to find their birth parents, was also brought up several times. Some individuals felt very strongly about finding their birth parents, but others did not want to be engaged in it. Other adoptees felt as if birth search would really hurt their American families, and that was the last thing they wanted to do. It was very common for adoptees to consider this factor before participating in a birth search. The Korean adoptee community is very diverse. There are certain life stages when adoptees begin to question whether they are American or Korean. They tend to gain curiosity right around the time they leave home. When many of these people went to college, they took history or ethnic study classes. They then realized that they were part of a group that had a history, and started to investigate. They also became interested in their identity when they met other adoptees or returned to