My Interracial Family was not Allowed

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I have a lot of respect for my parents but it's only as I've got older I've learned to appreciate them. When I was younger I was oblivious to what they did for me. But I'm not the only one, it's called emotional immaturity and the blindness of youth. Growing older can bring a constant evaluation of the past based on the new insights and understandings of life as we grow in years. I respect my parents because they were so pure in their intentions. Part of that purity was their blindness to colour. I could have easily been another child writing this and that child being Black.

Before having me my parents fostered an African girl, her name was Janine. We still have the photos of her. She was very dark, of the more darker African complexions. As I write this I'm wondering where she may be now. I can't remember why my parents couldn't adopt her but they wanted to. I remember my mum describing how they adored Janine but how heartbroken they were when she was taken out of their care. Now as an adult I look back and understand the hearts and intentions of my parents. The symbolism of them wanting to adopt an African baby speaks volumes. The phrase actions speak louder than words springs to mind. They didn't see colour. It wasn't like they were thinking 'oh, we've got a black baby and people are going to stare at us'. It wasn't a case of they didn't want a child of colour, only a baby with white skin. And I will add this was a good few years ago. I think since then the status regarding transracial adoption has positively grown. The help of a few celebrities adopting non-white ethnicities has probably helped. It's not such a big deal these days and actually can be seen as a bit of a contemporary manoeuvre especially if you're of the progr...

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...would presume one of my parents was non-English. I think because I didn't and don't look that different to a white English person I didn't stick out or draw attention to being any different to other children. My skin is very white, I just have dark hair and dark eyes.

In terms of my brothers they are of white English heritage, well there's some queries about my brother Paul. I think if I recall rightly there maybe some South African genetic background regarding his ethnicity but it's not very apparent and they are both far more English in heritage compared to myself. My other brother Paul had dark brown hair and brown eyes like me so that helped I guess. Overall I didn't feel the difference in ethnicity growing up. I knew I was from Iranian biological parents but that knowledge didn't weigh on my mind and I didn't feel a sense of being different to other children.

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