Bought victimhood

(Hat tip: Lady Jillian)

Why do white couples adopt minority babies? The awful truth, according to writer and activitst Kil Ja Kim, is minority children are the latest accessory for privileged white liberals.

Along with dreadlocks and a non-white lover, the coolest accessory of the white liberal “left” these days is a bought colored kid.

How many times have you been sitting in an activist meeting to have a white parent stand up and urgently talk about the racism that his or her “child” experiences as a person of color? How many times have you had to sit and watch how these white people are so delighted to tell non-whites what their child experiences as a person of color? How many times have you been confronted by a white person who demands access to a people of color space and use their bought kid as an entry pass (similar to when they use their non-white lover to get into places)?

Whatever the case, a white “liberal” or “leftist” person who adopted a colored kid is still a white person walking around with a purchased body of color.

Maybe for the left, this is the case. But I'm not at all sure it's the case of Ms. Ja Kim's parents. I suspect her problem is a lot closer to home.

All of this is fine and good, white mommy and daddy. But what do you do when the child is not willing to work within your paradigm? What happens when the child stops taking your calls, cuts you off? What happens when the bought colored kid is repulsed at the sight of you, even the thought of you?

In other words, what happens when the bought colored kid begins to understand your role in white supremacy? What happens when we begin to see that we are part of a transaction in a global economy of white supremacy? What happens when the realization of all that went down occurs?

And...

I guess you don’t get it. The whole point is, there is nothing you can do to make shit better. You’re white in a white supremacist society, and that’s all there is to it. You purchased a colored kid (sometimes two or three) as a white person. You can never take that back. There is little you can do to repair the damage. No amount of cultural lessons, no amount of anti-racist work you do, no amount of money that you give, no amount of slang or phrases that you learn, can change the structure that you are a part of.

Oh, I get it. You, Ms. Ja Kim, are a racist. Whites are evil because they’re white. No matter what they do, they remain white, and any good they do is the product of evil White hands.

You have bought a short ton of victimhood, and as a result, everything you’ve been through, from your middle-to-upper class upbringing to your schooling to your freedom to pursue whatever cultural classes you feel like, is part of the victimization you’ve been through.

Thank you, though, for saying there's nothing whites can do to make anything better. You've just given us all permission to not even try.

Some of you will point out that you even offered to help your bought kids find their “biological” parents (a distinction that serves your need to be the “real” parent).

So Ms. Ja Kim is not only a racist, she's a thankless child.

Here's a clue: Your "real" parents are the ones who took you in, worked to put a roof over your head and clothes on your back, who fed you, changed your diapers, and stayed up with you when you had a fever or an earache or worse. You could make the case that biological parents who raise their kids don't have a choice in the matter, though there was always abortion, infanticide, or abandonment to a convenient orphanage. Adoptive parents choose to take on the burden of raising a child. In this case, Ms. Ja Kim's adoptive parents chose to become her real parents, in every matter except genetic makeup.

I hope this dear-bought victimhood keeps her warm at night. I hope it remembers her birthday and comes to visit her and her children on special days. After all, at this point, it looks like she’ll have it in her life forever.

Unlike her parents.