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Across Cultures
What You Can Do to Celebrate Your Family's Diversity By Lisa A. Goldstein
There's an important distinction to be made between celebrations of a culture and actually immersing yourself in it. It's the latter that will bring everything full circle. "The way to learn a culture is to be part of it, to become 'acculturated,'" says Barbara Katz Rothman, Ph.D., a sociologist. "That's more than learning to cook ethnic foods, or dance ethnic dances or even do ethnic hairdos. It is to undergo a transformation, to become someone you were not."
Annan-Brady cautions parents not to force an adopted child to learn about his or her culture. The opportunity should be presented, she says, but not made an unpleasant or uncomfortable situation. Starting slowly with smaller groups may be best for some children. Annan-Brady has finally taken an interest in her culture, and ironically, her parents have embraced it even more than she has.
This whole learning process starts at the beginning, Wilkinson says. "Once you adopt a child cross-culturally, you become a multicultural family, no longer a white family with a child from a different culture," she says. "The parents need to explore what that means to them."