"For a Pickup Truck"
- Gonda Van Steen
Abstract
The article written by Gonda Van Steen delves into cultural representations and ethnic mappings of post-WWII Greek child adoptions and the adoptees’ engagement with difficult facts from the past. The article tackles the sensitive topic of Greek Roma adoptions, lingering racism and racialization, and the stigma of baby-selling. Several Greek-born adoptees reflect on their ambiguous roots, which, as they have been discovering through commercial DNA testing from 2019 on, lie with Greek families of Roma origins and traditions. To them and to their sophisticated “white” circles, this line of direct descent from Greece’s “untouchables” has added issues of bias and re-racialization to the already heavy emotional burden of being adopted. Some initial reactions and behaviors have revealed the signs of internalized racism and classism. They are problematic, and they have yet to be scrutinized. Thus, new information has challenged the Greek-born adoptees with Roma roots to speak to the long-silenced record (or lack thereof) of their adoptions, suppressed as it was within their biological families, their adoptive families, and/or within their own psyche. This article also briefly touches on the knowledge of social workers as they assisted in and routinely condoned the process of legitimating, “for the sake of the child,” what they knew to be irregular adoptions based on financial arrangements.
How to Cite:
Van Steen, G., (2023) “"For a Pickup Truck"”, Tetradio 32(1): 4, 71–92. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tetradio.91986
Downloads:
Download PDF
View PDF