The Colour of Family Happiness Adoption and the Racial Distribution of Children in Contemporary France
Résumé
In France, the notion of "race" itself – which echoes both (post-)colonialist discourses and a long history of state-regulated racism – is usually publicly inexpressible, despite its implicit presence that nonetheless saturates public debates. However, in some specific cases, such as transnational adoption, the verbalisation of racial preferences and desires are encouraged by social workers and family experts, as a mean to prevent racism. This article aims to analyse the kind of practical institutional framing which produces and supports such a verbalisation, and to explore its consequences with respect to the definition of racial hierarchies. Hence, instead of considering the preference of skin colour as a pre-established parental desire that informs the racial distribution of children, I suggest focusing on the French case to analyse the racialization of familial desires produced by and for the apparatus that frames adoption. Thus, by concentrating on the governance of family intimacy, this article aims to question the social dynamics that construct race as a meaningful performative category requiring professional expertise and action, that allow its public expression, and that even facilitate the verbalisation of racial preferences in an institutional context supposedly defined by colour-blindness.
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