Blk.White.Adopted: A Real Safe Space
Welcome to a Transracial Adoption Safe Space
Hi there and thanks for finding Blk.White.Adopted. Our purpose is to amplify the Black and Brown voices of transracial adoption.
Who is Erika Pryor anyway?
I’m Erika Pryor. I’m a birth mother to an amazing son who I gifted through adoption and he has now boomeranged back to me. His name is Nathan. We started our reunion journey June 2020. Also, I’m recently divorced (about 2 years) and have a 6-year old daughter, Abigayle. She is smart, previous, creative and totally invested in Black Girl Magic.
Like many birth mothers, I was a teen in high school when I learned his father and I were expecting. Nathan is biracial — I am black and his birth father is white — and was adopted and raised by a proud Italian-American, white family from the Northwest region of the U.S. His family also adopted a daughter, biracial as well. He spent most of his life in rural, and extreme white community where many of the other children of color were also transracial adoptees.
Today, Nathan, Abigayle and I are forging a new family. Abigayle loves having a big brother and owning the role of “annoying little sister.” Nathan and I are doing the work to confront our individual and collective pasts to create a pathway for all three of us to live our best lives. In a short amount of time, we have experienced and accomplished a lot and I’m excited to keep going because there’s some much more to accomplish, learn and enjoy.
Once Nathan and I reunited and I outed myself on social media about having a birth son (don’t worry I’ll tell that story at some point), I knew I had to do something. I’m a writer by birth and a marketing professional by trade, so storytelling seemed to be the best way to go.
Why Blk.White.Adopted?
I’m not a fan of word vomit, navel gazing media absent of storyline and clear purpose, so I decided to start this platform. Blk.White.Adopted is where my story and countless other, untold stories and experiences of black and brown families part of transracial adoptions are told.
Now you might be asking yourself: There are plenty of books, speakers and podcasts about transracial adoption, what makes this one so different? Correct, there is plenty of literature about the subject. However, what I found didn’t speak to my position in the adoption constellation: a black birth mother or to cultural, racial and social experiences that were relevant to myself or my son.
Blk.White.Adopted is a safe space where the real conversations and dialogue on the most relevant topics related to transracial adoption are explored. It’s the difference between celebrating African American history during February and living every single day as a black or brown person. More specifically, celebrating freedom fighters and civil rights leaders for 28 days is superficial and most POCs wish the national conversation went further because the fact is: We are black everyday experiencing racial, cultural, and social discrimination, and microaggressions from both black and white folks. That’s where Blk.White.Adopted comes in.
What’s Next for Blk.White.Adopted?
I am just getting this plane off the ground. Today it’s a publication here on Medium. We plan to launch a monthly podcast and newsletter in early 2021. We will see what happens after that.
In the meantime, if you’d like to be involved either as a writer or podcast contributor, send me an email so we can chat (derikapryor@gmail.com). We are also accepting financial contributions from patrons and supporters. Send me an email if you’d like to make a donation to Blk.White.Adopted.
