by Beth Hall and Gail Steinberg

About the authors: Beth Hall and Gail Steinberg are the founders of Pact, an Adoption Alliance, a membership organization that provides teaching and support services to adoptive families and birth parents. They are also the authors of Inside Transracial Adoption.

Racism:
•A belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities.
•A belief that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

Sexism:
• Prejudice or discrimination
against someone on the basis of gender. Adoptism:
•A belief that forming a family by birth is superior to forming a family by adoption.
•A belief that keeping a child with his/her biological parents is inherently better than placing a child for adoption.
•A belief that growing up as an adopted person...