"This Is Us" and the Challenges of an Interracial Family

The TV show "This Is Us" is a show about "triplets" who all grow up and started their own families while also flashing back to their childhood. One of the families in the show was of a white mother and father of triplets. In one episode a flashback of the mother's pregnancy was shown, in which she gave to only two of her triplets and the third child was left at the hospital unclaimed name Randall. The father who found Randall, immediately thought he was a sign from heaven. They decided to adopt him that day and still left the hospital with three kids. 

Randall was an African American who was raised by white parents. In the show, this is concept was shown as an issue from others of the African American community. Randall's mom was applying sunscreen on him when an African American woman explained to her she was doing it wrong. She also explained that he needed to be exposed to children that look like him. Instead of the mother getting bad she actually sought more advice as shown in the video.

This touchy conversation was one way in which interracial families are challenged, described in Ch. 32. Although ch. 32 specifically explained interracial couples. It was evident that these issues could also be applied to raising an interracial child. To further enhance my argument an article by CNN described interracial families. 

Another similarity, I noticed from this chapter and the show "This Is Us", was the constant feeling of an outsider Randall felt because he lived in a predominantly white community and attended a predominantly white school. These feelings were most evident when he chose to go to a predominantly black college and he was evidently happy. This was also evident in the fact that he chose to marry a predominantly black female. 

Concept Reference:

Steinbugler, A. (2020)"Loving Across Racial Divides." In M. L. Andersen & P. H. Collins (Eds.), Race, class, & gender: Intersections and inequalities (pp. 303-308). Boston, MA: Cengage.