Abstract
Changes in US society have found their way into the adoption arena, resulting in new policies and participants in the adoption process and altering the discourse of adoption. Although the discourse of modern adoption has shifted, the legacy of race in adoption remains. Drawing on popular adoption literature, information in the public domain, and discussions in an adoption forum, this paper argues that despite efforts at reconstruction, racial inequalities are often reified in current adoption discourse, implemented through the very practices designed to help children. Interpreted both as a device for categorization and as discursive formation, the language of adoption continues to empower some groups and disempower others. The Internet presents a zone of possibility for reconstructing relations of power in adoption via symbolic and linguistic resources as asymmetries between adoption participants are contested and reconstructed.