Author Talk: "You Should be Grateful" with Angela Tucker and Rachel Noerdlinger.

About the Book:

An adoption expert and transracial adoptee herself examines the unique perspectives and challenges these adoptees have as they navigate multiple cultures “Your parents are so amazing for adopting you! You should be grateful that you were adopted.” Angela Tucker is a Black woman, adopted from foster care by white parents. She has heard this microaggression her entire life, usually from well-intentioned strangers who view her adoptive parents as noble saviors. She is grateful for many aspects of her life, but being transracially adopted involves layers of rejection, loss, and complexity that cannot be summed up so easily. In “You Should Be Grateful,” Tucker centers the experiences of adoptees to share deeply personal stories, well-researched history, and engrossing anecdotes from mentorship sessions with adopted youth. These perspectives challenge the fairy-tale narrative of adoption, giving way to a fuller story that explores the impacts of racism, classism, family, love, and belonging.

Angela Tucker:

Angela Tucker is the Executive Director of the Adoptee Mentoring Society and a well-known voice in the conversation about interracial adoption. Through The Adopted Life LLC, Tucker blogs, offers regular consulting for agencies and families, hosts monthly Adoptee Lounges for adult adoptees, and spends her weekends mentoring adopted youth. Tucker earned a BA in Psychology from Seattle Pacific University and lives in Seattle with her husband.

Rachel Noerdlinger:

Rachel Noerdlinger is a Partner at Actum, a global public strategy firm where she leads strategic communications, crisis management, and specializes in public affairs and community engagement in electoral politics. She is the only Black female equity partner.  An award-winning communications strategist with a penchant for media activism, she is a nationally esteemed expert that understands the value of third-party coalition-building and prescient issues related to diversity, inclusion and strengthening relationships for corporations working in communities of color.  She has been featured in Essence Magazine as one of the top ten females in the country making strides in her respective field, and she has been called “the public relations force behind Rev. Al Sharpton and National Action Network,” whom she has advised in communications since the late 90’s.