This blog will discuss the teen drama 90210; a group of high school students at West Beverly Hills High School portray the struggles of going through high school. One character is Dixon Wilson who is a student at the high school and was adopted by the Wilsons, a Caucasian family. His adopted sister, Annie and him have an extremely strong bond together especially since they are the same age and develop the same group of friends.
The Wilson family moved from Kansas to Beverly Hills in order for Harry Wilson (father) could care for his mother. In the first episode when Annie and Dixon are getting ready to go to their first day of school Dixon shows concerns about having to explain to everyone why he looks different from Annie and their father who took the job as principal at the high school. He does not want to continue to explain to everyone they meet that he was adopted. The show does not make this issue a main focus of the episode but it is able to introduce this idea of many transracial adopted children have to constantly explain why they don’t resemble any of their family members.
Another episode features Dixon and Silver another character in the show, the two begin talking and getting to know each other more on a personal level. Silver begins discussing her relationship with her mother and how she is an alcoholic. Dixon feels like he can confide in Silver so he begins to tell her about his feelings of not belonging in the Wilson family. The Wilson family has always treated Dixon as one of their own and always treated both Annie and Dixon the same so Dixon doesn’t seem to have a reason for why he feels like he doesn’t belong, except for the fact that he physically doesn’t fit in with the family. This was one reason the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) in 1972 declared that black children should not be adopted into white families (Bartholet). They believed that Black children in white families do not develop a healthy sense of themselves as Black people (Bartholet).
Throughout the show it seems like Dixon is the only Black person ever to appear in the show except for occasional waiters and workers until Dixon decides to go find his birth mother. He was put into foster care before he was adopted by the Wilsons because his mother was bipolar. In one episode his mother arrives at the Wilsons home and Dixon and her reconnect for a couple days. Watching the show one can tell that he feels a real connection with her but once she has to leave you can see the true connection he has with his adopted mother since she is the one who has always been there for him. The controversy that surrounds transracial adoption is whether or not a Black child will receive the necessary parenting when it comes to understanding racial treatment by society that the child might face because of their race. Is love for the child not enough?
90210 is able to highlight certain challenges that face parents who have adopted transracially and children that are transracially adopted. Although Dixon has feelings of not belonging and is surrounded by a majority of white people, he overcomes the feelings each time he is reminded that he was taken from a rough situation in foster care and brought into a home that provides him with a good life. This aspect of providing a loving and stable home for a child is continuously reiterated after each time Dixon expresses some feelings of disconnect from the family. It is clear that the show wants to touch on the challenges but also wants to reinforce that if a family can provide a better life for a child then that trumps anything else. 90210 has other interesting racial aspects such as Dixon begins to date an older Black woman who ends up having Aids. Also Dixon is the only one of the group of friends who ends up having to get a job. Also in recent episodes a biracial character enters the show. This blog was geared at showing the subtle traces of transracial adoption and so after reading this blog one can continue to watch the show and pick up other aspects of transracial adoption as well as other racial features. It will be interesting to watch if the show will continue to add hints of racial issues and how far will it take it.
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