[NightChilde25]

I honestly don't see your reasoning here. O.0 When people talk about breeding out undesirable traits, they usually mean things like illnesses or genetic defects not personality traits like laziness or dishonesty. This is a child you are talking about, not some designer breed dog. *shakes head* I have to agree with MMM. No matter what race child you adopt, that child is still going to be American and absorb not only the American culture but your African American culture as well. The baby won't magically have the Japanese culture. You aren't born with culture, it's taught. The only way that baby is going to have the Japanese culture is if you were to raise him/her in Japan.

I'm not trying to be mean. I just feel you will be robbing this child of it's culture, even if you try not too as well as short-changing not only your own race, but all others. Why not just adopt the child in the most need, be it Japanese, Black, White, what-ever? You can't just snatch a child away from it's country then expect them to go back and live a couple of years away from you, just because you want them to learn about their culture. It should be the child's decision, when he/she gets old enough to make that decision, not yours. Being alone in an unfamillar country when you don't know the language is hard on an adult. Imagine how terrified a child would be? I know you have a friend there, but the child won't know anyone else. When children are frightened they want their mother and you won't even be in the same country. How fair is that to a child? Trying to live through your children never turns out well. That child will be his/her own person and have his/her own goals and dreams. If you try to force them into something just because you can't do it...it's just wrong.

I know you say you are not ashamed of being African American, but it sure comes across that way. Everyone has issues with their race. You have problems in all races, Japanese included. You seem to have such a low opinion of your race. I think you need to come to terms with this before you consider raising a child. You can't say that 80% of the African Americans in NYC have bad values. I'm not even African American and I'm offended. I know it may seem that way in your area but the majority of the African Americans I know are very successful and pillars of their communities. I agree with Retrogamer77. The parent instills the values in a child, not the race, not the blood (which I'm sorry, I've never heard of that before), or the culture of the country of birth. Even then, you can do your best, be the best role model there is, the strictest parent, and shelter your kid from all media and they can still turn out to be, as you put it, "stumps." That's true for any race or nationality. If your child limits themselves to what they see on tv then that's your fault as a parent. The city or environment shouldn't matter as far as values go. The days of a village raising a child are over. Everyone has to take responsibility for their own children.

You have to set up values for your children and be a big enough influence on their life to counteract any negative media images. I know you say that this child isn't an accessory for you, yet you admit that the Japanese culture is a draw. If it's such a draw for you, why don't you go live there for a while before you try to adopt or better yet, just live there period after the adoption? If you're dead set on this, that would be the best way to ensure the child absorbed the culture. You can always study the culture and introduce a new aspect of the culture every week, if you have too, but personally I still think you need to rethink this.