ABSTRACT
Chapter two outlines Reproductive Justice and Transnational Feminisms as theoretical and conceptual foundations that are necessary in order to denaturalize the ways in which we think about foster care and adoption. This chapter traces the legacies of white settler colonialism, family separation, and the creation of a corporate state. The chapter addresses connections between colonial projects of the past, contemporary globalization, and the role of family separation by highlighting historical examples of the separation of Black families under enslavement, the implementation of Indian boarding schools, and contemporary U.S. family separation policies under the Obama and Trump administrations. The chapter demonstrates to the reader that in order to fully understand foster care and adoption systems in the present, we must look to the past and realize that controlling the reproductive potential of Black, Indigenous, and people of color is central to the formation of the United States itself.
