Samantha Coleman, Ph.D., Online Campus Director of Student Experience and Academic Advising and Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership and Applied Psychology, was recently interviewed by Windy City Live in Chicago. Dr. Coleman and Sandria Washington, founders of “Black to the Beginning,” a podcast to amplify Black adoptee voices, discussed normalizing adoption in the Black community with Val Warner of Windy City Live on the last day of National Adoption Month in November.

“I think historically, Black people are accustomed to taking care of their own, that’s really where adoption started for us in an informal nature,” Dr. Coleman said. “There’s been like this myth, if you will, that we don’t adopt but we’ve adopted informally for generations and also adopt formally as well.”

Dr. Coleman was also recently interviewed for The Book of Sean to further discuss the stigma and shame surrounding Black adoption.

“Adoption ends up being the secret and then we tell lies sometimes within the Black family to keep that secret in place,” Dr. Coleman said. “The reason that we lie is because of the stigma and shame that comes along with it.”

Watch the full interview from Windy City Live and The Book of Sean.

Earlier this year, Dr. Coleman and Sandria Washington appeared on two other media events to discuss their podcast “Black to the Beginning” and their own adoption experience. Watch the full interview from FAB Moms Facebook Live and listen to “A Fostered Life” podcast.