Huntsman's Failure to Defend his Daughters is Astounding and Utterly Disappointing

There is an outrageous video on YouTube you may have heard about in the news, it is all over media--especially conservative media.  A group alleging to support Presidential hopeful, Ron Paul, also alleges that other Presidential hopeful, Jon Huntsman, does not have the best interests of the people of the United States at heart because he has two internationally adopted daughters and they have posted a video featuring his daughters on YouTube to make their opinion clear.



Some sources say they have confirmed that Huntsman supporters posted the "ad" to make it look like Paul supporters posted it, in order to paint Paul as someone who is racist and willing to go over-the-line when it comes to opposing a fellow candidate.  It doesn't matter who it originated with or why: the video is absolutely horrible.  The "ad" if you want to call it that, clearly intends to portray the idea that, due to the girls' races and places of birth, his daughters are not true Americans and therefore Huntsman does not really care about the United States because he adopted them.  I won't tell you who I think the President should be but I will tell you that this "ad" and its racist, adultist, adoptist attack on children is disgusting and morally repugnant at best.  The Huntsmans' response to it was nearly as appalling and certainly disappointing.

Huntsman responds:

"I have a daughter from China who was abandoned at two months of age and left in a vegetable market, picked up by the police, and sent to an orphanage.  No future, no hope, nothing to look forward to.  And now she's in my family."

 audience applauds

He continues:

"I have a second daughter who was born in India...and left for dead the day she was born and luckily, she was picked up before the animals got her.  And she was sent to a catholic orphanage first day and spent a year there and now she is in my family."

He concludes:

"I have two little girls that are a daily reminder that there are a lot of kids in this world who do not have the breaks that you do who face a very very uncertain future that lacks health care, that lacks the ability to dream and plan, and any sense of upward mobility.  Now these two girls are on the Presidential campaign trail.  I say, how cool is that?"

Applause, applause, applause (of course)

I debated on whether or not to post about this on my blog because I am uncomfortable giving more public audience to on the "ad" or his reply to the "ad."  I talked it over with a transracial/transnational adult adoptee whose opinion I admire and we both agreed that posting about it further was problematic because it was drawing yet more attention to something that should not have been said in the first place.  However, since few media outlets are pointing out what should have been the correct response, we felt an adult adoptee response was needed.  It is for that reason that I write this entry as well as record some of the responses from adult adoptees and adoptive parents Kevin at LGA got when he brought the issue up on his Facebook page.

Can the adoptive parent who said this please be the next President?

"Huntsman's response: "outing" his kids' story to make himself look big hearted - made me even madder.  It was a racist attack on Asian-Americans and adoptees as "perpetual foreigners" - and implying that he is less of an American by association.  To publicly give away his children's narrative - which they are the sole owners of, as a response is appalling.  Why should his children need to live with "left to die," "found in a dumpster" as part of the public discourse?  I'm sure they are thrilled that their classmates and all their peers and Fox News now have access to their agency narrative. 

Someone attacked his kids, and he sold them out.

My stomach hurts."

Someone else responded:

"I guess no one runs for President without having a sense of himself (or herself) as the utterly fascinating center of a huge drama, but Huntsman's invocation of his children's 'tragic past' was unnecessary.  Can't he just say 'leave my kids alone' and be done with it?"

Another person was concerned as to whether or not this whole ordeal originated with Huntsman's campaign to begin with:

"The stats don't look good for him - his campaign was the first to link to the vid even when it had no views, etc.  And...even if he isn't responsible, his response still made me nauseous."  (She shared the link I included in my intro paragraph)

This "ad" was a racist, adultist, adoptist act that placed political goals over the welfare of innocent children.  If he was unwilling to simply say "leave my daughters alone," Huntsman could have used this as a teachable moment to enter into discussion about race and adoption.  Not in a White-guy-educating-the-world-on-race-relations kind of way.  But to step up and act like the leader he is asking the citizens of the United States to let him be and to condemn the notion that transracial/transnational adoptees are not really Americans or citizens (and perhaps learn a thing or two about transnational adoptee deportation?).  He could have said he understood adoption as well as foreign policy past the concept of "they're super poor over there and I rescued two kids."  Instead of defending adoptees, adoptees of color, and his daughters, he chose to defend himself and bolster his image by disclosing his daughters' narratives in order to paint himself as a savior.  His response perpetuated the misconceptions of "other people" in "other countries," especially the original families of adoptees, and did nothing to challenge racial, cultural, and adoption biases.

The Huntsmans' say they are concerned as to what their daughters will think about this incident some day.  Mr. and Ms. Huntsman, I can tell you as an adoptee that how my parents respond to attacks on me as an adoptee are 100 times more important to me than how the public does.  Unfortunately, your responses were sadly lacking.

Mr. Huntsman, I am Russell Green.  Are you?