…Superheroes had taught me that anything was possible. There was nothing more American. I wished China had comic book stores.

Because he was born in Ethiopia and came to us as a stumbling, almost walking baby, I was especially disappointed when my son lost interest in Superman and his cape; he too had been sent as a baby from one world to another. Don’t you see yourself? I wondered.

And then I realized: all my childhood heroes were squarely white. They were so white, they never had just one WASP name, but two: Bruce Wayne, Donald Blake, Clark Kent, Steve Rogers, Reed Richards, Peter Parker . . . My son’s name is Dagim. How could I share my comics with my son and say, “Don’t you want to be like them?”

I often forget our son is adopted…

via A Superhero Who Looks Like My Son – NYTimes.com.

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