Tennessee-born writer, mentor and podcast host Angela Tucker discusses her memoir You Should Be Grateful: Stories of Race, Identity, and Transracial Adoption (Beacon Press), in conversation with writer and This Is Nashville senior producer Steve Haruch. Copies of the book will be available for purchase from Parnassus Books.
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About Angela Tucker
Angela Tucker is a Black woman adopted from foster care to white parents. She is the author of You Should Be Grateful: Stories of Race Identity, and Transracial Adoption and the subject of Closure, a documentary that chronicles her search for her biological parents. Her mission to center adoptees, is evident in her podcast, The Adoptee Next Door, and each of the five short films that she has produced. Angela has consulted with NBC’s This Is Us, supported the lead actor of Broadway musical Jagged Little Pill, has over 15 years of experience working within adoption and foster care agencies and has mentored over 200 adoptees, leading her to found the Adoptee Mentoring Society. Angela lives in Seattle Washington with her husband, Bryan Tucker, an Emmy-award winning filmmaker.


About You Should Be Grateful
An adoption expert and transracial adoptee herself examines the unique perspectives and challenges these adoptees have as they navigate multiple cultures

“Your parents are so amazing for adopting you! You should be grateful that you were adopted.”

Angela Tucker is a Black woman, adopted from foster care by white parents. She has heard this microaggression her entire life, usually from well-intentioned strangers who view her adoptive parents as noble saviors. She is grateful for many aspects of her life, but being transracially adopted involves layers of rejection, loss, and complexity that cannot be summed up so easily.

In You Should Be Grateful, Tucker centers the experiences of adoptees to share deeply personal stories, well-researched history, and engrossing anecdotes from mentorship sessions with adopted youth. These perspectives challenge the fairy-tale narrative of adoption, giving way to a fuller story that explores the impacts of racism, classism, family, love, and belonging.

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About Steve Haruch
Steve Haruch is an award-winning journalist, writer and editor. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Catapult, and NPR’s Code Switch, among other outlets. He is editor of the books Greetings From New Nashville: How a Sleepy Southern Town Became “It” City and People Only Die of Love in Movies: Film Writing by Jim Ridley (Vanderbilt University Press). He is senior producer for Nashville Public Radio's daily show This Is Nashville.

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