On the subject of race, it's not politically correct when white people say, "I don't see color," said Kevin Hofmann, of South Toledo. "In the black community, that can be offensive. I am proud to be a person of color."

The author of Growing Up Black in White (Vine Appointment Publishing Company, 174 pages, $14.95), Mr. Hofmann talks candidly about his experience as a biracial man. Born in Detroit in 1967 less than three weeks after the riots, he was 3 months old when he was adopted by a white couple. He describes his parents, the Rev. Richard and Judy Hofmann, as progressive on matters of race.

According to a 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that 40 percent of children that Americans adopt from all over the world are from a different race or culture than their adoptive parents.

Mr. Hofmann travels nationwide to discuss transracial adoption with adoption agencies, social service groups, and university social science classes. The issue is getting more media attention as white stars in Hollywood -- including Sandra Bullock, Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Madonna, and Charlize Theron -- adopt children from other racial groups.

Mr. Hofmann discusses transracial adoption in a yet-to-be broadcast edition of ABC Nightline: Late Evening News program. True, these children adopted into wealthy celebrity homes won't have to cope with financial disadvantages, but more is involved than just giving them a good home and family.

"You cannot just love a child, but you have to understand that he belongs to a certain culture," Reverend Hofmann said about transracial adoption.

The assumption that it is politically correct to be "color blind" does not benefit the children, the younger Mr. Hofmann said.

"My answer to that is, 'If you are color blind, how do you see your child?' " asked Mr. Hofmann, who posts blogs on the issue on www.kevinhofmann.com. "When your kids walk out the door, they will be impacted about what people see. You have to prepare your children before they go out."

Though race was not a subject of debate in the Hofmann household when he was growing up, it was a topic that demanded considerable attention from his parents. When the couple brought Kevin Hofmann into their family, which included their older biological children, two sons and a daughter, they lived in Dearborn, Mich. Reverend Hofmann served there at a large, white church, whose members were uncomfortable about their minister adopting a black child.

"His adoption was not free of opposition or difficulty for the family and for me," the retired, ordained minister said. "But nevertheless, in spite of it, I'd do it all over again. It was such a joyful experience with him, it really was. Besides that, it was a very important episode in the life of the church, to finally wake up and find out that there are other people than simply white people for our churches."

Mrs. Hofmann laments that of all institutions, the Christian church is not out front denouncing racial prejudice.

"My heart does bleed all these years later," she said. "The church should want to lead on the issue of racism because of what we say we believe, and yet it doesn't happen."

When Kevin was 8, the family relocated to an integrated Detroit neighborhood, a move the Hofmanns deemed beneficial for everyone.

"We needed for the well-being of the entire family to be in a more mixed setting," Mrs. Hofmann said from her northwest Ohio home. "There was no question in our mind that it was the right thing to do."

That progressive thinking allowed Kevin Hofmann to develop friendships within and to know about his own race. Additionally, Mrs. Hofmann sees how her son's book can help anyone weighing transracial adoption.

"I didn't realize what a service he was doing when he wrote that book," she said. "It's eye-opening for people in the middle of transracial adoption. We've gone to a couple of his talks and it was a real eye-opener for us."

Unfortunately, though, despite the laws and other social improvements since 1967, people's attitudes about race are not much different.

"I don't think things have changed a whole lot," Mrs. Hofmann said. "We still have a long way to go in our society."

Married to a black woman from Toledo, Mr. Hofmann said one of his fondest memories was being embraced by the black community. When the family moved to a predominantly white neighborhood, where other youngsters were not accustomed to children of color, he coped with more overt racism from other white children.

"Their parents' ideology would bleed out of them and they would say some horrible, nonpolitically correct things," said Mr. Hofmann, the father of two sons, ages 11 and 16.

The lessons children of color must learn might never cross the minds of white parents. In one example, he said that after making a retail purchase, young African-Americans must make sure they are given a receipt to show proof of purchase to avoid being accused of stealing.

Referring to the highly controversial fatal Florida shooting in February of a black teenager, Trayvon Martin, Mr. Hofmann also said, "Your child is going to be treated differently. They will be judged just because of the way they look. I tell parents that when you adopt that child, that was a cute little baby boy."

If that child has a dark complexion and large, formidable stature, "That is intimidating to people and they will make huge assumptions about that child," Mr. Hoffman said. "That rings true when pulled over [by police]; they must know what to do and what not to do."

While his lighter complexion and smaller frame give him some relief from coping with that stereotype -- his biological mother was white and his biological father was black -- he urges white parents whose children are of another race not to struggle alone.

"You can't teach them what you don't know. You partner with people of that race and ask them to give you information that you don't have," Mr. Hofmann said. "My parents got that right 40 years ago just by saying, 'Go out and play,' and I learned so much about race and culture. My parents were so far ahead of the curve."

Contact Rose Russell at rrussell@theblade.com or 419-724-6178.

First Published April 15, 2012, 4:15 a.m.