Meeky Woo Flippen, a mixed-race Korean adoptee now living in the US, leads 325KAMRA Korea to help overseas adoptees reconnect with biological families. She calls for a formal government apology over the forced adoption of mixed-race children in past decades.
Meeky Woo Flippen was born in 1965 to a Korean mother and a Black American soldier. Government policies favoring ethnic purity led to mixed-race children being sent overseas, and she was adopted to the US at age 16.
She now heads 325KAMRA Korea, which has collected over 10,000 DNA samples and facilitated more than 1,000 family reunions. In March this year the group petitioned the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate forced adoptions of mixed-race children.
Flippen said the state must formally apologize for discriminating against mixed-race children and sending them abroad. She added that the truth must be recorded so adoptees know their mothers longed for them. The organization received the Prime Minister’s Commendation in May.