This past Tuesday, some US based children welfare groups proposed new laws about transracial adoptions. According to these groups, the current "color blind" approach designed to encourage the adoption of black children by white parents ill-serves those children. They consider that "color conscious" is the right approach that the new laws must have.
The actual legislation bans taking into account race as a factor in the adoption decision of children in foster care. White parents that want to adopt a black child are not required to go into any special training different from any other future adoptive parent.
The new laws will take into account the race of the parents in the selection process of adoptive parents and the requirement to undergo racial orientation classes previous to the adoption.
This proposal has generated opinions in favor and against and even when this debate refers only to children in foster care in America, it won’t be long until a similar debate arises about international adoptions.
I don’t have a clear opinion yet, but I feel more inclined to think that adding more restrictions to the adoption of children that are already in extreme need of a definitive home is going to do more harm than good.
I don’t think it is a good idea that social workers can deny white parents the adoption of black children just for their skin color and according to their own criteria.
Many that are in favor of this change say that there are more problems in children adopted transracially than between children adopted inside their own racial group. But I think you should ask if we compare children without parents to children adopted by parents of a different "color", who are the ones with more problems? I don’t know the statistics, but I would bet that children without a home are the more traumatized.
There are many challenges in raising children of a different race than ours and I don’t doubt that there are families that face many problems. I think that denying the race of the adopted child, or the race of any other child, thinking that we live in a perfect world is a mistake and I consider that it is important that parents that need information or help regarding the racial issue must have access to it; but to deny the adoption only because of the parents skin color is in certain way to perpetuate racism in society.
If we want the racial issue to stop being a problem in our society the important thing is to educate people not to deny integration.
After all, there are good and bad parents in all races and in all social backgrounds, and in the same way there are children with and without problems.
That a social worker considers that some parents are nor prepared to adopt a black child only because of their race seems stupid to me. After all, who’s ready?
All parents remembers the time when arriving home with a new baby in their arms wondering "What I’m going to do now?" The adventure of becoming a parent is the same for everybody, we all go through similar challenges and no child comes with an instruction manual.
It is love and wanting to raise a child what move us to learn, improve and try to give our children the best. There are exceptions, as everything in this world, but I’d like to think that the great majority of adoptive parents don’t care about the color of their child’s skin.
AliciA
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Good points. I agree that parents should not be automatically disqualified from adopting a child on the basis of ethnicity. We also know that loving parents and family are far better than an institution or non-permanent placement. I do have to say however that ethic identity forms a vital part of ’self’,”who we are”, and an adoptees wellbeing and ability to navigate and function well through the teenage years and adulthood. The devastation and loss experienced by many adoptees, and multi-ethnic children in terms of their sense of self and connectedness to other members of their ethnic group(s) or in a country like America with it’s recent history, the artificial but very real sociological group called race cannot be sidestepped. I do believe that if parents who are so called ‘white’ and are in fact color blind and are opposed to making the adjustments and proactive steps necessary to seek out,participate in, and develop friendships within their child’s ethnic community, as if the family had indeed joined and become a part of that community (that is the glaring direction in the bi-directional nature of adoption),then such prospective parents should not be allowed to adopt such children.
Finally I might add to a part of your post that while most adoptive parents don’t care about the color of their children’s skin the people just beyond their front door might and in ever wider circles probably will. (Neighbors, schools, CHURCH, even family members).
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