According to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, more black people "appear" to be adopting white children. This basically means that they have no idea whether or not this is a growing trend but wanted to write about it anyway.
But it does happen, and often for specific reasons — white children are sometimes adopted into black families based on a bond that developed during foster care, which is very understandable, or because an older child requested a black family. It is still far more common for white people to adopt black children, maybe because there are so many adoptable black children (they make up 78 percent of the adoption pool in Cleveland). This brings me to my next point — as a black woman, barring the foster-child circumstance or if the white child was born to someone I know and love, choosing to adopt a white child when I know how much higher in demand they are than black children is unimaginable to me.
The article suggests that these sorts of adoptions are usually circumstantial, and that blacks rarely request white children. If it ever really becomes a growing trend for black people to pass over a huge, largely unwanted black pool of adoption-ready black kids and pick the white kid instead, then my faith in our community will definitely be shaken.
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I could have done without seeing that picture this early in the morning but anyways…
That's an interesting trend though.
Well, if you are going to open your home to a white foster kid, my hope would be that you'd also be willing to adopt them. A good friend of mine is a social worker in Cleveland and she's called me in tears on far too many occasions but never goes into details though she's long been under the impression that she's ruining people's lives and is about 5 minutes from burn out after only a year and a half. I doubt that I'd ever be open to fostering a child who isn't 100% open for adoption. If a close white friend of mine could no longer parent for whatever reason and I was at that stage, then yes, I'd adopt.
In my state, the some DCS personnel will openly say that they don't want white kids with Black families. I am white and am a foster parent. There was a set of children that we applied to adopt who happen to be white (we had applied for black kids too). When we asked why the kids weren't staying with the foster mom we were told it was because she was black and they felt it would confuse the kids.
I was pissed, and made a complaint, but I don't think it helped. We ended up not adopting those children but are still on the list for the right child no matter what color he/she happens to be.
I thought the reverse was true, that black kids weren't adopted to white families though they're placed in white foster homes I was reading that Tameka, the Deal or No Deal model, went through that when she was younger. She was getting her tattoo removed and implants put in on Dr. 90210 so I did some Googling. If you wouldn't let a foster family adopt a kid, you shouldn't let them foster them either. It's cruel to the family and especially harmful to the child.
The local news just covered something on children of color in the foster system. Social workers are just now discovering that children of color scar more easily which can make it seem as if they've been abused. There are also (gasp) pigmentation issues with kids of color so a dark mark that led a kid to be taken from their family could actually just been a problem that needed a dermatologist's attention. I don't know if I trust these people to be making decisions about which home is best when they can't even figure out whether some kids are actually being abused.
Because I once was one of those people (for three long anxiety ridden years)I'll chime in here. There are many black children placed with white foster parents and vice versa. ( I should preface that in saying for where I live - Houston)The only time color is considered when placing is if the family actually states they don't want a child of that color. (I have had it happen with both black and white families.) There are many children placed with foster families that don't intend on adopting them. Often the only time a young child is placed with a family that will adopt them is in the case of a baby.
Daria, the girl from deal or no deal case was one of the early landmark cases that changed the way children and families are viewed for adoption. Because of her case and couple of others, the State can no longer use race as a determination in whether a family can adopt a particular child.
Be nice (extra nice if possible) to your friend, it sounds like she cares (not too many of them) which will lead her to many sleepless nights.
If we adopted, we'd adopt a black and white kid. No confusion. Keep it simple and fair. It would not sit well with me to adopt a white child when I know there are so many black children left in the lurch out there, but I know that the horrors of the foster system are color blind and to give a child, any child, a home should be the most important thing. I'd be torn and compelled to adopt two children to get over my own issues. We would have to have some deep conversations about that. It's not an easy decision to make. What if your spouse has other ideas?
Well, BMD couldn't you just adopta biracial child or children. There are many of them in the system as well. Believe it or not there are still many white mothers that don't want to face the looks from strangers b/c they have a child that looks black. (Tameka is actually biracial.)
Haha. Yea, I wasn't thinking. I have the flu and obviously it's eating away at my brain now.
BMD, there are a LOT of biracial children in the foster care system so there'd be no problem there. Yeah, re: Tameka.
honee, she's looking into working with the Asian immigrants instead. I think that's better suited for her not because she's Asian-American, but because it's just not as traumatic day to day. The last time she called me was after some legal proceeding. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but she just kept saying "I ruined her life"
daria, that's too creepy b/c my next position after the state was with a private international agency. My brain and nerves definitely needed that break.