Back in the early 1990s, legislators found that the "race-matching" practices of adoption agencies and social services was resulting in a disproportionate number of black children in the foster care system. In 1994 — despite the virulent opposition of the National Association of Black Social Workers — the Multiethnic Child Placement Act, which prohibits the discussion of race during the adoption process, was passed.

The goal of the law was to give black children an equal chance of being adopted. According to a new study commissioned by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, that hasn't been the case. While the numbers of black adoptions have increased by a small margin, black children still disproportionately fill foster homes. And then there's the issue of black children being adopted into white homes without and discussion with parents about social challenges the children might face…

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT A new study from the University of Liverpool suggests that "Madonna-style adoptions" — high-profile, international adoptions that probably should be called Angelina-style adoptions — have produced more orphans instead of reducing the number. Here's how — in EU countries, the numbers of institutionalized children has increased, supposedly because celebs have influenced more people to seek international adoptions. 'Child Psychologist, Professor Kevin Browne, said: "Some argue that international adoption is, in part, a solution to the large number of children in institutional care, but we have found the opposite is true. Closely linked to the Madonna-effect, we found that parents in poor countries are now giving up their children in the belief that they will have a 'better life in the west' with a more wealthy family."' So more orphans all around? Bummer. [Telegraph]

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• Barack Obama either gave the most important speech on race of our generation or threw his poor, white grandma under the bus. Here's what the experts say.

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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.

Rumors have been swirling that Zahara Jolie-Pitt's biological mother, whom Angelina Jolie might have thought was dead, is very much alive (maybe) and wants her daughter back. Well, besides the fact that she couldn't have Baby Z back if she wanted her, the 24-year-old woman who gave birth to Angie and Brad's child said that the rumors were false and that she is happy her daughter is under Jolie's care. She also tells a pretty grim story about being raped by Zahara's biological father.

It's apparently the cool thing to do among a certain group of "journalists" to ferret out the biological parents of famous adopted kids and get them to say that they were misled into giving their kids up. But would we expect any less from the people responsible for our weekly gossip mags?

• See, everyone's a winner in the Kanye West/50 Cent battle! [GW]

• The Fort Lauderdale mayor's attack on gays has also driven a wedge between the community's blacks. [MH]

• We see whites with adopted black children frequently, if not all the time. But when it comes time for biological mothers of color to find families for their kids, its often hard to find black families to adopt. [NPR]

• Like most white people in the Jena Six protests, the white supremacists are so late to the game. Try to keep up, guys. [CT]

• With some exceptions, here's proof that the anti-PC movement is in full swing. [LAT]

This fall, as women trade out their breezy summer standards for cool weather clothes, one fashion trend remains constant: the African baby! One might say they're the new black.

Angelina's got one, Madonna's got one, and now, Mary Louise Parker of Weeds fame has acquired her very own African girl.

Mary-Louise, Brad Pitt recommends Carol's Daughter for when times get rough.

[People]

• The King Tut exhibit draws the ire of African American scholars, who say it implies that King Tut was white.

• Protesters "Marched on Miami" yesterday to protest inequalities in the city. Marches are so 1963. [Local10]

• Has the EU really become more racist or are they just starting to notice it more? [PRLMNT]

• Some American companies are offering adoption benefits — time off, financial assistance — to employees. [PR]

• An police officer in Columbus was demoted to a desk job after she and her sister posted homemade YouTube videos disparaging blacks, Jews, Cubans, and illegal immigrants. They still maintain they were trying to tell the "truth about America." Uh, just a demotion? [21News]