Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Adoption Insanity
Posted by David S. Bernstein
More than a decade after a national policy change essentially eliminated race-based restrictions on adoptions in America, the ethnic grievance folks are back at it again. It seems that according to a new report by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute (an advocacy group) the biggest problem facing black children is apparently not poverty, fatherless homes, urban crime, or failing schools. No, the fine social workers have decided to focus their energy on the fact that apparently too many black kids are being raised by white parents! From their scintillating report:
It's ironic that at a time when Barack Obama is proving that a black kid can be raised just fine by a white family, thank you very much, the race industry is still trying to explain to rest of us naive fools that racial differences are so profound that it practically amounts to child abuse to allow a black kid to be raised by white parents.
But worse than the irony is that this proposed policy change would continue to doom a disproportionate number of black kids to the foster care system. As the report points out, 32% of children in the foster care system are black -- more than twice the proportion of the general population. The real scandal, the one that these enlightened social workers ignore because it doesn't fit their racial narrative, is that wealthy whites are flocking to Asia, Russia, South America -- hell, even Africa -- in order to adopt adorable little infants, while ignoring the half a million desperate American orphans, who are often older, and black and thus tougher to place in a permanent home. I personally know several folks who have gone the international route ... and while I am pleased that they were able to save a child, I have never had the heart or the guts to ask them why they didn't adopt here rather than over there.
If the adoption advocates want to make themselves useful, they ought to explain to Madonna or Angelina and Brad that charity often begins at home; and that they can parent a black American child just as well as they can parent a black African one. And, then, perhaps we will eventually be able bring an end to our shameful foster care system.
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More than a decade after a national policy change essentially eliminated race-based restrictions on adoptions in America, the ethnic grievance folks are back at it again. It seems that according to a new report by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute (an advocacy group) the biggest problem facing black children is apparently not poverty, fatherless homes, urban crime, or failing schools. No, the fine social workers have decided to focus their energy on the fact that apparently too many black kids are being raised by white parents! From their scintillating report:
In order for children of color to be placed with families who can meet their long-term needs, consideration must be given to needs arising from racial/ethnic differences. Consequently, when workers choose permanent families for children, and when they seek to prepare and support them in addressing the children's needs, race must be one consideration - such as promoting connection of the child to adults and children from their own racial/ethnic group, developing a positive racial/ethnic identity, and learning to deal with discrimination they may experience. Sound social work practice to accomplish these goals is severely impeded under current federal law and policy.What they are advocating for is a return to the previous policy where race was taken into consideration in awarding kids with adoptive parents -- a situation which often gave individual social workers discretion over whether a particular white family was suited for adopting a black child, and which in many regions led to a de facto prohibition on cross-racial adoption.
It's ironic that at a time when Barack Obama is proving that a black kid can be raised just fine by a white family, thank you very much, the race industry is still trying to explain to rest of us naive fools that racial differences are so profound that it practically amounts to child abuse to allow a black kid to be raised by white parents.
But worse than the irony is that this proposed policy change would continue to doom a disproportionate number of black kids to the foster care system. As the report points out, 32% of children in the foster care system are black -- more than twice the proportion of the general population. The real scandal, the one that these enlightened social workers ignore because it doesn't fit their racial narrative, is that wealthy whites are flocking to Asia, Russia, South America -- hell, even Africa -- in order to adopt adorable little infants, while ignoring the half a million desperate American orphans, who are often older, and black and thus tougher to place in a permanent home. I personally know several folks who have gone the international route ... and while I am pleased that they were able to save a child, I have never had the heart or the guts to ask them why they didn't adopt here rather than over there.
If the adoption advocates want to make themselves useful, they ought to explain to Madonna or Angelina and Brad that charity often begins at home; and that they can parent a black American child just as well as they can parent a black African one. And, then, perhaps we will eventually be able bring an end to our shameful foster care system.
Labels: transracial adoption
