Adopting A Child From A Race

Tonight in class we talked about whether or not white people should be able to adopt children of another race, and I am torn with this. Sometimes these children are in a very bad situation and need anything other than what they have, and in some cases the anything is better than nothing. I do think that there should be some educational courses that the adopting parents should have to be will to undergo so that they are aware of what racism is and how it works. This class would be a good example of some education that should be required.

Others state that “race should be no barrier to finding a child a loving family and adoptive family”. One in five children waiting to be adopted are from an ethnic minority. Last year around 2,300 children were approved for adoption. Of those children 500 of them were either black or asian. Some adopted children state that growing up in a family you weren’t born into was more difficult than they thought. You never knew your ethnic background. It also always raises questions for a child about where they fit in or who they are. It becomes very pointed out if you are visually different from your

Adopting a child of another race is of special interest, and should be carefully considered. Many questions regarding the background of minority children need to be answered before following through with an interracial adoption. For instance, Should minority-group children be adopted by parents of another race? Can the parents provide the racial and ethnic identity that children need to cope with racism? Are cultural experiences and racial identity important to the well being of a child? Are these children better off than they would be if left to live in the foster-care or institutional system? Does placing the child with the same race discriminate against the child? Will these children experience any long term disadvantages if adopted outside their race. As the study shows, many questions should be answered before considering a transracial adoption.

I think a big problem came from the foster-care workers. “Some foster-care workers said that matching skin shade was a legitimate way of easing a child’s adjustment to a new environment…” (Bernstein 113, 2001). In some situations I do believe that it would be hard for a child to adjust to a certain kind of environment but that does not mean that the only thing that should be matched up is skin color. If a child needs a home and their skin color happens to be different from the adoptive parents, so what. They are still going to receive the care they need regardless. I do not know about everyone else but if it was between getting foster care parents who are a different race than me or not getting foster care parents at all I would choose getting them.

Transracial adoption the identity debate, is an immense concern because it confuses the child that they don’t belong to neither side black nor white. Because they have white parents, but the children’s race is black so they are in a confused stage that could affect them physiologically. The black child will end up wishing they were also white like their parents and will make them confused and not have a high self-esteem. Transracial adoption tends to have conflicting results toward the

If the adoption is going to be from another country, where the child is from another race and culture, the adopting parents should get to know about that race and culture before taking care of that child. So while raising this child, they can also teach them about their culture so they won’t be cut out of their original heritage. Because these children are banned from knowing about their culture and customs, it wouldn’t be good to take that away from anyone. So this can be a bad thing about taking in a child from another country, and the process would take up a lot more time and money to do this.

Since the 1960’s, interracial adoption has been on the rise, although it was looked down upon until the 1990’s. Many kids sit and wait to be adopted for most of their childhood. So, instead of adoption agencies waiting to find what they call “the perfect match,” which is referring to a family who is of the same race as the child they intend to adopt, they started allowing interracial adoption as a part of hoping every child finds a family that loves them beyond the color of their skin. Proponents argue that children grow up to not care that they aren’t the same color as their parents, their kids are more open to learning about their culture, and that kids of different races, other than caucasian, are more available in foster homes and overseas. While cons argue that family acceptance is a problem, the kid might feel uncomfortable about being a different race than their parents, and that parents might not like to stand out.

With adoption being viewed in such a positive light there are still some people who are strongly against transracial adopting and some of their reason are because they believe that the child will lose their identity. Is the race of the child more important than the love that the child will receive? While observing transracial adopting there are many point of view that you have to factor in, but there is only one that matters and that is the love of the child.

Adoption is the legal process whereby adults become parents to children not born to the. An adoptive parent assumes all the legal rights and responsibilities for the adopted child.

Adopting a child of a different race can have benefits and disadvantages. Most people would think about adopting within their race instead of adopting a child of a different race. On the other hand, there are people that do not care what race the child is, they just want a child to call their own and to raise.

I feel that race should not matter based on adoption because, what if there is a ‘white’ family and there is a kid of a different Ethnic group in danger that needs love and needs a family. Are social workers going to say no you can not adopt this kid because you are a white family and he is of a different race. I believe that being of different race does not matter.

To the thousands of children in foster care, adoption means being part of a family. Adoption signifies a chance to be loved, wanted, and cared for properly. Every year thousands of children enter the foster care system. In the year 2010 alone, 245,375 children entered foster care, of that number over 61,000 were black. An astounding 30,812 black children were waiting for adoption in 2010 (AFCARS). With so many children needing homes, it would seem their adoption would be open to any and all loving families, yet this is not the necessarily the case. Transracial adoption, which traditionally alludes to black children placed with white families, is riddled with difficulties. While transracial adoption can be a successful solution, many

Interracial adoptions go way back starting in the 1950’s. It all started with white children being up for adoption, but with World War II ending many war children were getting put up for adoption and the number increased. Jaegoo Lee states “In the year 1995, the number of interracial adoptions was about 1,000 but in 2001 it went up to 8,000 children (Lee 122).” That is a 7,000 difference in number of children adopted in just six years. In 2011 over 9,319 children were adopted internationally into the U.S. from China and South Africa (Lee 122). During a vast period of interracial adoptions, they were reaching up to 45,000 children being adopted but today it has dropped dramatically. Many countries opened up to placing children abroad, but now they have closed again; these countries include Russia, China, and countries in eastern Europe and Africa (Bartholet 22). Some countries like China make people pay a fee of $3000- $5000 for a child. Many people have argued to have a systematic tax on adoption so parents adopting would have to send a few thousand dollars per adoption to support families in sending countries (Bartholet).

Transracial adoption which speaks of black children merged with white families and vice versa could be a great step towards reducing the overly increasing number of orphans. The total of international transracial adoptions have risen significantly from 7,000 in 1990 to almost 22,800 in 2006, but there was a slight decrease in 2008 to 17,000 adoptions (Lindsey 2012). It is a useful way to break down barriers of racism between people, by enriching awareness of transracial adoption. In addition, adoption is tracked down in the bible, where it was mentioned that the Pharaoh’s wife adopted Moses.

It was interesting to read your post regarding the lack of strong cultural/racial identities for adoptees. Although the reasons come across as basic, they reveal a greater substance in terms of how these adopted parents shape and formulate their adopted children. For example, the "avoiding or cultural distancing" aspect caught my eye since I personally know an individual who has encounter this situation. Since he was adopted, his adopted parents attempted to distance him from his cultural origins. Although this may be interpreted as selfishness, his parents did it in the act of love. Their reasoning was that they wanted to make sure that he was part of the family and not feel like an outsider living with another family that wasn’t his own.