Analysis of The Lost Children of Wilder by Nina Bernstein Essay

FACTS: Linda Brown, an African American third grader applied for admission to an all-white public school, Sumner Elementary, in Topeka, Kansas and was refused by the board of education of Topeka. A class action lawsuit, represented by NAACP lawyers, was filed in 1951 in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. This case consolidated the four other cases filed in separate states, all having in common African American children denied admission to segregated, all-white public schools based on race.

The book, Wilder Boys by Brandon Wallace, is an amazing story about two boys named Jake and Taylor who try to find their dad who left them when they were young. In the beginning of the story Jake and Taylor’ mom gets sent to the hospital because her boyfriend hurt her. Jake and Taylor then realize that they will not be safe with Bull who is their moms boyfriend and they go out on an adventure to find their long lost dad.

Starting her second education, she was forced to drop out to care for her ailing grandmother. With Jim Crow’s Law, heavily in affect, her childhood was greatly influenced by the segregation between white people and black people in almost every part of their lives.

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

Racial disproportionality and disparity in child welfare represents a multifaceted phenomenon originating from historical, theoretical socioeconomic and policy trends that has shaped this service over the past decades. There are many theories that have been proposed to explain why racial disproportionality and disparity exists in child welfare. It has been recognized the underlying roots of racial disproportionality and disparity are intricate and often coincides. Racial disproportionate in child welfare will be the focus of this research. I will focus on Racial Bias and Discrimination of the child welfare agencies, particularly the child protective services. The research suggests the one of the reasons for the over representation of minority(colored) children in child welfare come from the different treatment of race or due to racial biases (Chung, 1998). This theory also suggests this treatment can be external or internal in the welfare system; however I will focus only on the implication of internal welfare agencies (i.e. child protective specialist). Child protective specialists’ culture and policies may lead to unbalanced treatment of families of color. CPS workers may have biases towards families of color which could affect the decision making at any point of the investigation. This may not have occurred intentionally by the worker, however, due to institutional racism, which may stem from policies and practices has posited to contribute to

The reading begins off with describing a mother, Dinah Kirkland and her traumatic experience with the concept of lynching. During the early 1930’s her son went missing after he was arrested and although Dinah knew that her son had been the product of a lynching, she could do nothing about it. She did not know where he was kept, who killed him, or even why he was killed. She contacted the head of the NAACP, and told him the fear she had regarding her son. Members of the African- American society came together to help Kirkland with her efforts, and eventually, Dinah did find the remains of her eighteen-year-old son.

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.

The time period Henrietta Lacks lived in wasn’t the ideal conditions for black people. Even though slavery was over and everyone was considered equal, black people were still separated from whites in this this time period. Henrietta grew up in a poor black community that didn’t really have black medical centers nearby, babies were born in the houses and not many of them ever went to a doctor. Later on in chapter one Henrietta finds a lump insider her vagina and she was bleeding when it wasn’t her time of the month. John Hopkins hospital was twenty miles away from her house, but it was the only hospital that would accept black families like the Lacks. I did not like how some hospitals would reject sick black people even though it meant some

In between the facts and reports, Rebecca Skloot let us have a glimpse into Henrietta life. She is an African-American woman living with her husband and five children in Baltimore, Maryland. The Lack’s family is financially unstable since Henrietta have to sought help from a charity hospital. The family background brought up to another main point which is race and social class. People come to John Hopkins Hospital to seek for free medication and treatment therefore they are treated differently, “Like many doctors of his era, TeLinde often used patients from the public wards for research, usually without their knowledge. Many scientists believed that since patients were treated for free in the public wards, it was fair to use them as research subjects as a form of payment” (Skloot, 2010). It is also no surprise that the hospital and doctors treated Henrietta different because she is the black women. Back in 1951 segregation between black and white was still an ongoing problem. This tragic story would never happen if Henrietta was a middle class, white woman. They would have asked for her consent before using her cells for research. There is also studies that shows black patients receive different treatment and medication compared to white

They send Henrietta back home she only ended back up at Hopkins again; however when an x-ray was performed her abdomen a hard stony mass attach to the wall of her pelvic blocking the urethra. “Three day later, when she returned complaining once again of pain, a doctor pressed on her abdomen and felt a ‘ stony hard ‘ mass. An X-ray showed that it was attached to her pelvic wall, nearly blocking her urethra.”(Skloot64) This was only the beginning of problems for Henrietta. Doctors didn’t tell her about the dangerous side of effects of radiation treatment. If so, Henrietta would’ve chosen whether or not to have the treatment. But their prejudice cost Henrietta her fertility. “Warning patients about fertility loss before cancer treatment was standard practice at Hopkins, and something Howard Jones say he and Telinde did with every patient.”(Skloot 47) Doctors didn’t educate her about how untreated syphilis could affect her body. She was another black patient to them being treated for free of charge. Henrietta’s race didn’t allow her to have a doctor and patient relationship, in which she could have voiced her concerns about, her cancer treatment. They saw Henrietta’s skin color before they saw a human being in need of medical care.

In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the book depicts what happened when doctors decided to benefit the majority and take advantage of the minority. Henrietta Lacks, an African-American patient at a renowned hospital, went to receive care and during her stay, she was found to have cells that could cure major diseases. The doctors at the hospital became more interested in her cells than her treatment, leading to her untimely death while others benefited, all while not even compensating Lacks or her family (Skloot 280). It is amazing to see the utter lack of regard towards Lacks and her family.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about her family, and the untold story of Henrietta’s cells. The author describes John Hopkins hospitals history of taking advantage of black patients as: “Back then they did things,” Sonny said. “Especially to black folks. John Hopkins was known as for experimentin on black folks. They’d snatch em off the street…” (pg, 165). The book is about ethical and legal reason to share Henrietta story in the world. In the 1950’s, the “Hopkins say they gave them cells away,” one of Henrietta’s son says. “She’s the most important person in the world and her family living poverty. If our mother so important to science, why can’t we get health insurance?” (Pg, 168). Race plays a role of patient

Neil Sherman, a former attorney general in Flagstaff, Arizona who worked in the Department of Child Safety (DCS) for two years, agreed with the general consensus: children of color do have a harder time in the system as well as a harder time getting adopted. Sherman stated that from his perspective, the reasoning behind this is the higher number of reports coming in from people in the lives of these children of color as there are more people, per say, who see them and report or suspect abuse compared to white children,. The role the DCS plays in the mechanics of the system is removing children when they are in evident danger and placing them into the system. “The foster care system and model is inherently flawed and we want to fix it; some parts are good, some are bad, some folks take kids in only for extra cash, some really want to help other families,” Sherman said. There aren’t nearly enough foster families out there for children in general, and the amount that are available can vary

In many of the stage managers addresses spoken directly to the audience, he offers observations about the nature of existence. One of those observations is that a life time passes by in a flash with key events punctuating life. At George and Emily’s wedding, he sums up the cycle of life that every young couple embarking on a life together will experience. This repetition of falling in love, marrying, and beginning a new family is timeless and universal, existing from ancient times to the twenty first century.

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