Should Adoption Be Colour Blind? Essay

Henry Ford once said, “ At that point, a child is eligible for adoption and can be placed with a family that can love the child and raise the child.” What this quote says is that a child should be placed with any family that can love it and raise it. If race was not so significant, a higher percentage people would be eligible to adopt, meaning that more kids will be adopted. The happiness of the children should also be of greater importance that the race of the future parents. Despite this, there will always be people who are against transracial adoption. A few of them say that a child with adoptive parents who are of a different race are more likely to suffer an identity crisis. Overall, transracial, or interracial, adoption is better for children in orphanages or the foster care system.

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.

Many critics of Transracial adoption debate that white families are not capable to benefit black children develop a black identity role. Because white people do not know the feeling of having been discriminated or criticized among black children. So the author feels that white people cannot

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.

Instead laws are changed to make adopting mixed-race children easier. In Sandra Lapierre's situation she adopted Justin, who is different colored skin than her and the laws of Multi-Ethnic Placement Act(MEPA) was enacted in Congress in 1994. This law states that no court can delay or deny the rights of adopting mixed-race children. Some people enjoy this law because they are able to adopt children without complications, while others do not approve of this law, especially in Rhode Island. The courts in Rhode Island have been trying to fight the courts because they believe different races should be adopted by the same race parents and not have mixed-race adoption. The courts and other people believe mixed-race adoption has a bad effect on the children because they are not surrounded by the same race. Well Sandra on the other hand states, “To me, the one issue is, racism comes from people being scared of someone different, so I try to eliminate it in my home.” ;she also comes out and says, “The courts taught my children that race matters.”. With both these statements you can see that race does not matter to her and she is trying to spread the word about that, so other people will want to adopt mixed-race children. Sandra promoting mixed-race adoption and not downgrading the idea it also gives the children a better life and out of the adoption homes. Minority children tend to stay in foster care longer than white children, in America; on average out 110,000 who need permanent homes 56 percent are black and 9 percent are hispanic. Other ideas to get these minority children out of foster care is matching-race, but that is difficult and hard to come by sometimes. These matching-race also help the children better understand their identity and background of their culture or skin color per say. In the book, The Bean Trees, Taylor does not really face struggle

`Have you ever wondered what it is like to be in or a part of the adoption process? Most people have different opinions on the whole system. Many think that the process is easy and they don’t actually know what most children go through. If more people understood the problems they face then child welfare wouldn’t be so difficult. Children come from broken or abusive households where treatment is horrible or to the point where they just remove the children.

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.

Currently there is a disproportionate number of minority children in foster care system and as a result, individuals and families of other races or cultures are becoming caregivers and guardians for children of different ethnicities. This is what is known as transcultural/transracial placement and has been a highly controversial happening since the 1970’s and 80’s. The concern amongst social workers and child welfare agencies in transracial placements is the loss of culture or racial identity that may result for the child. Because of the disproportion between the ethnicity of a child and the same or similar ethnicity of a potential foster family, the notion of transracial placement has gone through many changes. As a result of several acts signed into law, considering the race of a child and/or the foster family is no longer part of placement guidelines. (U.S. Commissions On Civil Rights, 2010). While this is a positive change to ensure children are in institutional care for no longer than necessary, it could also leave the door open for the chance of racial disparity, a loss of a child’s sense of biological self, poor cultural identity, and could hinder a child’s ability to cope with being different. Research suggests “when children are removed from their cultures or when their cultures are not acknowledged and appreciated emotional trauma and behavior problems are exacerbated” (Coakley & Buehler, 2009)

Same-sex adoptions are when a gay or lesbian couple decides since they are unable to conceive that they would like the same opportunities as everyone else and adopt a child. There are many people who do not support this. The reason for their unsupportiveness is that they think they just aren’t a right fit for children. Others though say that a child’s welfare is better served in a family environment with two parents, regardless of the parents’ sexual orientation (“Adoption). In the article, “Birth Mother wins return of toddler after ‘adoption by lesbian couple”, it tells a story of a deaf mother giving birth to a child and then having it be adopted by a lesbian couple only to take it away three years later. All three women had the exact same disability and that is why the birthmother aloud her daughter to be adopted from them. The birth mother thought that she would be unable to care for her child but later on found out she would be able to provide for her daughter. Although this situation was unique because they did not go through an adoption agency the lesbian mothers showed very clearly that they could take care of the child. They had cared for the girl from the minute she was born until the day the birth mother took her back. The couple even lived in the birth mothers house for the last few months of her pregnancy and practical raised the birth mothers children. After all this though the court still ruled that the couple was unfit to

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

Have you ever felt unwanted? Well, many children who wait in foster care often times feel this way. Transracial adoption can help them find a loving home. I believe that race should not be a factor in adoption.

Thesis: Transracial adoptees family situation affects many aspects of the adopted child’s life. Do these children have identity formation difficulties during adolescence and are there any significant differences between adoptees and birth children?

I do not believe race should be a deciding factor in an adoption placement, if you have people who can and are willing to provide a stable and loving environment to a child not of their same race, they should be able to, it beats the alternative of a child sitting in foster care or adoption facility waiting on parents of the same race and risk reaching a less adoptive age. Also, people should not be discouraged from adopting children of a different race than them.

There was a court case, Baby Girl v. Adoptive Couple, in which a child who was partially Cherokee Indian, because of her father, and Hispanic, because of her mother. The adoption of Baby Girl was a difficult one due to the fact that she has an ancestry of Cherokee Indian. Therefore, under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), the adoption of Baby Girl seemed impossible because Biological Father had the right to have custody of his child, Baby Girl, if he chose to. So, the court greatly sees that by giving Baby Girl back to Biological Father would be in the child’s best interest under the ICWA, because there is the assumption that if she is with her Biological Father and her culture, she will not suffer any type of emotional distress. For

People need to accept the fact that interracial adoption is an increasing proposition in today’s society. Whether or not that a person taught much about diversity, it is equally important that a person know color does not matter. Of 11,000 adoptions in Michigan from 2001-05, the last year available, on 78 were blacks adopting whites. During that time, 677 whites