Should Black Children Only be Adopted by Black Parents? Part 1

K,
I believe that white people who adopt Black children assume a responsibiity that they don't fathom the depth and gravity of the monumental task at hand. First, they cannot teach highly sophisticated coping mechanisms because many of them are unwiling to preceive the truth about white privilege and how that permiates the entire fabric of the American conciousness. They have never had to recognize that there was anything with which others had to cope, and the lack of success within the mainstream is because they didn't want to or care about doing better. They were always right.

So, how can they teach what they don't know or acknowledge? The mechnisms required to be successful should began in enfancy by parents who have successfully acomplished the crucial techniques, sadate tasks and survived the forces hidden and blatant, to become a strong, positive entity in this society. I don't say it is impossible, but it would be rare.

I had a discussion about this on BlackPlanet.com in which a white couple in Tennessee was told they can not be foster parents of a black child because the biological Black parent requested that only a Black couple be allowed to foster the child.

I look at it this way Kenya, all children need parents and need the basic necessities of life (food, clothing and shelter), no doubt. If a White family is sensitive about race issues, if they already have meaningful daily interactions with Blacks and other ethnic groups, then maybe it can be appropriate.

However, when someone who has had NO CONNECTION with Blacks wants to take a Black child into a completely White environment, then he or she is going to be raised to be something other that what many
people would suspect him or her to be, based on how he or she looks. I think thats where the problem arises.

This is a tough call.

Siebra makes some great points about the kind of environment the child will be brought into and the motivation of the parents.

Some communities--like right here in NY-transracial adoptions are not uncommon at all. The children find themselves generally accepted into a multiracial community almost without any notice.

But some communities would be challenging for the child and may present problems that can't be solved.

So my opinion for what it's worth: allow it with caution and care--and always with the welbeing of the child as the number one priority. But banning all cases of transracial adoption does nothing to help those children with no homes and families.

Rich,
You took the words right out of my mouth. It is more important for children to be loved than to be catalogued by skin color. Look at the twins in England, one looks like the father and one looks like the mother. They were born into a mixed race family. Blood, Genes and all.

Thomasena:

AMEN!!!

It all goes back to Dr. King's brilliant formulation--which, to me, is as sacred as a prayer from scripture:

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Maybe we should include the children in these kinds of conversations...because I am sure my brother Cow's grand children will never not want him to no be their grand dad...and none of the children I know personally woud even think of trade in of family members for political/social correctness like this. (smile)even sure our own president would not go along with this either...

wE ARE ALL BORN BLANK SLATES. (SMILE0