How do you feel about interracial adoption?

Question

Many celebrites are getting away from adopting asian kids and more are adopting africian children.

However I am discovering that the average John & Sue are having difficulties adopting black children. Why?

Answer 1

I would be OK with it.

Answer 2

Since the beginning of Hollywood I have viewed celebrity adoption as a curse rather than a blessing. The majority of Hollywood celebs who adopted during that time wearied of the children and got rid of them through various means and had no further communication with them once they attained puberty or older. It is shocking to see the casual attitude of celbrity adoptions, much like exotic pets, they get older and lose the baby charm and the so-called parents just dump them.

As to interracial adoptions, there should be no conditions to prevent a white couple form adopting a black child or a black couple form adopting a white child. I did read about one case of a white cuple adopting a black child and the courts decided when the little fellow was about five years old that he needed to be with a black couple so he wouldn't miss out on his heritage. The parents and the child were heartbroken, the little guy went off with the new parents, they threw away all the toys the white couple had given him and tortured him to death over a six month period. The point is, whatever color the parents are, if they have kind, loving hearts, there should be no barriers and the courts should not be allowed to presume to remove a child from a loving home.

Answer 3

My adopted son is African American and Mexican. The adoption agency I adopted through has difficulty placing children of different races, so I would say it is the opposite. My husband and I plan on adopting more children and we do not plan on adopting caucasian children. We are a very racially diverse family. I'm white, my husband is Persian, and my son is black/Mexican. We love it that way and wouldn't change it for anything.

Answer 4

i think interracial adoption is just a lil harder to accept from other people..i dont see anything wrong with it..! adoption its self is just wonderful!

Answer 5

As the mother of an interracially adopted child, I can tell you this....it matters not one iota! Our child could have been green or purple and it would not have mattered. She is ours and we were meant to be together. We love her unconditionally.

As for why the average white person has difficulty adopting an African American child, I believe it its the preference of most agencies and most social workers to place them with couples in their own race. There may be more African American families participating in adoption that is causing such a difficulty. I don't really know.

As for popularity of a program, each program gets its notoriety at a different time in the media. The adoption process....specifically the international adoption process is very strict and very specific. Just because people are celebrities they are not short cutting the process. Its impossible. It may seem like it takes less time, but I gaurantee that is only because they have the money to pay the fees to both governments up front without using the various payment plans that elongate the process.

Children are children and they are all a blessing no matter where they come from.

As for the poster that thinks "Asian kids are so yesterday..." tell that to the 100's of families waiting over two years for a picture to arrive of a small child from a far off village in Southern China. I don't think you would get very far.

Answer 6

I adopted a black child as a white woman and he was "offered" to 23 couples  before me - many black. As he was disabled and light skinned he didn't fit any of these parents ideas of the perfect child. I said yes to him sight unseen.  I still wonder if he could have come to live with me sooner if we were the same race.

There are a lot of agencies that "match" parents to children - racially, religion, etc. Sometimes this is at the request of the birth parent/s. My son's mother had to agree to have him adopted by a white woman.

Answer 7

Where does the difficulty lie?  I doubt the problem is with the availability of children.  There are thousands of kids in the system in this country and many are AA.  I suspect the difficulty lies in the adopters' prejudices as well as their preferences for only healthy infants.

I also suspect the celebrities are getting away from adopting Asian kids because 1) the Asian countries are onto them and 2) Asian kids are so yesterday, dahhling, they are not exotic enough any more.  When they've gone through every race, they'll be back to adopting jaguars and leopards.

Edited to respond to Wife2denizmoi:

I was talking about the celebs, dahhling.  Not you - or anyone you know, I'm sure.  Oh, and you are quite wrong about the celebs not shortcutting the process.  You are fooling yourself.

Answer 8

No matter how many kids I have, I plan on adopting a child in the future of a different race than mine because I am not racist and I want my children to not be racist. Plus, I would love to change someone elses life for the better.

Answer 9

I admit it, I hate the very idea of it.

It seems like modern day slavery to me.

Answer 10

This is a complicated issue: First dealing with the adoption of US African Americans. Official adoption within the African American population is rare within the US, partly a result of most African Americans having a much stronger sense of family obligation and therefore family members will often take in a child that needs parenting, without going through official adoption channels. Secondly, not a lot of Caucasians want to adopt African Americans locally. Although there has been a trend towards this over the last few years, there remains a strong sense within local adoption agencies of placing with families who have the same race or religion, especially through the public agencies.

In terms of international adoption of Black children, there are very few African countries who will allow for international adoption of children (remember the Madonna drama). Ethiopia and Sudan are the exception. More especially those that do have international adoption regulations tend not to do so with the US, due to the ridiculous immigration regulations on the US side.

My black African twins are adopted from South Africa, however I am a South African and we lived in SOuth Africa for the entire year of the adoption process. Believe it or not the US state department and Department of Homeland security (who are both involved in the adoption process), wanted full terrorism checks on 11 month olds. Within Africa there is a strong sense of preventing the neo-colonisation of Africa's children through international adoption. I am on the fence on this.

An incredibly good reference to this is "Transracial Adoption and Foster Care," by Joseph Crumble.

I have consulted with him on a regular basis on how to raise Black African children within a transracial family. I would recommend him to anyone who is already raising children within a transracial family or who is considering it.  

Good luck, it isn't easy but it is incredibly rewarding

Answer 11

There are two questions here.  African American children are as available as any other race.

Children from Africa are somewhat more difficult.  There are significantly higher costs.  Also, keep in mind that AIDS is quite common in Africa.

Answer 12

Actually, right now Ethiopia is quite a popular and stable program for international adoption, and most Asian programs are experiencing a lot of change and increasing wait times.  People have traditionally chosen Asian international adoption because it has been long standing and stable and the children generally come home with few health concerns.  Also, you get a VERY distorted view of international adoption when your information mainly lies with media coverage of celebrity adoption.  The media doesn't cover their process thoroughly and people like to villainize them.  Also, celebrities are simply such a small percentage of international adoptions, so you can't base trends on what you see celebrities doing.

Answer 13

Celebrities use their money to circumvent the adoption process, so it does appear to be easy to adopt children from Africa to us average folks.

China has imposed new strict guidelines for adoption so I think that most celebrities either do not have the attention span to go through the required steps or they do not qualify for a China adoption.  For a lot of celebrities, their past drug abuse is a problem in many adoption programs including in the US.

As far as interracial adoption in the US,  the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) fought it in the past, and I believe they had a position paper strongly opposing it.  They have now generalized their position to support family preservation using adoption as a last resort.  NABSW is very active in promoting kinship care (care within the family).  Families who participate in kinship care programs can receive many of the same benefits now that foster parents get.  Thanks to NABSW efforts, the discrimination against biological family care is diminishing.

How do I feel about interracial adoption?  In any case where a child needs care, I agree with the NABSW position that kinship care is best for the child so he/she does not lose the connection with their roots.  It that is not possible, then adoptive parents who truly understand the effects of adoption on a child should be considered regardless of race.

BTW - I don't think it should be easy to adopt ANY child.

Answer 14

My aunt and uncle could not have children, they became foster parents, and ended up very easily adopting their two sons, who are black, after only six months. The adoption process on the younger of the two boys took longer, due to some problems with their birth mother. But after a few months, he was legally their son.

People obviously notice the difference, but they have been lucky enough to have no problems at all, which is amazing because they live in a smaller town in the mid-west where racism is sometimes unfortunately a problem.

Answer 15

Perhaps more people are parenting their children so less are available to adopt, which can only be a good thing - the best place for baby is with his/her Mommy

Contrary to popular belief, most people are capable of parenting their kids - the drug addicted, abusive stereotype mother is the minority

The demand for babies and the coercive nature of the agencies is what persuades mothers they are "not good enough" when in fact, they really are.