Transracial adoption?

Question

For years Ive read about the controversy of white families adopting black babies but Ive NEVER come across cases of black families adopting white babies. Is it even possible for a black family to adopt a white baby or do adoption agencies actively preven this from happening....Also are there any anecdotes of white babies adopted by blacks.

Answer 1

Hi Yug,

Interesting observation.  Here are some reasons that lead up to that conclusion:

Statistically, there are more children from the Black community available for adoption in the foster care system than there are White children.  There are more prospective adoptive White families than there are Black ones, and the White families usually prefer to adopt the White children first if they are available.  Since there are more Black children and White PAPs left, those are the ones that usually get matched up when adoptions outside of race occur.  

With open adoptions, the mother would select the parents for her child.  I'm not sure how often that happens for her to choose parents outside of her race, regardless of her race.  

Black families rarely relinquish their babies for adoption upon birth.  When they do adopt, they have historically done informal kinship adoptions within their own families.  They are also not as heavily targeted by adoption recruiters whose clients overall covet White babies.  Exceptions would be if there's a specific prospective Black family waiting for a Black baby.

Ironically, the White American families who do adopt Black children increasingly prefer to adopt internationally rather than domestically, so they tend to adopt Black children from African countries.

There really is no reason why Black families could not adopt White children.  It probably does happen rarely.  It's more a matter of supply & demand.  Also, some social workers recognize that it's generally better for the child to be placed within their own race if two different families are interested in a particular child and all other factors are equal.  Thanks for asking.

julie j

reunited adoptee

Answer 2

Some (not all) social workers are apprehensive about transracial adoptions, but they have and do occur (which is great for those children-family is more than skin color and I know that even in our all white family, our skin tone ranges from as white as this background to a dark olive tone).  I apologize for my run-on sentence there.

I do know there have been instances of black families adopting white babies, but it is probably less common because statistically, there are more white adoptive parents and more black children up for adoption, especially through the foster care system.

Race should not matter, though-all that should matter is who can provide a loving home for a child.

Answer 3

yes,

i've seen it before.

and i think its amazing.

i am happy that families arent affraid of being bi-racial.

and i think its the most beautiful thing to see :]