Interracial adoption sparks controversy because it crystalizes the question of cultural heritage, and, more important, because of what happened to those kids form Diff'rent Strokes. Many in the African American community think that white parents shouldn't adopt black kids because they feel that black children will grow up without a sense of their culture and heritage, not to mention an unnatural fondness for the musical stylings of Yanni. But in truth, isn't it wrong to deny an orphan a loving family for any reason, and shouldn't intergration, like charity, begin at home?

I think it's up to the parents to give the child options to explore his or her heritage, and just as important, I think it's also up to the child to give a shit.

Every child should have an opportunity to live in a safe and loving environment. But lets make sure there is no hanky panky going on with these adoptions.

It is a well known fact that white woman are more likely to explore adoption options than any other ethnic group. Let's not unjustly remove a child from it's home and it's extended family just to placent the motherly instincts of infertile women.

AwhiteguynamedBill said:

You usually racially bait people, but this is a legitimate issue. And the way you describe it is funny as hell.

Good topic.

I think that first children should be cared for my family and then if that isn't possible, yes, adoption she be open to whomever but also think the adoptive parents need to have a plan on how they will make sure the child will have a good understand and connection with their culture. Also that the mother learns how to comb black hair because everytime I've seen a white family who has adopted a black little girl, her girl was crazy look...lawd.

I think it's interesting that I've never seen a black family adopt a white child although my cousin and his wife have guardianship over a teenage white young man who is a friend of my cousins son. The young man's mom died and he didn't want to live with anyone in his family. He is graduating from high school and they are helping him get ready for college. His family isn't too happy about it but didn't fight to get guardianship.

Rhondab said:

Maybe they must think we still only 3/5 of a human being not eligible to raise their kids.

Blackcat said:

OH STOP THAT

SILLY

As someone who has adopted interracially, this thread caught my eye. 5 years ago, I adopted a chinese daughter. From our perspective, the easy part was deciding we would like to adopt a baby girl. The hard part was deciding who to adopt. The reality we faced was that there were more white parents that wanted to adopt than their were white baby's who need adpoting. Doing a quick search just now I came across a stat that said only 1 in 3 white families who want to adopt are able to find a white baby to adopt. This situation is unfortunately reversed for black babies. Just doing a quick browse of the internet, I came across this



So facing those realities, the question was, where go go next - race really not being a concern at all for us. We briefly considered adopting a black child, but frankly, some of the attitudes such as those expressed here helped rule that out. Too many people would rather see a black child go parentless and unloved than see them adopted by a loving white family.

I never have understood seeing battles to stop loving white families from adopting a black child when there are other black babies who have no family at all. Instead of fighting to take black babies away from loving white families, why not put the effort into taking care of the black babies who have no family? Why not step up and provide foster homes for needy black children. Instead, stupid laws like this get passed.

http://www.lubbockonline....terrac.htm

How does a law like that help the black baby who has no family? Excluding the majority of potential parents from even being able to consider them. As I said, for us, the controversy surrounding this issue partially was responsible for us going another route.

Since we wanted a daughter, we went where there was the most need for girls to be adopted - China - where girls get abandonded to a childhood of living in an orphanage simply because they are not boys due to the one child per family limit. Our daughter, Olivia, was found abandoned outside a factory when she was just 2 days old.

Would she really be better off spending her lifetime in an orphanage in China instead of being adopted by a loving family of a different race. When I look at her, I don't see race, I don't see adoption, I see my daughter who I love.

I'm bi-racial and my aunt and uncle on the white(german) side of my family weren't able to concieve so they became interested in adopting. At first they were able to find a white baby but for some reason the deal went bad. So then they adopted a black girl and 15 years later she seems to be doing fine. Though she did have some traumatic years with her hair ...anyways she's totally assimilated to the lifestyle of a caucasion, language and culture. I've seen the family in some awkward moments (racially akward) but in the end she's had some wonderful opportunities, travelled the world gets anything she wants, both parents are well educated and i'm sure the race issue has pretty much disovled but deep down inside it will nver go away for all of them? I'm sure when she meets some one of color she can't relate to them like she could with a caucasion, who knows the ramifications of this and how she identifies with her color...especially during her teenage years when you really don't know who the hell you are anyways, but in the end isn't this just one way to tear down these barriers? a way to give us a better understanding of this enigma?

alandail said:

I agree with you wholeheartedly. It is such a shame that we as a community ( yes us black folk) not only do not adopt these children but then refuse those who want to adoptthem based on race and cultural heritage. I know black children raised by black parents (mommy and daddy) who have little knowledge of their heritage except what they get from school and television. I believe that it is more important that these children not just the babies have loving homes. Then there is the whole foster care fiasco. There is a huge need for foster parents...we were not eligible because of financial problems, so whatever, the whole system is messed up. anyone familiar with the foster care nightmare going n in LA?

AwhiteguynamedBill said:

there's no place like home and any kid of any color deserves one!!! No color lines!
[This message was edited Thu May 8 13:54:58 PDT 2003 by pejman]