American Torry-Ann Hansen SENDS BACK Adopted Russian Son Artem

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by deepimpact2

The thing is people seem to forget that there are many Black families out there that wish to adopt.

And also, while agencies will often let white couples adopt Black children, it is rare that they allow Black families to adopt White children.
I personally don't much care for white couples adopting Black children because I do feel that there are culture issues. But I feel that way in general. Prime example was one of my former students who was Navajo. She was adopted by a white woman when she was 3. She is now 19 and she knows absolutely NOTHING about Navajo traditions and culture. NOTHING. It broke my heart to see that because I felt that while she got a good home, she was still being robbed of the opportunity to explore her heritage. Her mother's excuse was that she didn't know anything about the Navajo culture and so she figured that the child would just be okay without knowing it.

Since we don't have numbers, we are using words to quantify this. There aren't "many." There are "some" and this translates to a "relative few" when discussing the overall topic of adoption across race.

Adoption has never been widely accepted within the Black American culture. It still holds a stigma in the general Black community. Many of us always knew adopted kids (including children who were adopted from a family member) whose families kept it a secret.

There's more that I can say about that, but I'll just say that there are a number of reasons why white families are adopting Black children. If people recall the outrage over the increase in the adoption of Black kids by white families in the 90s, whites responded with "well, why don't more Black families adopt these Black kids then? Don't be mad because WE want to adopt them if YOU don't want to/can't adopt them/aren't adopting them/whatever."

[deepimpact2]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Since we don't have numbers, we are using words to quantify this. There aren't "many." There are "some" and this translates to a "relative few" when discussing the overall topic of adoption across race.

Adoption has never been widely accepted within the Black American culture. It still holds a stigma in the general Black community. Many of us always knew adopted kids (including children who were adopted from a family member) whose families kept it a secret.

There's more that I can say about that, but I'll just say that there are a number of reasons why white families are adopting Black children. If people recall the outrage over the increase in the adoption of Black kids by white families in the 90s, whites responded with "well, why don't more Black families adopt these Black kids then? Don't be mad because WE want to adopt them if YOU don't want to/can't adopt them/aren't adopting them/whatever."

I guess it all depends on maybe where you live because I haven't seen evidence in my general area that suggests a stigma in the Black community about formal adoptions. I see more "silence" and "secrecy" when someone takes in a child because the mother and/or father can no longer take care of the child. But I could definitely see it perhaps being that way in other areas. Around here, Black families who are trying to formally adopt are given "props" and commended for it. I hate to hear that it isn't the same elsewhere.

But to get back to your first statement, I say many because of the numbers of Black families that come to our clinic seeking advice about formal adoptions. And to add to that the numbers that I hear from two friends I know who are social workers in different states.

And as far as the outrage in the 90's, I didn't hear about that. That sounds interesting. I'm going to find out more info about that.