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Challenges for transracial adoptions
Challenges for transracial adoptions
Challenges for transracial adoptions
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Should Race Matter In Adoption?
Children in foster care aren’t given the choice between a perfect family or an adopted family, but instead the choice of an adopted family or no family at all. Yet, even this choice is being taken away from a majority of children in foster care, more specifically the black children in foster care. To a majority of adoption agencies foster care is almost always prefered over transracial adoption. Race should not be a factor in considering adoption, because as soon as race is taken into consideration tens of thousands of children are being deprived of a family and the opportunities of others, simply because of the racial and cultural beliefs of someone who quite obviously does not have the child’s best interests at heart.
Most of those that oppose transracial adoption are also under the impression that children are better off in foster care than in a transracial adoption. They argue that “children would be deprived of their cultural identity and robbed of their communities” (source B), yet studies show that children that are transracially adopted are more aware of their own cultural identity than
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other children their age. Every child should have a fair chance at being adopted.
The only way for this to happen is if adoption agencies and social worker use the option transracial adoption more frequently, not just as a last resort. While most social workers have no problem with putting a black child with a white foster family, the child is usually removed from said home as soon as the fostering family expresses an interest in adopting the child. “Even under acts such as the Multiethnic Placement Act, which would deny funding to any agency that uses race as the only factor in adoptions, many adoption agencies find loopholes,” (Source A) so that transracial adoption is used only as a “possible last resort”. While this act is well intentioned , it does little to change the essential nature of current practices that serve as a hurdle to transracial
adoption. “A child should be loved unconditionally, regardless of whether they look like or share cultural heritage and traditions with their families.” (Source C) To children race is no more, if not less important to them then having a loving family. If it isn’t important to children who are desperate for a family, then why should it be important to others? Accepting transracial adoption would be beneficial to everyone, to the social workers whose job would become easier, to the parents who would have an easier time as adopting, but most importantly to the children whose chances at being adopted increase by a ten-fold. Even while some can argue that children would “be robbed of their culture,” no one can argue that every child deserves a home and family. Race should not be a considering factor in adoption, because when it is, it deprives innocent children of having a family and home.
Many potential adopted parents have experienced heartbreak, anguish and other problems that can be associated with adoption. There is an imbalance in the Nations foster care system and the system needs to be strengthening and the quality of services improved.
The analysis explored in this document is implementing a program UNIT for parents adopting a different race from their own. Adopting outside of a race is a life altering decision because of regulating mechanisms that condition people to accept or reject individuals based on their appearances. There are not any programs that guide transracial adoptions after they occur. Society as a whole has its own prejudices. The adoptive parents should know about their children’s cultural backgrounds. Society is not very conscience of prejudging it is just something that is a part of life. This is unfortunately one more issue dealt with by adopted children.
Trans-racial adoption has been and continues to be on the rise in many parts of the world. Throughout the years numerous questions pertaining to race and ethnicity have been raised. Ethnicity can be defined as a common belief that people with the same ancestry and genealogy should be associated together. While people of the same origin share common sociological aspects, people of the same race share a biological connection. Races are considered to be people who share many aspects of life, like the color of their skin and a common nationalism. A social class of people can be defined as individuals in a society who share the same socioeconomic status. It is a way to describe the social stratification of people in a society. It also gives remedial measures on coping with the issues of racial, religious and gender discrimination along with negative ethnicity that individuals may be faced when adopting a trans-racial child. This research paper covers the adoption of trans-racial children in regards to racism. There is also a discussion on the aspect of divorce in Canada. The following issues that lead to adoption are also included: The issues of poverty, and the experience of infertility.
In present day, now that racism prejudice and segregation is something that children learn about in history books, there is a new issue surrounding adoption. It is now considered controversial when a couple of one race wishes to adopt a child of another race. Transracial adoption is a topic that must be confronted and dealt with so that all children in need of a permanent home can get the best family possible.
Foster care and adoption are life decisions that could change a family’s and well as a child’s entire life path. However, they are not well understood by most people in America and if they were it could open up a world of opportunity for aspiring families. Many people just do not think it would be for them due to the myths and horror stories they have heard but really they must be informed on how the process of both care plans actually work and how to become a foster and/or adoptive parent. Now it may not be the best decision for everybody it is still an option that everybody should be informed on. There are many aspects to both foster care and adoption and they are both an intricate process to go through that society needs to be more informed about.
The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (No. 16, 2007) states that about one third of children put into foster care for maltreatment are eventually reunified with the biological parent. This survey also found that African American’s were less likely to be reunified, and in children age seven months to ten years, boys are more likely to be reunified than girls (NSCAW No. 16, 2007). Many studies have been done of reunification of foster care cases and many show slower rates for African American families when compared to Anglo
According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting system, in 2011 there were 104, 236 children waiting to be adopted in the United States (p. 4). Adoption is the legal process an individual or family goes through to gain legal custody of a child in foster care. This child’s parents have lost custody of their child because they have been deemed unfit to raise the child, either because of neglect or abuse. After the child is removed from the horrible situation, he or she is taken by child services and placed in a foster home or with a family member. This system is in place to protect children from further abuse, neglect and trauma. Today, children in foster care are in the system for a very short period of time; there is a push to getting them out of a foster home and transition into a safe, loving and permanent environment. The foster care system is run the way it is because of the implementation of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997.
Many reasons exist as to why the foster system is failing and a major one is the number of children in the program. Although the number of children in the foster care system has decreased about 11% since 2002, “…experts worry that the trend might now go into reverse” (Protecting 47). “In 2008 there were 463,000 children in the foster care system” (47), due to the actions of parents such as abuse, neglect and the use of drugs and/or alcohol can cause a child to be placed in foster care. These actions cause the number of children in the system to increase. In order for this number to decrease dramatically programs must be put in place to help find enough, stable homes for foster children. As a result of the economy, many states have “considered cutting down on child-welfare services, such as benefits for foster parents and the number of social workers they employ” (47). If there is a lack of social workers, it is less likely that a child will be placed in a home quickly. Wi...
During a foster parents training, they are taught to parent children with mental illness. This is good training, no doubt about that. Even so, this training needs to include how to treat race issues, sexuality, and gender. Not all foster parents are equipped with the knowledge on how to parent a transgender child. One article by Cassandra Chaney and Meghan Spell says, "African American children are more likely than Caucasian, Hispanic, and children of other racial/ethnic groups to be poor and thus be reported to public child welfare agencies at twice the rate of Caucasian children" (2). This proves that foster parents with no background in race relations, should take a class. This would overall help the quality of life of foster children who already feel ostracized because they are in foster
According to the International Foster Care Organization “Foster care is a way of providing a family life for children who cannot live with their own parents.”(2004) Foster care is supposed to provide temporary care while parents get help dealing with problems, or to help children or young people through a difficult period in their lives. Children will return home once their parents are able to provide a safe enviorment for them. However if parent are unable to resolve the issues that cause their child in foster care their children may stay in long-term foster care, some may be adopted, and others will move on to live independently. (IFCO, 2004) Foster care has been a problem for many years and although there have been many attempts to improve it; it there still seems to be negatively impacting
...ike. Abandoned children have no background information and it is often impossible to find biological parents. Adopting a transracial child is not for everyone. A lot of patience and love is needed to handle the criticism. There is a high monetary cost, but the reward in the end is priceless. A person must be completely non-bias for the relationship to work in a biracial family. A parent must be able to deal with a sometimes troubled or physically challenged child.
Before having me my parents fostered an African girl, her name was Janine. We still have the photos of her. She was very dark, of the more darker African complexions. As I write this I'm wondering where she may be now. I can't remember why my parents couldn't adopt her but they wanted to. I remember my mum describing how they adored Janine but how heartbroken they were when she was taken out of their care. Now as an adult I look back and understand the hearts and intentions of my parents. The symbolism of them wanting to adopt an African baby speaks volumes. The phrase actions speak louder than words springs to mind. They didn't see colour. It wasn't like they were thinking 'oh, we've got a black baby and people are going to stare at us'. It wasn't a case of they didn't want a child of colour, only a baby with white skin. And I will add this was a good few years ago. I think since then the status regarding transracial adoption has positively grown. The help of a few celebrities adopting non-white ethnicities has probably helped. It's not such a big deal these days and actually can be seen as a bit of a contemporary manoeuvre especially if you're of the progr...
It is more common for these adoptive families to be transracial. Therefore there are two different races within the family. Families of transracial adoptions have many unique qualities because they have two different cultures under one roof. The problem with transracial adoption is the cultural difference between the parents and the child. The family is not prepared to understand the child’s background or the child’s culture. Relatability is also something that the child needs in the household and this would something that this family would lack. Like we talked about in class the child would suffer because they do not have anyone in their family to relate to. A child’s self-esteem would most likely be lower than a child growing up in a same race family. The child does not see anyone in their family that looks like them so they feel as if they are not good enough. It is hard for a child to fully understand as to why they are different from their families and why they were not blessed to look like their family. This creates self-identity issues for the child because they do not know who they should identify with and cannot tell where they fit in. Promotion of acceptance amongst the family would be something that could help the child’s self-esteem and
It's 2015, same sex marriage is legalized in the U.S., yet not all adoption agencies allow homosexual couples to adopt. It is only allowed by law to have homosexuals in a joint adoption in 11 states. Adoption has been around since the 1920’s and has been a way to help orphaned children become a family. Not everyone is willing to adopt, whether it is because they don’t want a child, or they have children of their own, and it is not in their budget to adopt another. In the end, there is still a large number of orphaned children hoping and waiting for a chance to be loved and welcomed by a family.
Adoption has many pros and cons, such as cross-cultural. Cross-cultural in adoption is when a child and the adopting parents are two different races or come from two different cultures. Cross-cultural adoption is not the same thing as interracial adoption. Some people say that you should not do this because the child may not feel like they fit in with the family. Others say it is great that the child found a loving family that will be getting taken care of. The caring person would agree that it is good and okay to adopt a child with a different race or culture.