The New York Times
August 17, 2006
Overcoming Adoption 's Racial Barriers
By Lynette Clemetson and Ron Nixon
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Ms. Brockway and Mr. Timble decided to adopt after a physically and emotionally wrenching first pregnancy – their daughter was delivered at 25 weeks. They did not want to deal with the long wait for a white infant, and adopting from overseas did not appeal to them.
"Some people see Asian or other ethnicities closer to white, more acceptable, easier." said Ms. Brockway. a teacher. "That's just not us. We feel like we have the open arms and minds to be a good match to an African-American child."
In practice, however, decisions about adoption placements are still influenced by racial considerations, many families say. Since 1994. white prospective parents have filed, and largely won, more than two dozen discrimination lawsuits, according to state and federal court records. Many more disputes have been settled in arbitration.
The loaded jumble of viewpoints and anxieties related to transracial adoptions of black children are complex and often contradictory.
Rhetoric around the issue has softened considerably since the National Association of Black Social Workers, in 1972, likened whites adopting black children to "cultural genocide." The group removed the genocide reference from its policy statement in 1994, but it still recommends same-race placements. And organizations like the Child Welfare League have argued in recent years that while race need not be the primary consideration in placements, it should not be disregarded.
Many blacks still worry that white families cannot equip black children to navigate the country's complicated racial landscape.
“Adoption, like everything else in this country, gets filtered through the lens of race," said Joseph Crumbley, a black social worker in Philadelphia and a consultant on transracial adoptions. "For blacks, it is about how comfortable can whites be in dealing with the issue of race when their race is in conflict with the race of the child."
At the same time, some blacks view international adoptions by whites as a slight to black children in need of permanent and stable homes. "I can't help but wonder why Angelina and Brad can't adopt an African-American baby here with so many in need, " said Ishia Granger, 36, a black friend of Ms. Brockway.
More than 45,000 black children were waiting to be adopted from foster care in 2004. There are no reliable national figures for private adoptions.
Advocates of black adoption criticize adoption agencies as not doing enough to recruit black families. But one strategy agencies use, in part, to recruit black families - reducing fees for African-American adoptions - seems to some critics like a literal devaluing of black children. And while current adoption laws impose penalties on federally financed agencies that discriminate, there are no penalties for failure to identify black adoptive families.
Both black and white families, at times, feel discriminated against. Charlene White, a black adoptive mother in Richmond, VA, said that when she and her husband, Malachi, began the process in 1997, a counselor asked them about drug and criminal records - question a white couple they knew who were also adopting were not asked.
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