A Case Against Interracial Adoption

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Recommended: Effects of racial discrimination on society

Black children are disproportionately represented in the foster care system. In the most recent Statistical Abstract published in 2011 by the U.S. Census Bureau, Black children accounted for 15% of the U.S. child population in 2009. In contrast, Black children were at almost 30% of the total number of children in foster care for the same year according to the Department of Health and Human Services 2009 Foster Care report. In addition, there are not enough Black families available to adopt these children. Interracial adoption advocates often hail it as a good solution to address these problems. Interracial adoption is promoted as a major step towards an integrated, unprejudiced, and colorblind society. However, instead of healing the wounds of racism, interracial adoption often contributes to racist ideologies and practices that devalue family relationships in the Black community (Roberts 50). This type of adoption is a surface only solution that fails to dig deeper and address the underlying reasons for the disproportionate representation of Black children in foster care and the lack of minority adoptive parents. This deeper analysis exposes a system of that is very biased against the Black community in the adoption industry. Even when it is altruistic, interracial adoption is mostly detrimental to the Black community because it aids in the breakdown of Black families and the dismissal of the root causes of the circumstances that lead to large numbers of Black children needing to be adopted in the first place. Furthermore, interracial adoption has not made any significant difference in lowering the numbers of Black children in foster care.

Poverty is the primary reason that a disproportionate number of Black children end up in ...

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...006): 97-107. Boston College Law School. Web. 1 May 2012.

Perry, Twila L. "Transracial Adoption and Gentrification: An Essay on Race, Power, Family, and Community." Boston College Third World Law Journal 26.1 (2006): 25-60. Boston College Law School. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.

Roberts, Dorothy. "Adoption Myths and Racial Realities in the United States." Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. Ed. Jane J. Trenka, Julia C. Oparah, and Sun Y. Shin. Cambridge, MA: South End, 2006. 49-56. Print.

United States. Census Bureau. "Table 10: Resident Population by Race, Hispanic Origin, and Age: 2000 and 2009." Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2012. 131st ed. Washington: GPO 2011. Web. 2 May 2012.

United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Child Welfare Information Gateway. Foster Care Statistics 2009. Washington: GPO, 2011. Web. 2 May 2012.

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