Considering Race In Adoption Placements

This reaction essay is a response to an article in The Independent, a British newspaper. Article Link: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/adoption-parents-children-ethnic-match-video-boy-orlando-clark-a9236981.html


As I was searching the internet (the SWK 355 Website) for potential articles to look at and research for ourselves, I came across quite a few articles that caught my eye. As I am interested in becoming an adoption specialist with my degree, I am drawn to articles that contain adoption information. The article I came across while browsing the site was, Children waiting for adoptive parents need love, not a perfect ethnic match. I think this article mainly got my attention because I believe that this is a major issue with adoption around the world today. Although this article and case took place in the UK, this is a situation that occurs all over the world. This article made many great points about what should be looked into when finding a potential adoptive family. As I progress in my education, and in one day, my career, I hope that I can help make a change to the discrimination that comes about when adopting. 

This article starts out by stating that a family in the UK was awarded £120,000 ($148,524 in USD) when a judge found that they were racially discriminated against when trying to adopt a child. This family was rejected because of their Indian ancestry. The adoption agency told this family that only white British pre-school children were available for adoption in the area and they should instead look to adopt from India or Pakistan. Although the couple had successful careers and had secure incomes and a nice home, their ethnicity is what prevented them from being able to adopt. Their ethnicity is what trumped the fact that these individuals were great potential matches to be adoptive parents. This couple has also undergone several rounds of IVF and was unsuccessful and also lost an early pregnancy. The did eventually adopt a child from the US. 

This article also added a case that happened in the US in Michigan as a five-year-old invited his entire kindergarten class to celebrate his adoption with him. Some of his classmates even made statements about how they felt about this child. This case became a viral video and this video shows that the young boy is African American and his adoptive parents are white. This shows that ethnicity is not important to a family and community, it is more important that the boy feels love and security from his parents and other siblings. That is what is important for these children that are being adopted into families. 

It is obvious that adoption agencies would prefer to match ethnicities between children and parents, but to only focus on matching ethnicities could potentially impact that child’s opportunities to be adopted. When agencies try to do this, children are not given the chance to go to a happy, safe, and loving home. That is what is most important for the child, one needs to think about what is best for the child as opposed to matching ethnicities. 

One final point that I would like to add is a quote from the husband. He said, “However matching cultural values and beliefs is just one of many areas that should be assessed when looking at the suitability of adopters to ensure that child’s welfare. It should never be the overriding factor to stop you even being considered— which is what happened to us” (Mander, 2020). 

Overall, I have I always known that discrimination in adoption was very possible and even common. What I want to possibly change about this in the future is to stop making ethnical reasons the main priority as to where a child belongs. I understand that it is important for families to understand the culture that could potentially be added to the family dynamic. I believe the most important aspect is that the child is placed in a home that can provide love, stability, and a safe place. 

Comment

 With more blended families, it is becoming not too uncommon for children of one racial/ethnic identity to have step-parents with different identities. Interracial marriage is also creating more blended families. And as always, there are thousands of international adoptions. All else being equal, as a tertiary consideration, placing children in families with similar ethnic and racial backgrounds may be better, but it rarely makes sense to make this a primary consideration, if we are prioritizing the child’s best interests. There is, however, the interesting case of small groups of indigenous peoples, who may be especially concerned with preserving their culture and identity, and may be especially worried about having children adopted out of their group and into the hegemonic wider society. One issue worth emphasizing is that culture is not in our blood. In some times and places, groups have supplemented their population growth through natural increase (having children) with taking in refugees or even kidnapping young people and young women from other groups and bringing them into their own culture. The idea that you could steal or purchase children from a different group and make them part of your own group was normal. Shared experiences and emotional bonds and social cohesion made tribes and clans, not some shared DNA. In the United States, partly because the culture here incorporated the concept of slavery and the resulting dehumanization of the families that were enslaved, we became obsessed with our genetic heritage and whether we had sub-saharan African ancestry. This continuing obsession with our biological heritage is a cultural attribute that continues to infect our society, and I wonder how many generations must endure this until we have outgrown it.