Racism an issue in U.S. adoptions

Of the many racial injustices that occur in America there is one that is particularly tragic but often unreported: interracial adoptions. The Washington Post reported in January that of the 500,000 children in the U.S. foster home system, more than half are minorities. According to the National Adoption Center, which keeps record of "hard to place children," about 67 percent of such children are black.

The Post also reported that there are only 31 percent of black families waiting to adopt. So the majority of black children awaiting adoption will not be matched with black families. These children are all looking for a stable home with loving parents so that they may live a normal, healthy life. The good news is that such homes with caring parents do exist. The only problem with these families, according to the National Association of Black Social Workers, is that they are white.

The National Association of Black Social Workers staunchly oppose interracial adoption. The group contends that promoting interracial adoptions will dilute the strength of black families and can psychologically harm black children.

They instead prefer that barriers placed by social service agencies, such as income and marital status, be removed so to facilitate adoptions by more black families. According to an article in U.S. News & World Report, the National Association of Black Social Workers go as far as asserting that interracial adoptions are "cultural genocide" and that only black families can provide a black child with the psychological armor needed to fight racial prejudice.

The absurdity of denying adoptive families a child because of the color of their skin is the epitome of racism. This is an issue that requires the immediate attention of the American Civil Liberties Union, Jesse Jackson and the rest of the civil liberties crowd.

The irony is that if there were a "National Association of White Social Workers" and they asserted that black families should not be allowed to adopt white children, every civil rights organization in the nation would denounce them as racist! The argument that allowing white families to adopt black children will cause "psychological scaring" is a farce placed forth by NABSW.

Since 1972, Rita Simon a sociologist at the American University in Washington and Howard Alstein of the University of Maryland have conducted the only long-term study on the subject of interracial adoption.

They have tracked 386 minority children adopted by 200 white families. Their findings show that children had healthy attitudes toward their racial identities and that interracially adopted kids bear no psychological scars.

Simon concluded, that the "best interests of the child" would be met if state agencies would move "without regard to race." Simon also stated that, "Transracial adoption causes no special problems and may, in fact, produce black and white adults with special interpersonal talents and skills at bridging cultures."

White parents represent 67 percent of families waiting to adopt, although only 26 percent of the children waiting to be adopted are white.

So the adoption problem for white families is the opposite of that of black families. Restricting the white families from adopting based solely on race is indeed a tragedy and should not be allowed to occur in the United States.