According to US Weekly, Angelina Jolie, who gained a very modest 25 pounds while pregnant with baby Shiloh, is already planning to adopt again. "They say they definitely plan on adding to their family, but they're likely to adopt the next time around," says US Weekly's Katrina Szish.
Look I'm all for interracial adoption, even though many people of color are not thrilled. As long as it doesn't devolve into the forced adoptions situations faced by American Indians in the early 20th century, I'm cool with it. But, the child needs some oil in her hair!
"The idea that public or private child welfare officials would homogenize the varied African American community and then impose that homogenized stereotype upon white adults seeking to provide children with adoptive homes or foster care is a frightening prospect." - It's About The Children, Stupid
"Others believe there's more of a middle ground. The North American Council on Adoptable Children in St. Paul, Minn., founded by transracial adopters who acknowledge that race does play a role in a child's identity and development, tries to educate parents about adopting transracially. It also works to break down barriers that have long discouraged minorities from adopting." - Fight over mixed-race adoptionsThis forum is open to all who are interested in hair care for their African-American, Black, or bi-racial adopted child(ren). Whether your experienced or not, come share in our hair discussions,and learn how to care for your childs hair, offer advice, or share hairstyles. - Yahoo Group FAYTH suggests for the Jolie-Pitt clan
Jan and Joe Rigert began adopting African-American and mixed-race children in 1962. Jan was a founding member of the Open Door Society, one of many new parent-led organizations founded during the 1960s to promote the adoptions of special needs and hard-to-place children. “Our family was not conceived or calculated to prove anything,” Joe wrote in All Together, a book about their family. “A multiracial family, by its very nature, is an experiment in human relationships.” - Harriet Fricke, “Interracial Adoption: The Little Revolution,” 1965
Not that the opposition is WHOLLY wrong!
The influential National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) has taken this stance, suggesting that interracial adoption is a form of "genocide" and that "black children in white homes are cut off from the healthy development of themselves as black people." "Same race makes sense because it is what the child is accustomed to, what causes the least disruption in the child's life," says Toni Oliver, a chairman of the organization. "Oftentimes when people are looking at 'love is all it takes,' they seem to overlook the impact race has on our society. Somehow when it's a case of adoption, race suddenly doesn't seem to matter anymore.
Never getting adopted has been shown to have a negative impact on children. After aging out of foster care, 27% of males and 10% of females were incarcerated within 12 to 18 months. 50% were unemployed, 37% had not finished high school, 33% received public assistance, and 19% of females had given birth to children.
WTF?
This has brought about a re-definition of some black children. Those born of black-white alliances are no longer black as decreed by immutable law and social custom for centuries. They are now black-white, inter-racial, bi-racial, emphasizing the whiteness as the adoptable quality; a further subtle, but vicious design to further diminish black and accentuate white. - National Association of Black Social Workers, “Position Statement on Trans-Racial Adoption,” September 1972
See, I agree that there is a "vicious design to diminish black and accentuate white". I believe there is always an attempt to mix in the minority, all the better to swallow us whole.
By helping the currently non-culturally identified (nci) understand the loss of identity as a negative, perhaps, perhaps...more will understand that the melting pot of america is what is killing it.
Respect for identity = Respecting other identities.
Once I had a friend who didn't think of me as black. Quickly, I had to correct her. And over the years of our friendship, she began to understand what it was to be a black among whites.The way people were rude with service before I said a word, how rich Westwood whites would run me off the sidewalk (no moment of letting a person pass, just assuming that i'd move!), how by my looks alone I was noted as "black" and less of a person.
So when it comes to transracial adoptions, I see other bridges being built. Future leaders like me, as well as loving parents who care more than no care at all.
Still, each adoptive parent should be educated in theses issues, THEY MUST BE conscious of the need to embrace all cultures (their own as well!) in order to develop healthy kids. And being racist or racially insensitive should be considered THE SAME AS CHILD ABUSE.
The current position from the NABSW:
The Indian Child Welfare Act has emphasized, for close to thirty years, that Native American children be placed within their tribe or the Native American community before being considered for placement in other communities. The cornerstone of this legislation supports the notion of the importance of culture in the lives of Native American children. IEPA, and ASFA seem to deny the importance of culture in the lives of children of African ancestry.
Damn, their stance is quite convincing, no?
