The ethics of inter-racial adoption

Here in South Africa where we have so many Aids orphans and vulnerable children you get cases of white families that adopt black children. It's not common practice, but it's not unusual either anymore to see white parents with a black child or children. White lesbian couples, also adopt black children.

I sometimes wonder if inter-racial adoption is a good thing or not, I have certain reservations, but ultimately I do think it's a good thing. In South Africa there is not a strong culture of adoption among black families - this is something that child welfare organisations have been trying to change. So if people are willing to adopt, it is more than likely going to be a white family. Sometimes they adopt because they can't have their own children, but it's just as common to have white people who already have their own children to adopt a black orphan.

The main reservation I have about inter-racial adoption is that due to circumstances the black children that are adopted end up losing all contact with their own culture and heritage, they speak English and are unable to speak any African languages. I think this must be pretty hard to deal with growing up, and I'm sure that it would affect your sense of identity, and self-image and lead to a lot of painful questioning and soul searching.

On the other hand there's a part of me that feels it has to be better to lose your culture, but gain a loving family,  a degree of material comfort, stability and an education. Surely in this regard, it's better to have love and security and lose your black African culture and language. I don't know what the answers are, ideally it would be great if you could still have both - and are able to educate the child to speak their own language - maybe in school, or by a private tutor (and take lessons yourself). But even so, they wouldn't really be part of their culture. Unfortunately, the reality in South Africa means that it usually ends up being an either/or situation, and black adopted children end up not being able to speak their own languages.

Somehow though, growing up in a difficult family situation myself, I can't help feeling that love and security wins the day. If you grow up with love and stability, you have a better of chance of gaining the tools to deal with cultural alienation. The alternative is to grow up with nothing at all, no love, no education and a life of poverty.

Comments

[Daan]

I don't know about uncommon, and though I cannot quote any statistics, here in Randburg I see a lot of white families with what I can only assume is their adopted black kids.

The culture is a difficult one, and one can only hope the the families in question has their own way of dealing with that, however where do you draw the line, what about coloured kids? Black culture is in any case being eroded and replaced by empty Western consumer culture.

[Barbara Billingsley]

Eduardo V. Genao(Thanks to Ben Jackson for alerting us to this story!) A magnet school in Hartford, CT has been stirring up a ton of controversy after its principal Eduardo V. Genao (pictured) allegedly coerced several mixed students to change their racial identity to white so that the school would qualify for more funding. Genao claims he asked for every student’s permission, but most deny this, and say that he guilted them into identifying as white for the good of the school:

Genao conceded that he asked teachers to help him identify biracial students and that he called the students to his office. In the course of discussing their racial classifications, he acknowledged, he spoke with them about the school’s funding. “I did indicate to the students and the parents how the formula works,” he said.

In fact, state guidelines tie the funding of magnet schools that opened before this year to residency, not race… to qualify for magnet school funding, schools must draw at least 30 percent of their students from the suburbs - a standard Sport & Medical Sciences Academy meets.

Race becomes a factor, for schools established before this year, in regard to compliance with the Sheff vs. O’Neill school desegregation settlement. It says 28 percent of a magnet school’s students must be white in order to count toward reducing racial isolation. With just 89 white students in a population of 400, or 22 percent, Sport & Medical Sciences falls far short.

Genao, who is in his first year at the magnet school and is new to Hartford, said he did not realize the state law linking funding to racial quotas applies only to new schools and not to established schools such as his. He denied, though, that the change in the students’ racial classifications was linked to money.

This case has drawn attention to the massive inconsistencies that still exist in the ways schools collect racial data. Of course, this can all be traced to the Department of Education’s delays in implementing federal guidelines that require it, along with all federal agencies, to allow people to check all that apply, instead of just one box. (To learn more about this issue, check out our FAQ with Census expert Professor Ann Morning.)

Personally, I think this should be a wake-up call to us mixed folks that our ambiguous status can be exploited for others’ financial and/or political gain. Another good example of this is Ward Connerly’s ongoing campaign to eradicate all racial categories. He uses sob stories of mixed people who are forced to pick one box as an illustration of why racial categories don’t make sense. But what some people fail to realize is that this initiative is extremely dangerous because in effect, there would be no way of tracking civil rights violations or racial discrimination.

[Robert Benvenuti]

While one understands the desire to pass on one's culture to the younger generation, it is in many ways an impossible task. One hears of more and more (unadopted) black children (I think they are referred to as "Model C's") who barely speak their cultural language but prefer to converse in English. As an italian immigrant, my children do not speak Italian nor understand much about the culture. Is that something that worries me that much ? Not really, they are more South African now and they will define their own culture. If we are concerned about culture then surely this should not be just a race thing (Whites adopting black babies). If the cultural argument was to be adopted, then surely a Zulu family should not be able to adopt a Pedi child. I agree with the original post, giving a child a loving home is the best thing you can do for them, irrespective of the colour of the parents or what language they speak.

[Shamiso]

It is important to note that whilst black families usually do not FORMALLY adopt children most do so informally for a short or extended time. Today and in centuries past, black families across the globe have parented the children of nuclear and distant relatives when the parents were unable to care for them due to death, work/school travel, illness, etc. The children who slip through the cracks so to speak usually do so because poverty prevents families from uniting with and/or supporting the parent-less children.

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