Race To The Bottom

For 14 years, the law has been that a child's adoption can't be delayed or denied based on race or nationality. Sounds good to me, but this riles people who feel race should play a central part in our decisions.

So a new report from the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, an advocacy group, claims we're not helping kids when we fail to take these factors into account. This was manna to a bunch of groups who couldn't wait to sign on--the Child Welfare League of America, the Adoption Exchange Association, the National Association of Black Social Workers and Voice for Adoption and the Foster Care Alumni of America.

But even accepting the advocacy group's evidence, they don't seem to have identified a major problem. As The New York Times notes, "[t]he report points out that transracial adoption itself does not produce psychological or other social problems in children, but that these children often face major challenges as the only person of color in an all-white environment, trying to cope with being different."

So they have trouble coping with being different. Like most kids, one way or another.

Here's a spokesperson from the Adoption Institute: "The idea of being color-blind is great, and we’d all like to get there. But the reality is that we live in a very race-conscious society, and that needs to be addressed.” So it's the same solution as always. Our society is too race conscious, so let's pay more attention to race.

The fact is, black kids are disproportionately represented in the pool of potential adoptees. Because of the de-emphasis on race, more are being adopted. If the law were changed, I strongly question if it would be in the best interests of minority children.