Books & Articles

The Essence Dialogue: Who Should Adopt Our Children?
By Lise Funderburg

January 1998

Is transracial adoption a form of "cultural genocide," as the National Association of Black Social Workers once claimed, or is it a healthy, hopeful solution for children trapped in a dysfunctional foster-care system? In this ESSENCE Dialogue, law professors Ruth-Arlene W. Howe of Boston College and Randall Kennedy of Harvard University grapple with an issue that affects thousands of our children's futures.



Randall Kennedy: Also, the need for such adoptions suggests some of the deep problems—disorganization and social failures— within the Black community. Why do so many Black kids need homes? To some extent there's shame and embarrassment about that. Those feelings are not limited to Black communities; Korea has made it more difficult for foreigners to adopt because of some of the same impulses.

R.W.H.: Randy, I think you're putting too much onus on a breakdown within the Black community without placing responsibility on adoption agencies for their insufficient outreach to and involvement in the community. A National Urban League study identified 3 million Black households interested in adopting—so even if there are 40,000 Black children legally free to be adopted, there's a potential pool of more than 75 Black families for every foster-care child. Why, then, don't the matches get made? It's my contention that the breakdown sometimes is in agencies that do not have large numbers of Black workers—workers who are familiar with and competent in making the assessments of Black families—so people don't get through the door.

R.K.: To the extent that that's true, it's a terrible problem. The most important thing is to get children who need families into the hands of families.




ESSENCE: But Professor Howe, you believe there can be an evaluation for what you've called "cultural competency"?




R.K: Let's assume everything you're saying is true. What does that have to do with the subject?

R.W.H.: Something's going on that discourages and discounts Black families that try to adopt. Let me shift this discussion slightly. I've got a question for you, Randy. How do you respond to the fact that in this society today, sometimes one is still physically at risk simply because one is Black?

R.K.: Oh, I agree that's true.


R.K.: I'm willing to assume that anybody willing to take on the responsibility of raising a child is going to do the right thing by that child.

R.W.H.: Ooooh, but if they don't have—

R.K.: Why assume such great knowledge among Black people?

R.W.H.: Let's focus on the White family that steps forward.



R.K.: No. I wouldn't want to do that. What would the correct answer be, by the way? Let's assume some applicants say, "I live in an all-White neighborhood." Under your system, would those people be precluded from raising a Black child? What about Black applicants who live in all-White neighborhoods?


R.K.: And if they say, "No, we like where we live"?


R.K.: And if they gave answers you didn't like, you would prohibit them from having the child?


R.K.: —which is terrible! That's precisely the problem!

R.W.H.: Randy, wait a minute.

R.K.: So you're the Czarina of How to Raise Children?!

R.W.H.: Randy, would you please be quiet so I can finish the sentence? What is happening already is that when predominantly White workers make assessments of Black applicants, those applicants don't get through the door.

R.K.: And that's terrible! But you want to hold Black kids hostage in order to, one, force the hiring of more Black social workers and, two, to have power in this domain! That's what you want to do!

R.W.H.: Randy, stop ranting.

R.K.: What's animating you, at least to a large extent, is a resentment against these White people. Am I wrong?

R.W.H.: Some of this doesn't warrant a response. You don't hold any child hostage, but it is reasonable to wrestle with how to determine who would be most appropriate to raise the child. And I want to point out that the children in foster care about whom we hear so much are not the ones most people go looking to adopt.

ESSENCE: Are you referring to the difference between older and "special needs" children versus healthy infants?


ESSENCE: And "private" generally indicates greater cost to the adoptive parents?

R.W.H.: That's right.


R.K.: Delay in placement is bad for kids. The more delay, the more difficulty, ultimately, in placing kids. As Professor Howe rightly stated, a newborn's going to be attractive to more people than a kid who's 4 years old. Another problem is that race-matching presupposes the preferability of same-race families. It suggests that it is better to have the Blacks with the Blacks, the browns with the browns, the Whites with the Whites. ESSENCE: And that's not true?

R.K.: It's not a question of being true or not. I don't think it's a good system. Certainly the government should not privilege same-race families over multirace families.

ESSENCE: Professor Kennedy, as you've noted elsewhere, this society remains a pigmentocracy. Is there no way in which African-American parents, on average, might be better equipped to help Black children navigate that?

R.K.: First, let's suppose it's true that, on average, Black parents would be better able. I would still stand by my position. We prohibit race discrimination in employment, even though it is true as a generality that White people are better educated, live longer and have fewer problems with the police. For these reasons, an employer might want to employ White people over Black people, but we don't allow that. We demand individualized assessment without considering race in the calculation. So too should we have an antidiscrimination policy with respect to children. Second, I don't buy that Black parents are more capable, frankly. Parenting is a mysterious thing, and I'm willing to assume that people will parent in all sorts of ways. Imagine a Black couple has adopted young people now in their twenties and thirties are very troubled. They don't know who they are.

R.K.: Aren't there Black kids brought up by Black parents who are troubled and don't know who they are?

R.W.H.: That's not the issue.

R.K.: But you said these people are troubled...


ESSENCE: Can this transracial experience ever be beneficial?




R.K.: Now, we both agree on that.