Born In USA; Adopted In Canada

[noamnety]

from 60 minutes:

"The conventional wisdom is that if you are looking to adopt that perfect baby, a healthy infant, you will wait years and pay tens of thousands of dollars. You may have to go to Eastern Europe, Latin America or China.

But what if you were told there are hundreds of healthy newborns that private adoption agencies are struggling to find homes for, right here in the United States, who are available within a few weeks of being born.

They’re black or mixed-race infants. With an estimated 2 million American families looking to adopt, it may surprise you where these babies are ending up...

(snip)

"I think that it's an embarrassment that Americans, with all of the wealth and all of the things that are going on here, that we cannot place our own children," says Johnson, who believes that adoption agencies should work harder to find American families for these children, and especially black American families."


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/11/60minutes/main673597.shtml

[XOKCowboy]

1. Doesn't surprise me a bit...

Fundies and Pro-Lifers are only concerned that children are born. It's like Carlin said, once they're born they're on their own.

It's the height of hypocrisy.

[noamnety]

2. I'm surprised

I hear so many people going overseas to adopt, and I knew there were older or handicapped kids they didn't want to be bothered with, but I didn't know there were newborns here in the states that they don't want because they are black. Or that agencies don't tell them about? It's just so amazing.

[dsc]

3. This is the fault of idiotic adoption standards

and outrageous private fees for the most part. An assist goes to the demonization of interracial adoption. The fact is that many blacks are simply priced out of the private adoption market. Add to that the pressure to not permit interracial adoption and you have this mess.

[deadparrot]

4. Yes,

I don't like the idea of abortion, but the pro-birthers who whine about "Why can't they put the baby up for adoption!?" generally piss me off. There are plenty of children who need homes and love, but many people don't give a rat's ass about them because they're not white and/or 100% healthy.

It makes ill, thinking about those poor kids.

[Caria]

5. The African American birthparents

who were interviewed by 60 Minutes explained that they selected a white Canadian couple OVER a wealthier African-American (U.S.) couple to adopt their baby. There is a widespread perception - not just among African-American birthparents - that the U.S. is the most racist of all Western developed countries. Many African-American birthparents, like those interviewed by Leslie Stahl, deliberately select adoptive parents in other countries for that reason.

Also, I did not hear any mention of this on the show, but this particular adoption agency, "The Open Door," (like many others in the U.S.) defines its mission as "finding Christian adoptive parents" for children. People who are not regular church-goers need not apply. And often (though I do not know about this particular agency), people from "liberal" Christian churches will not be approved as parents either.

[noamnety]

7. It sounds like there are secondary causes

And that's good to know. In part, it's good to know because we need to hold the forced birth crowd accountable for that. Instead of protesting health clinics, they could spend their time fighting against racism, if that's a reason some children don't get adopted. And they could fight for more open adoption policies that don't exclude people who aren't neofundies, since that policy obviously isn't working.

[shrike]

9. That's not the reason they gave in the story, though

The birthparents wanted an open adoption, with pictures, progress reports, etc. The American family was not willing to do that, so they went with the Canadian family.

[noamnety]

10. So why not put efforts towards that?

If that's a stumbling block to adoption, that adoptive parents aren't willing to have contact with parents who want it, then they should work to address that attitude.

[shrike]

12. Don't quite understand your point

They were considering two families, only one of which agreed to an open adoption. So I think their criteria was not so much race, but a chance to retain some contact with the child.

[noamnety]

13. yes, I understand that

and I didn't mean to address the question at you, it was more rhetorical.

But if that adoption agency has had consistent problems placing children - and it sounds like they have, or they wouldn't have to export them - they ought to identify the problems, even if it means taking a hard look at themselves. And then work within their religious community, if they are a religious organization, to address those problems.

If church leaders can motivate people to go out and scream at women entering a health clinic, surely they can motivate people to adopt children, adopt children even if they are asked to keep in touch with the birth parents, and adopt children even if they are of a different color. And surely they can motivate them to help fight racism, by doing things like forming partnerships to do volunteer work with churches that are in ethnically different parts of town. It's a whole lot easier to be racist from a distance, rather than when you are passing a hammer back and forth between a black/white person building houses for the poor.

[shrike]

14. I get it

Yes, it would be nice if they could use their influence to accomplish these things, but too many people, it seems, use their religious beliefs to reinforce their own prejudices. This problem seems to be institutional as well as individual.

I'm pro open-adoption myself (have seen a few instances where it worked) and also think it would be wonderful if more people of color adopted. I'm sure the cost has something to do with it. My cousin adopted a biracial child (half Puerto Rican) and they will probably not be able to afford to adopt another. (They are white.) Perhaps some sort of tax credit, or financial incentive, would help.

[SuffragetteSal]

6. 30 years ago we adopted a hard to place child

the only thing that made this child 'hard to place' was the fact of his biracial background. Out of a dozen or so parents in our pre adoption study group, only two of us asked for a hard to place child of any race, the others wanted Caucasian females. My husband and I truly believed that in 30 years or less this would no longer be a problem and these needy children would not have the trouble they once had finding a loving home.

This 60 minutes piece tonight confirmed that nothing at all has changed..it was disheartening to see the same problem still exist in our country. So when someone tries to argue that racism no longer exist point out the fact that there are children waiting for homes hindered only by color of their skin.

[Modem Butterfly]

8. A few weeks ago I was treated to finding out some of my coworkers

Are anti-choice AND anti-adoption. The reasons ranged from "You don't know what you're going to end up with," to "Don't you want your own child,"

[kwassa]

11. Many liberal white Americans will go to China or the Ukraine first

Sadly, I've seen many people over the years, liberal white Americans, who will go around the world to adopt and never consider adopting a child of color from this country, particularly an African-American child.

This is one of those last bastion areas where racism still exists within people in this country, and an area that is still hardest to resolve.

[Sgent]

15. I've seen some of these...

I know two adoptive couples in this country who went offshore because no adoption agency would work with them in this country -- due to age.

Both couples were financially well off, and would up adopting special needs children, who they were especially well qualified to care for (physicians, psychologists). Due to age however (early 50's) no US adoption agency would work with them.