Word: racial
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Should adoption agencies discriminate by race, or even by a person's racial sensitivity? According to current U.S. law, no. Since 1996, it has been illegal to consider race when determining whether families are suitable to raise adopted children - the law was intended to increase adoptions of black children, who are disproportionately represented in the foster care system, by making it easier for whites to take them home. But a new study suggests that approach is short-sighted. "Color-blind" adoption, the report contends, allows some white parents - who may not be mentally ready or have the appropriate social tools...
Overall, the new study found, regardless of the race of their adoptive parents, black adopted children were no different from other kids in levels of self-esteem. But, the authors write, "black children had a greater sense of racial pride when their parents acknowledged racial identity, moved to integrated neighborhoods, and provided African American role models. Black children whose white parents minimized the importance of racial identity were reluctant to identify themselves racially." But is it necessarily catastrophic to eschew a strong racial identity? Not everybody thinks so. "All adopted children face challenges with being adopted," says R. Richard Banks...
...less likely to be he-men or girly girls. But you could argue that that's a good thing to not have such starkly defined gender differences. It's a question of what counts as a good sexual identity." Treating parents differently because they want to adopt across racial lines would suggest "there's something abnormal about transracial adoption," says Banks, adding, "mostly these issues reflect our own anxieties about seeing mixed-race families...
...proportion of transracial adoptions has risen only modestly - from 17.2% in 1996 to 20.1% in 2003. Meanwhile, the government has not compelled agencies to recruit foster and adoptive parents who reflect the ethnic make-up of children in the system, even though the law says they must, so racial disparities have persisted within the family services system. Black children are adopted less frequently and more slowly than kids of any other race. Fifteen percent of U.S. children are black, but they account for nearly a third of children in foster care and a third of those awaiting adoption. White children...
Galinsky notes that past studies have arrived at similar conclusions about perception and performance. A 1999 experiment by researchers at Princeton University and the University of Arizona, for example, looked at the way awareness of racial stereotypes impacted athletic ability. That study required a group of university students - half of them black, and the other half white - to play 10 holes of mini-golf. (None of the participants were particularly good golfers.) Researchers found that when students were told that the golf challenge was a test of "natural athletic ability," black students performed better than whites. When told...