Opinion: Race Matters in Adoption

Occasionally, we will link to opinions on aspects of adoption and child welfare that you may never have thought about. This opinion piece written by an adult adoptee discusses how race does matter in adoption.

This blog post really frames many issues surrounding transracial and trans-national adoptions.

Home studies,privilege and other stuff
[Land of Gazillion Adoptees 3/15/12 by Melanie Chung-Sherman, LCSW, PLLC]

I particularly like the lines “This is a system that was originally created out of necessity. The truth is that government systems such as the agencies, facilitators, attorneys, CPS, USCIS, COA and Hague will never make a good parent because they should not be parents in the first place. . .”

However, we at REFORM Talk have a different perspective on permanency. Reformatina states it best in our Tuesday Term: Permanency here and in her followup comment.

Our Tuesday Term Permanency post is best read along with our Tuesday Term: Child-Centered Placement post here. One important line: “Placement decisions should not rest solely on intents of the adoptive parents. ” We talk about long-term placement success versus completion of the adoption. The industry focuses on the latter.

REFORM Puzzle Piece