Race and Transracial Adoption: The Answer is Neither Simply Black or White nor Right or Wrong Article
Date of Publication:
Recommended Citation
Cynthia Hawkins DeBose and Carla Bradley, Race and Transracial Adoption: The Answer is Neither Simply Black or White nor Right or Wrong, 51 Cath. U. L. Rev. 1227 (2002)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
In this article, the authors examine the crisis in the explosion in the number of children in the foster care system in the United States; and in particular, the effects on African American children. The article applies the interdisciplinary tools of law and counseling to analyze current structure and policy of transracial adoption and its implications for African American children.
The authors argue that transracial adoptions and the color-blind approach, which is encouraged and required by federal statute, do not serve the best interests of the majority of African American children in foster care who are awaiting permanent homes. Rather, the two-pronged approach of increased recruitment of African American, non-kin adoptive families in addition to an in-depth focus on kinship care and adoption will more readily decrease the number of children living in foster care.
