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Adoption And RaceWhat role does race play in adoption? Not the race of the child, but rather the race of the person or couple who is adopting. Has your race ever been a factor (not necessarily in a negative way either) in your adoption process? I asked this question at our adoption forums and I’ll open it up to our blog visitors as well. Feel free to answer in a comment here, or on your own blog. If you answer at your blog, let me know in a comment here so I can link to your answer. Here are the thoughts of three of our adoption forum members; 1: Our race(s) have been an issue in our process; not a bad one, but an issue nonetheless. My DH is Hispanic, and I’m black (from Africa originally). We were hoping to adopt a biracial, Hispanic or African American child. Our races, we believe, and the type of child we were hoping to adopt, made us very desirable for the agencies we contacted while researching. The reason they gave was that “birth mothers were always looking for such couples”, or something to that effect. I can’t, to be honest, say that we felt bad about it. Many promised that we would match quicker (sure!)… this was our first adoption, so what did we know? Anyway, we did match in 3 1/2 months, and the mother of our daughter did say that our cultural background was a huge plus for her. I wonder, however, if our choice of race had been Asian, or Caucasian, how long we would have waited…perhaps much longer than 3 1/2 months. 2: I’ve written in posts before about how our own race (both seemingly Caucasian) was a factor in our adoption journey. Early on……when we first started the adoption process, our race was an issue—and not a good one, as far as we were concerned. In 1979……..going into an adoption agency—the ONLY adoption agency— in Okinawa,Japan, and telling the caseworker conducting our homestudy that we really wanted to adopt a baby who was ‘Black/Okinawan’……was enough to literally make her drop her pen to the floor and say to us: “YOU would be WILLING to adopt a black child?!?!?!?!?” And to that, the caseworker said that this would have to go in front of their agency board. When we returned several days later for the next interview, she told us: “We’ve discussed this and concluded that Mr. X (my husband)…..while your complexion is darker; Mrs. X (that was me), you are much to fair complected to adopt a black child.” So, what did this agency do? They allowed us to adopt—either through Korea, the Philippines, or wait for a baby from Okinawa (which was a very long wait). We had to wait 12 months before we could apply to adopt again. We did. As soon as the one year mark came, we made an appointment with the agency to adopt another baby. We already knew we would want another Asian baby, simply because we felt our first child would feel some sort of bond by having another ‘non-white’ person in the family. We sat with another caseworker to update the home study. Her comment? “…of course NOW you’ll want a white baby, won’t you???!!!” (grinning with anticipation) Needless to say, they still didn’t get it. We were then told we didn’t have enough time left on the island (my husband was Air Force), and would have to extend our stay there because the waiting list was so long. (Frankly, I don’t remember why we didn’t go through Korea again, except that it would take the extended time to do so.) We told the agency we’d think about it. As we left the agency, I told my husband that there just had to be another way. There was. I was finishing my bachelor’s degree while we lived on the island, and through connections there, we actually found our next baby. That’s another story; and a good one at that. :nod In the end, we flew home on the date we were originally supposed to…without extended time. We left with two babies….one that was 2yrs old; the other that was 8months old. One born in Korea; the other born in Japan. We’ve had other negative scenarios concerning our race and adoption; but I believe these were the worst ones of all. By the way, we’ve gone on to adopt three more babies. All African American. 3: As an interracial (AA/CC) couple, it seemed to us that adoption was always a very short wait. Even though we are not a young couple (second marriage for both of us), we never waited more than a couple of months for a placement and sometimes weren’t waiting at all, but were called or presented with situations. Our son’s Caucasian foster parents, who live in Michigan, had a very difficult time with the adoption of their daughter 25 years ago. She has Down Syndrome and is biracial. She was one of many, many infants placed in this outstanding foster home. Because she had a heart condition, they were told she likely would not live through heart surgery. Foster mom fed her with an eye dropper to get her strong enough for surgery, loved and nursed her through two surgeries. When she became healthy, the foster parents decided that, although they had never desired to adopt any of their foster children, they were so bonded with this child, they requested to adopt her. ALL OF THE SUDDEN, the agency said there was a black couple who wanted to adopt her. They virtually DUG UP a family to adopt this child because they were so against interracial adoption. Foster family got the ACLU involved, were on numerous talk shows, created their own alliance against racial preference in adoption, and WON THE CASE. Their daughter is now nearly 24 and doing very well. Things have come a long way, but I still hear of cases where biases are held by agencies/social workers regarding race in adoption. Related Posts: 5 CommentsLeave a comment |
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Hello my name is joseph bates. i am in the marine corps and me and my wife are new here to the island of okinawa. I have a 16 month old daughter. and after a couple miscarages we decided we would like to adopt. we would like to adopt a boy since we already have a girl. we dont really care what race just a boy preferably between 1-3 years of age that needs a good home. we dont know of any addoption agencys on the island so if you could help us out i would appreciate it.
sincerly joseph bates.
Hi Joseph! Congratulations on your decision to adopt. You and your wife must be excited and I’m sure you have a lot of questions. May I suggest joining our adoption forums? You’ll find a lot of support there.
I have a beautiful biracial birth daughter. I have never hidden the fact that I would love another child/children, however I am in my late 40’s, so was considering other options. This is my first step in what will hopeful be another journey in the life of my family, my daughter and I ! A friend that was formally stationed in Okinawa spoke of a home for mixed children there on the island and was explaining that there is always the need for parents to adopt . I was told at one time is had a name that contained the word red? Do you or anyone you know , have any further information( either personal experiences or otherwise) , contact information or requirements. I am still about a year out from being in a position to proceed, however I want to make sure I am working in the direction that would allow this hopeful possibility. I also want to know as much information so that I can prepare for what may lie ahead. Thanks for your time and information .
Hello Pamela! Give me some time and I’ll ask at our adoption forums. With the upcoming holidays it may take a while to get an answer but I’ll post here as soon as I know.
Hello.
I’m one of the members from the forums of Forever Parents. I hope that what follows will be helpful to both Pamela and Joseph Bates.
My husband and I were stationed on Okinawa, Japan for three years. It was during this time we adopted our first two babies—one from Korea, the other from Japan. Both are now grown and on their own. I also attended and graduated from the University of Maryland while there.
While attending U of M……one of my class projects was to visit one of the Orphanages on the island. I went with about six other classmates; and at the time, I was told it could be very difficult to find the orphanages because the Japanese gov’t didn’t like to admit much that such places existed. I have to admit, it was difficult to find and very tucked away from plain sight.
There, I learned that babies and older children would/could be placed by biological parents and basically live there–whether any further contact from the biologicals or not—-to grow up into adulthood. I have to admit, this was back in 1980 and perhaps things have changed? But, seriously, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they hadn’t.
Further, I can speak from experience that at the time we adopted our second child (Japanese) we were told by the adoption agency (on island) that it was possible for the Japanese (Okinawans) to place a baby/child into gov’t care (an orphanage) and simply make it impossible for anyone—even the nationals—to adopt those children! Again, this is dated info; but as I’ve researched adoption through Japan for others, I come to a brick wall and see that adopting from Japan can be very difficult to do.
When we were stationed there, it WAS difficult to find *the agency*—and there was only ONE agency available to work with! As I recall, it wasn’t too far from the Navy Hospital (I know the name has changed since then as they always change the names often).
They were AA themselves and I was told they were considered ‘desirable’ because of this.
It was called, ISAO…..International Social Assistance of Okinawa. Back then, it was run by the Okinawans, but they had a couple of American caseworkers.
And yes, Pamela, there was a need then to adopt multi-racial babies/children. We had friends who came to the island with three children (biological) and left with six!
However, back then at least, it was very difficult for any CC (caucasian) person to adopt any AA or AA/any other ethnicity baby. We simply weren’t allowed to do this; but they DID allow us to adopt from Korea and Japan….like the baby would look like us somehow—go figure!
I suspect it may still be difficult to adopt while on Okinawa; but surely it’s continued to happen? For Mr. Bates, you might try contacting your base church pastor or base legal services. They surely have some info about this. As for Pamela, continue to educate yourself about this area and keep current with what’s happening. I suspect it could be very difficult to do if you’re not stationed there to teach or do military duty; but perhaps there are other ways too…..
At any rate, here is a link to the only info I’ve been able to find as of late.
http://www.issj.org/index-e.htm
I hope it might help either of you in some way.
Sincerely,
Linny