Transracial Adoption Research Paper

Transracial Adoption: A look into Black, White, & Right.
Transracial adoption has become a very compelling and interesting topic over the past century. Transracial adoption is defined as the adoption of children of one race or culture to parent(s) of another race or culture. Transracial adoption started around the 1960’s after World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam war ended leaving many children abandoned and homeless resulting in a vast increase in the number of available children for adoption. (Hollingsworth, 1998; Silverman, 1993). As a result, public agencies in the United States experienced an increase in the number of transracial adoption from approximately 1,000 in 1995 to 8,000 in 2001 (Hansen & Simon, 2004). In 2011, more

The controversy at large, concerns White parents' intentions for adopting children of color and whether White parents have the ability to properly understand and assist in the skills needed to help a child of color in developing a healthy ethnic identity and the necessary skills to cope with racism in today’s society. Transracial adoption has become increasingly more common over the years, and is still catching a lot of attention all over the world today. Thou, along with the increasing interest and awareness of transracial adoption, on can assume, that in return the arguments and concerns against transracial adoption are continuously increasing as well. Although there are many arguments against transracial adoption, Transracial adoption provides a child with a second chance at a normal life, the ability to grow and develop into the person they themselves inspire to be. Transracial adoption also helps to reduce prolonged stays associated with African American children in foster homes, and helps to protect the child from developing negative, psychological disorders that are linked with children having long stays in foster

Does the problem lay within the lack of minority parents interested in adoption or something much bigger? Many believe adoption agencies have set the standards and requirements expected for prospective parents far too high for that of African American decent to reach. These standards are in the range to favor the white families in regards to salary, education achievements, and place of residence. causing the score for black applicant to be much lower than white applicants. Many believe they have used this as a device to “screen out” the African American parents wishing to adopt. Written in the Position Statement regarding transracial adoption it is stated that “Black families can be found when agencies alter their requirements, levels of approach, and change their definition of what is considered a suitable family” (NABSW.) Many could question why there is a remarkable difference in the number of white parents adopting than African American parents. The NABSW believe that adoption agencies have always catered to “middle-class” white people, and have done so even more because of the decreased number of white children available for adoption, and the large amount of African Americans still available in hopes to motivate them into adopting a child of color. In reality, the standards set for prospective parents to adopt or foster a child are not set with