An Outrageous Racial Standard

All children, regardless of race or ethnicity, deserve a loving family and home. That’s obvious, right? So why were Dan and Mary Zeidman rejected when they tried to adopt an African-American child in San Diego? Because they are white. Bill and Patricia Mandel, another California couple, also white, are encountering the same problem in attempting to adopt a black foster child, in their care since her birth. Race, pure and simple, is the barrier both couples face.

At issue is California’s restrictive, race-matching adoption policies. All 50 states insisted on same-race or same-ethnicity adoption placements until Texas enacted a law last month requiring that race be given no more weight than any other factor in an adoption.

California law requires a 90-day search for adoptive parents of the same racial and ethnic background as a child. But in administering the law, counties’ child-welfare agencies often preemptively deny requests for trans-racial adoptions or take forever to find same-race adoptive parents, leaving children bouncing from one foster home to another. As a child ages, his or her chance of adoption diminishes.

Couples like the Zeidmans and Mandels are part of a movement to modify state laws and county policies on trans-racial adoptions. Race should not be the defining factor, especially when adoptive families need to be found for the 79,000 children in California--500,000 nationwide--who are in foster care. About 40% are African-Americans, both in the state and across the nation. The U.S. Senate will consider a bill to loosen race-matching requirements.

The Assn. of Black Social Workers has long maintained that trans-racial adoptees grow up confused about their identities and unprepared for racism. But social workers also know that adoption is preferable to long-term foster care. So although adoptive parents must be sensitive to racial differences between themselves and an adopted child, such differences alone should not block adoptions. Nor should they discourage prospective parents from exploring the adoption of children whose appearance and ethnic background are different from their own. Above all, foster kids need parents who love them and want to adopt them.