Adoption Rules Should Not Be Black or White : California law discourages couples from crossing color lines. But nature sanctions families in all sorts of configurations, so who are we to insist on ‘matched’ sets?

About six months ago, I met a black social worker who engaged me in a spirited conversation about whether black children should be adopted by white couples.

This is a longstanding issue in California, because transracial adoptions are discouraged although not prohibited. A state law requires a 90-day search for adoptive parents of the child’s racial or ethnic background. Meanwhile there are several hundred more African American children in California needing adoption than African American couples likely to adopt them.

The issue was rekindled last month by the issuance of federal guidelines warning that, under a 1994 law, agencies receiving federal aid may not delay or deny the placement of children because of racial considerations.

My social worker acquaintance, reflecting the dominant view of the Assn. of Black Social Workers, did not think white folks should dare to cross the line and adopt African American children.

“But they’re getting homes,” I said.

“But are they the right homes?” she said.

“Do they seem capable of loving and cherishing and providing for the kids?” I asked.

“Doesn’t matter.” She dismissed me with the wave of her hand. “They don’t understand what being black is all about.”

Even though I’m African American and accused of being Afrocentric at times, I was left with a feeling that maybe even I didn’t understand what being black in 1990s America was all about. Still, I do not think it’s about wearing your blackness like a chip on your shoulder. The social worker left me feeling she would sacrifice the welfare and interest of a black child out of a misguided sense of racial pride.

The Assn. of Black Social Workers believes that if you haven’t felt the stigma of racism and don’t know what it’s like to be society’s footstool, you are incapable of adequately preparing a black child for a racist, cruel America. From its perspective, that is more important than love, care and a nurturing home environment.

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The black social workers claim that black children who are adopted by white parents grow up confused about their identities and unprepared for racism. The reality is that most children are confused about their identities at some point in their adolescence, and I’d rather they run the risk of learning about racism later in life than be denied the beauty, love, wonder and support of being part of a family.

The organization has clung to this dogma despite the switch in national policy (which some in Congress want to strengthen even further). It opposes a bill moving through the state Legislature that specifies that race should not be the sole basis for denying an adoption.

According to a Los Angeles County supervisor of child protective services with whom I spoke, monthly reports suggest that the transracial adoptions and foster-care placements that do occur are just as successful on the whole as single-race placements and sometimes better.

The saddest fact here is that there are 79,000 children in California and 500,000 children nationwide who need loving homes. About 40% are African American, and black children are three times as likely to remain in long-term foster care as Latino or white children. Where, then, do these children look for the familial experience we enjoy if African American parents are not available or capable of adopting?

The federal government has taken an important step with the Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994, issuing a profound proclamation on this issue. Some states, such as Texas, have proclaimed that race cannot be given any more weight than any other adoption criteria. What a revolutionary concept--and one that should have prevailed many, many years ago.

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Today’s families come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and configurations. If nature doesn’t preclude such interesting combinations, who are we to insist on “matched” sets?

Of course there will be problems to face. There will be the challenges of white parents having to come to terms with the prejudice their black child will face, how to advise the child in such matters and learning that this is not a colorblind society.

But those problems are far more palatable to me than the notion that a misguided sense of racial pride and protectiveness is literally condemning black children to a life without parents and without love. The solution is neither as simple as Newt Gingrich’s orphanages or as confining as separatist restrictions.