History of transracial adoption in the U.S.

SIGNIFICANCE: Transracial adoption is the adoption of a child of a race that differs from that of the adoptive parent or parents. In the United States, it has usually taken the form of White parents adopting minority-race children who were in foster care, group homes, or institutions. The debate over transracial adoption asks whether such adoptions are in the best interest of the children and whether race should be a factor in determining where children are placed.

Finding loving homes for children who need parents is the goal of adoption. In the United States, child placement specialists long believed that matching parent and child as closely as possible was in the child's best interest. Therefore, adoption law allowed greater consideration of race than was usually allowed under US law. Transracial adoption was considered only after all efforts at same-race adoption were exhausted. Between 8 and 10 percent of all US adoptions between the 1940s and the early twenty-first century, including international adoptions, were transracial. White children who were adopted by parents of other races made up less than 2 percent of all adoptions. However, between 2017 and 2019, 28 percent of all adoptions were transracial, and by the mid-2020s, some agencies estimated up to 40 percent of all American adoptions were transracial adoptions.

History

Transracial and international adoption began in the United States in the 1940s, when thousands of children were left parentless because of World War II. In the 1950s and 1960s, the number of transracial adoptions grew sharply, driven by an increase in the number of children in foster homes and institutions and a shortage of minority homes in which to place children. In the 1960s and 1970s, the pool of healthy White infants available for adoption shrank because of the declining birthrate, the availability of abortions, and a drop in stigma for unwed mothers. As more and more non-White babies began to be placed with White adoptive parents, people began to question whether transracial adoptions were in the best interest of the children.

A debate arose over whether quality parenting was enough or whether minority children should be adopted only by minority couples (particularly whether Black children should be adopted by White couples). Critics of transracial adoptions have said that minority children who grow up with White parents are likely to be unfamiliar with minority culture and, therefore, may suffer an identity crisis and be ill-prepared to deal with discrimination. Other critics have claimed that the outplacement of minority children is a form of cultural genocide in that it cuts the children off from their cultural heritage. However, proponents of such adoptions point out empirical studies that have shown that transracial adoptees can grow up adjusted and comfortable with their racial identity and with their adopted families and cultures.

In 1967, the US Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia struck down laws prohibiting interracial marriage. After the ruling, state laws prohibiting transracial adoption were either repealed by state legislatures or held unconstitutional. The decision meant that race could be considered a relevant factor in adoption, but could not be the sole consideration.

Beginning in 1972, however, transracial adoptions were drastically curtailed in favor of racial matching. Opposition to transracial adoption by the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) triggered the change. The opposition developed just when the Black Power movement was becoming influential in the United States. By 1987, thirty-five states had laws prohibiting the adoption of Black children by White families.

The NABSW opposed placing Black or biracial children in White homes for any reason. It argued that transracial adoption was contrary to the Black or biracial child’s best interest. Its reasoning was that Black and biracial children need Black parents to develop a positive personal and racial identity and skills for coping with a racist society. The organization also argued that transracial adoption threatened Black people with cultural genocide. Under pressure from the NABSW, adoption agencies usually matched Black children with Black parents and discouraged placement with White parents.

Over the years, many Native American children had been adopted transracially. In 1978, the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed to prevent the decimation of Indigenous Nations and the breakdown of Indigenous families and culture. The law made it almost impossible for non-Indigenous American families to adopt Native American children or care for them as foster parents. Keeping Indigenous American families and Indigenous Nations together and in their Native cultures was the purpose of the law.

In the 1990s, institutional barriers to transracial adoption began to be dismantled through federal legislation, including the Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994, the Adoption Promotion and Stability Act of 1995, and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. These laws made it illegal to prohibit adoption solely on the basis of race.

Impact on Public Policy

Thousands of children who need loving and capable parents are waiting in foster homes, group homes, and other institutions. US law prohibits the use of race as the sole basis for an adoption decision, but race can be considered as one factor in determining the best interest of the child. The challenge for adoption agencies and legislators is to encourage adoption and to eliminate barriers to finding parents for children who are waiting for good homes. Despite the historical debate over transracial adoption, both sides agree: adoption by good parents is in the best interest of children.

Bibliography

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