Adoption Outside Your Race

With celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Madonna adopting children from third world countries, it becomes important to ask how others feel about it. Is it right for them to go to African and Asian countries and adopt their children? How do we really know that they are good parents; since they tend to get preferential treatment when it comes to the adoption process. I mean we all see how celebrity kids turn out. Just read Perez Hilton's blog. Yet you can't argue that the children will benefit from growing up rich. They will have access to things they may have never had in their home countries like great educations and health care. What bothers me about all interracial adoptions is the ability and likelihood of the adopting family to teach the child about his/her culture.

A child should not grow up not knowing where he or she comes from. This is unhealthy and can lead to identity issues. The odds are these children are growing up around peers who resemble the adopting families and not them, so it is up to the families to teach them about their own cultures and let them choose which culture to embrace.

There are a lot of people in the world that dislike their race adopting children from other races or that dislike their children being adopted by someone who doesn't look like them. However, I believe the main issue should be whether this is a good family who can provide a loving stable home to this child. If so, it is better than spending your childhood in foster care and being moved from home to home between people who may only care about the check they get and not the child. No child wants to grow up in the foster care system. it east them up and spits them out and it may destroy their spirits if it's a bad environment. So any child, whether from the USA or a third world country, who is offered a better way of life should be allowed to take it.

This is especially true in the U.S. for non-white children who are generally harder to place in good homes because no one wants them and non-whites are less likely to adopt. So, should this children languish in our foster care system or should the system give them to a loving family, regardless of race and ethnicity. I believe the latter is the best option. None of these children asked to be here and they surely never asked to be unwanted. So why deny them an opportunity of a stable family life just because the adopting family's skin color is different.

So before we began to judge the white family down the block with the little black girl or Vietnamese boy, just think about the life he/she could have been subjected to if that family hadn't adopted him/her. I am all for same race adoptions if they are available but I' am also more concerned about the children's welfare than what others will think. So if anyone is considering adopting, I encourage you to do so if you have the means to and can provide a stable loving environment. I encourage you to adopt a child in need regardless of race. All children need a home. Here are some helpful links for anyone interested in adopting:

http://www.adoption.com/
http://www.adopting.org/
http://www.abcadoptions.com/
http://www.angeladoptioninc.com
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/family/adoptions310