The Complications of African American Adoption

While more people are now open to the idea of adoption, the issue on African American adoption still has yet to be solved. This has become evident that despite the dissemination of information on local and international adoption, adoption of African American children still remains to be one of the top challenges of adoption agencies.

Despite Hollywood celebrities like Madonna and Angelina Jolie setting the trend of international adoption, adoption agencies in the US are still alarmed at the increasing number of orphaned African American children not being the better candidates for adoption.

Just by the beginning of the new millennium alone, and estimated 900,000 African American children were still in foster homes and are still up for adoption.

Up to this day, scholars are still in the process of determining the factors contributing to diminished chances of these children being adopted. Some of the factors are:

1. Older Orphaned Children. Most adoptive parents prefer to adopt younger children, as young as 1-year old or below. To them, younger children, when adopted, shortens the adjustment period and sets a very much similar set up to those who are just starting a biological family.

2. Disciplinary Practices among Couples/Families. Research show that another reason for the ongoing issue with adopting within this community is the distinct family discipline being embarked by these families. The strictness, rigidness, and sometimes, even abusive nature has somehow paved the way for the support of adoption agencies and foster care for African American orphaned children.

3. Openness to Trans-racial adoption. There has been a considerable debate on the issue for years now. A lot of traditional families still believe up to this day that African American children only belong to African American families, and that mixing them with a family of a different race will cause potential problems lead to unending issues on acceptance, sense of belongingness and identity. Moreover, these traditional families believe that same cultural heritage promote stronger family ties.

While the issue of adopting these children remains unsolved, more and more avenues pave way to create awareness about trans-racial adoption. While efforts on different forms of literature were published to disseminate information, recent changes have somehow made a mark and have made people realize that such a setup could work. The movie "The Blind Side" which starred Sandra Bullock has opened the eyes of a lot of people that age, race, culture or even family background are not deciding factors for adoption - it is that common belief of every family member that one has to protect his own family, whatever it takes.

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