The number of black American-born babies adopted by overseas families has increased significantly in recent years, with black babies being placed with Canadian couples more than ever before, according to several prominent U.S. adoption agencies.
Margaret Fleming, founder of Adoption Link, a 13-year-old adoption service outside Chicago, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that she has placed 700 black babies with European families over the years, and 70 black children with white families in Canada. There are presently 80 families on her waiting list for black babies, she said.
Black social workers, however, say they are concerned over the trend in adoptions and have maintained for years that black children should be adopted and raised by black parents.
Fleming, who is white, specializes in placing black babies with families in Germany, Switzerland, England and Canada. For every white child in the United States, there are at least 200 families in line, waiting two to three times as long as they would if they adopted a black baby, according to Adoption Link. Families pay Fleming’s agency about $10,000 for a child, and they usually wait from nine to 15 months for a baby, according to her website.
She said Canadians are receptive to adopting black babies, in part, because Canada is considered more socially liberal, and many Canadians live in multi-racial communities.
“The degree of racism is different,” Fleming told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “There is less racism toward black people in Canada.”
The owners of another U.S. adoption service, Open Door, which has offices in Georgia, told reporters they have placed more than 150 black children with Canadian families.
Fleming said she’s aware of but not deterred by the ongoing controversy about whites adopting black babies. Arranging trans-racial adoptions, she said, was made more difficult in 1972, when the National Association of Black Social Workers declared placing black children with white families a form of “cultural genocide.”
“What amazes me still is that those statements reverberated through the adoption industry,” she added.
But Judith D. Jackson, president of the National Association of Black Social Workers, said she still supports the concept of the organization’s statement in 1972 -- that black children should grow up with families who look like them.
“Children should be raised by people who understand their culture and who can help them navigate this world,” Jackson told BlackAmericaWeb.com Wednesday. “But we believe every child deserves a home, and we’ve always talked about preserving the family.”
The trend of whites adopting black babies has been an ongoing flashpoint issue for many blacks. Among black social workers, Jackson said, there has always been a concern about the emotional well-being for black children who are raised by white families.
“The outcome for some of these kids is not always good,” she said.
Her organization’s overall goal, said Jackson, is to make sure black children are placed in safe homes and kept out of the social services system.
“Because I’m for us,” she said, “doesn’t mean I’m against anyone else.”
Toni Oliver, co-chair for foster care and adoption for the National Association of Black Social Workers, said it is a myth that black families do not respond to calls to adopt black children.
“You don’t have to look outside the black community to adopt black children,” Oliver told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “There are many black families waiting to adopt black children.”
Oliver said black families formally adopt black children at a rate three or four times the rate of any other ethnic group in America. With informal adoption, she added -- where black families raise their relatives’ children without formal authorization -- about 800,000 black children were taken in by black families, according to the 2000 census.
“Our community has demonstrated that it has the capacity to take in and care for our children,” Oliver said.
Fleming, meanwhile, said she’ll continue to arrange black babies for white families who contact her, and said she believes her efforts are making a difference in the lives of multiracial families around the world.
She started Adoption Link in 1992 “out of love for my own kids,” she said, and because she saw a need to provide black children with safe, permanent homes. Fleming adopted seven children herself -- five are black, and three are HIV positive.
“Maybe white parents of black kids don’t do as good of a job as same-race parents,” she said, “but we try hard.”
