Blog Post 10, Option 1

      While I knew there were a large number of black children in foster care, I was shocked at the disparities between the races as described in Dorothy Roberts’ book, Shattered Bonds. Roberts believes that the foster care system is discriminating against African American families, and writes that, “If you came [to dependency courts] with no preconceptions about the purpose of the child welfare system, you would have to conclude that it is an institution designed to monitor, regulate, and punish poor black families” (6). While that may seem like a harsh statement, she offers a lot of evidence to support her point.

         The numbers themselves are shocking: 42% of all children in foster care are black children, despite the fact that only 17% of children nationwide are black. That is a huge percentage increase. Not only are there more black children in foster care, but they also have less of a chance of being reunited with their parents (or being adopted) as compared to white children in foster care. Overall, black children remain in foster care for nearly twice as long as white children (19). Roberts notes that even when black children are reunited with their families, they have a much higher reentry rate into foster care than white children do. She also explains that the differences actually begin before the children are in foster care; when abuse or neglect is first discovered, white children often stay in the home and receive services there, whereas black children are more likely to be immediately uprooted and sent to foster care (17).  

        Roberts discusses the idea that social workers are much less likely to see African American parents as fit to take care of their children. Oftentimes, psychological evaluations are done, and they seem to look for any sign that the parent is imperfect. In some evaluations, they even interpreted the fact that parents with low income raising children shows “profound irresponsibility or delusion that was damaging to children” (40). In one case study discussed by Roberts, a mother named Jornell lost her child to foster care and did all she could to get him back. When she had supervised visits with her son, though, they noticed she had an “elevated mood and accelerated speech,” which they thought could be signs of a subtle mental disorder (rather than just a mother happy to see her son?). Additionally, they thought that she answered a parenting test too rigidly, and also noted that she had a small support network (5).  They seemed to be grasping for anything to keep Jornell from getting her son back. Roberts seems to be making the point that this would not happen with a white mother, which seems like a fairly valid conclusion given the evidence she provides in this chapter.

        Overall, this book shows a very negative side of foster care. I am interested to see how the numbers have changed (if at all) in the 10 years since this book was published!

-Rachel

Roberts, Dorothy. Shattered bonds: The color of child welfare. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2002.