>The issue in my state was influenced heavily by the NAACP and other black advocates who published position papers arguing against interracial adoption. Beyond that, I don't know too much about the matter.<
It is possible for whites to adopt mixed-race children, but unfortunately the option is not available in every state. I have read some of these NAACP positions against these adoptions, and while I understand the NAACP's perceived need to try and preserve "Black Identity" it seems not to understand that here in America, "Black Identity" is defined by "White Identity" (and to a great extent, the thing works the other way, much to the chagrin of many whites). Blacks are not terribly African (Africa is not a country), and they are not purely European (neither are most Americans). They possess no "Fatherland"… except America. So while the Irish American may well point to Ireland as the source of his roots, the Black American will simply have to make do with pointing to poor old America as the source of his, this, as opposed to fabricating silly identities out of virtual thin air (Kwanza? Lawd Hab Murci!)
I think the NAACP's resistance to Whites adopting black children results of its perception of White Identity as Destroyer, specifically the destroyer of Black Identity. This is understandable, as it seems in virtually all cases, Anglafrican heritage (an identity that consists of the mixture of "Whiteness" and "Blackness") has grown out of the oppression of Blacks by Whites. But the facts are the facts, and striving to deny a child a loving home to protect an identity that is already defined by "Whiteness" will do nothing to change things.
Is this to say African Identity has lost against Anglo Identity? Not at all. It is to say that American Blacks are not Africans but something much different, perhaps altogether different. They are AngloAfricans, and changing their names or religion or inventing African sounding holidays or any other sort of foolishness will do nothing to change it. Blacks will simply have to accept their true identity and rejoice in it. They will have to embrace and revel in their African and European heritage, this, despite the racial prejudice and other lunacies extant in their homeland. When they begin to do this (rejecting such nitwits as Al Sharpton, the so-called "Reverend" Jackson, and their ilk, and embracing the ideals expressed in MLK's incomprehensibly remarkable speech), prejudice against them will decrease tremendously and they will achieve true and un-fabricated equality.
But Whites will not be passive in the effort, no matter how much they crave passivity. Despite how much we might hate it, we are all trapped in the thing together. We should have picked our own blasted cotton, as the joke goes. Now we will have to live with the pain, until much time and many tears heals it. Remember, the whole "Black thing" is really quite recent. It was in many of our lifetimes that Blacks in this country were oppressed by law. If our country's ideals survive, I wager it will take another century or even two, before American Blacks as a group warmly embrace their identity and move throughout this country just as freely and equally as Whites. In the meantime, we must all (Blacks and Whites) suffer the ills of our ancestors' mistakes.
>Further, I couldn't even guess what the outcome could be if there were no restrictions. Perhaps an adoptive parent on the thread might want to weigh in.<
The outcome? The outcome would be the same as in the case of White-White or Black-Black adoptions. Children will be raised in loving homes and will grow to be well-adjusted producers in society. I have several sons, one of which is adopted and of mixed race. As with my other sons, this son is a Pilch, and we Pilchs don't take no crap from nobody. At three my son learned to read English. At six he was an avid (and dang good) chess player. At eight he could play Bach's Inventions without flaw. By ten he had read and understood most of Dickens's novels. By thirteen he had begun to study the Calculus and could play Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto. By Sixteen he could write respectable essays on Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche and Wagner (and he was smart enough to see on his own that Nietzsche was a vastly overrated lightweight). He has read a great many of the European philosophers, has studied symbolic logic and this year will leave home for college where he will continue his studies. I am proud of him because he is a Pilch who will navigate the world not as a "Black" or a "White", but just as does any other Pilch. I taught him.
"But he does not know of the struggle of Black people."
Sure he does.
"But he does not know first hand of the struggle."
Why would I want him to know first hand of the struggle? We should be getting away from these firsthand experiences.
"But what about Black Culture?"
What about it? What is so compelling about Black Culture that my son should be forced to treat it as if it is his to the exclusion of others? My son is an American. Since my bent is toward histories, arts and philosophies of a European nature, he has therefore had a healthy does of these things. But they are his things, and not exclusively the domain of Whites. Coltrane, Bird and, though I am loathe to admit it, Maya Angelou are mine, and not exclusively the domain of Blacks. This is America.
"But he won't be prepared to handle the racists".
This is laughable. My son exists so far above the White Supremacist I doubt he would ever notice should he ever be confronted by one. He will attend the college he desires, this, without affirmative action or anything of the sort, and there he will excel. Moreover, unlike our President, he has character and tells the truth. Imagine some low-life telling my son he is inferior. If my son becomes a surgeon and develops a technique that will save the low-life's life, that same racist low-life will slither his rear end on the table to willingly be cut open by my son. And if he will not, then he deserves precisely what he gets.
"He will marry a White."
This seems a problem for many Blacks. What of that? My son has no obligation to anyone to provide offspring that conforms to someone's idea of the "proper race". I have raised him with an obligation to further our moral ideals, our moral heritage as defined by our deeply held Christian faith. He understands that he is a vital link in a moral transmission through time that began centuries ago, and though he is not yet married, he already lives with his grandchildren in mind. He likely will meet his wife in college (just as I met mine), and she likely will enjoy the interests he enjoys. He has lived with us all his life, and so perhaps his wife will be White. In this area I have but one desire, and I have expressed this to my son: I will love as my own daughter any woman he chooses for a wife, but I desire she be Christian in word and deed. This is the Pilch way, and my son has always embraced it. So then if someone ever has a problem with his wife, they merely need thank God they are not married to her. |
