Adoption: Show respect for race

Lester Holloway (pictured above) responds to Children’s Minister Tim Loughton suggestion that white parents should be allowed to adopt black children

Finding a loving home for thousands of children languishing in care is something that we would all wholeheartedly agree with. No-one would want to put up any needless barriers preventing this from happening.

Yet there are many barriers that prevent people from adopting. Considerations like how stable – emotionally and financially - is the household  put in place for the good of the child.

It is fiendishly difficult to adopt a child, and there are many hurdles to overcome. Therefore the debate about the disproportionate numbers of black children in care needs to be set against this wider background.

The question of whether the would-be adopter shares the same race as the child they wish to adopt is just one several of the factors assessed by the authorities.

Decades ago race was not a consideration and as a consequence many hundreds of black children were placed with white families.

Adopters may have had the best of intentions but many of the children were brought up as if they were white and consequently suffered identity crises as adults. As a result they were either in denial about their colour and heritage or had to embark on their own often-lonely journey of self-discovery.

Some of the adoptive parents lacked knowledge about how to care for the child’s hair and skin, while the children lacked the sort of cultural or historical input that would give them a reference point about where they came from.

The backlash against this situation came in the early 1980s, when black social workers and councils like Lambeth began to introduce policies against cross-racial adoption. By 1989 the Children Act was introduced to make race a consideration. These debates took place, and were settled, nearly 30 years ago.

Yet this week it was as if all this never happened. Children’s minister Tim Loughton told the media that there was “no reason at all” why white parents could not adopt black children. 

He promised that the government would dismantle the barriers that prevented this happening on grounds that there were proportionately more black children in care.

Loughton’s position was, in essence, that the race of the would-be adopter and child does not matter a jot. Yet he did not say a word about the many other barriers to adoption. So while the age or economic status is important, according to Loughton the child would not be adversely affected if they were raised without any knowledge of their culture.

This is profoundly disturbing, and turns the clock back to the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Media stories this week seemed to carry an underlining current that it was only political correctness that was holding these rules about cross-racial adoptions in place. When in fact it is the testimonies and evidence of black people who were raised in white families that underpins present day rules.

It is ironic that Loughton should make his remarks just after Black History Month, which is in part a celebration of the importance of black history to a sense of self-worth.

This week’s debate did not just take place in an historical vacuum. It was also alarmingly free of awareness of the efforts that have been made by voluntary organisations and local authorities to recruit more black adopters. These moves have been partially successful. The model of going out an meeting potential adopters works. For it to work better there needs to be more investment.

Around 20 percent of the 65,000 children in care are from an ethnic minority, and the percentage of children who were approved for adoption last year from an ethnic minority was 22.

That means that although black kids are over-represented in care, there is no evidence that they are not being adopted proportionately. This is a testament to the sterling work being done to recruit adopters.

There may well be circumstances where white couples can provide the cultural input that black children need, but unless Loughton and the government can demonstrate that they are taking seriously the need for black children to understand who they are – and the press reports don’t give any clue that they are - then the policy should not be changed.

To simply cast aside ‘race’ as a factor amounts to a blatant disregard for everything ‘race’ stands for. History, food, stories and sayings – they all have enormous value.

Joseph Harker, writing in The Guardian, noted: “The media often likes to talk to children about how they feel about being transracially adopted. Every time I hear these reports I know they are asking the wrong people – because it is only in later life that one can appreciate what has been missed.”

That is the point. Some middle class white people may want to adopt a black child but their will doesn’t automatically make them the right people to do so. That child may be better off with a black adoptive parent.

Black adopters are out there and they are coming forward as a result of appeals. No-one should give up on this process simply because black children are over-represented in care.

Decision-makers should instead show respect for the importance of race and culture in the adoption process, respect that was fought for in past decades as a direct result of the emotionally harmful consequences of black children growing up without a black identity.

Lester Holloway a Liberal Democrats councillor in Sutton Borough. www.lesterholloway.co.uk Follow him on Twitter: @suttongoingon