Transracial Adoption - Essay Example

(Fogg-Davis, 2002) Adoption has basically been seen as another way of making sure that the children who are placed at nurturing homes will have a home for themselves. A census was taken for the amount of children who are homeless, came out to be 900,000 by the beginning of 2000. There are quite many reasons for such a situation to occur. The main and most essential reason is poverty. Secondly, the mothers and fathers of the African-American children have no manners of how to keep their children.

The particular styles of the African-American were a subject of debate. The African-American and White-American were compared and the particular styles of the African-American were personalized as harsh, stiff and in a few cases very corrupt. The children of African-American stay at a nurturing home for a longer period as compared to White-American children. The White-American children are allowed to have visitors; on the other hand, African-American children are not allowed to have any visitors.

Due to having a decrease, in African-American adoptive families and less White-American children provided for adoption, some African-American children have been sent with White-American parents. Separate races being placed together is a process called, "transracial adoption". . e majority of babies are adopted from North America, Asia, South America and Oceania, while the majority of children over 5 years of age are coming from Africa, Oceania and South America. (Conceive Magazine, 2005). The problem of discussion whether White-American parents should adopt African-American children has been going on for long.

In 1972, the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) was much worried about the Black/ African American children who were being placed with the white race of mankind. NABSW has stated that "Black children should be placed with only Black families whether in foster care or for adoption. Black children belong physically and psychologically and culturally in Black families in order that they receive the total sense of themselves and develop a sound projection of their future." (NABSW) After the sayings of NABSW, there was an argument which lasted for nearly two decades.

Criticism of transracial adoption is not bound only on NABSW, but also the Third World countries. Americans have adopted many children from Third World countries. These statements have made the researchers to find the validity time of the claims. Legislation has been introduced into dispute in the form of the Metzenbaum Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA) of 1994. MEPA along with 1996 provisions for Removal of Barriers to Interethnic Adoption (IEP) were made to decrease the practice of matching the races in adoption of children.

MEPA-IEPA were arranged to decrease the amount of time children wait for adoption placement, to improve and help in problems and keep successful nurture and parents, and to remove degrading according to race, color, or national origin. In 1987 National Health Interview Survey (NAIC, 2000) found that approximately 8% of all adoptions