In Black America; Transracial and Inracial Adoptions

Thank you. In Black America, reflections of the Black experience in American society. Today, more than 15,000 Black and racially mixed children have been adopted by white parents in this country. In the 1970s, trans-racial adoption peaked in this country when the child welfare league of America

relaxes adoption restrictions that call for the adoptive child to have matching physical characteristics with the adoptive parents. Recently, a book has been published that examines self-concept and racial identity among Black and racially mixed children, who have been adopted by either white or Black families. The study is one of only a few to examine the effects of a trend that originated in the 1960s, and whose children were placed in adoptive homes of parents who are now the same race as the child. I'm John Hansen, and this week our focus is on trans-racial, in-racial adoption in Black America. There were a number of differences we noted in comparing the children that have been placed in Black families, and those that have been placed in white families. Some of the differences stemmed from the sociological environment that the child was exposed to. For example, if the child happened to be growing up in a family in which the parents actually did not acknowledge the child's Black racial identity,

tended to dismiss it, tended to negate it, tended to indicate perhaps that human identity was just as important, and really dismissed the whole notion that racial identity was of any significance to the child, would have been one factor influencing the child's perception of his own racial identity. Another would have been the environment, the racial composition of the environment in which the child was growing up. If the child happened to be living in a situation in which he was the only Black child or one of very few, and that was characterized most of the families in the study, and also if the child had been attending a school in which he might have been the only Black child or one of very few, generally we found that the kids wanted very much to sort of blend in with the rest of the children, and they too wished to dismiss Black racial identity to a large extent, or felt somewhat ambivalent about it. Many of these children in that particular situation felt rather uncomfortable about discussing issues associated with their Black racial identity.

Dr. Ruth McRoy is an assistant professor of social work at the University of Texas at Austin, just a co-author of a recent published book entitled, Trans-Racial In-Racial Adoptes, The Adolescent Years, published by Charles C. Thomas of Springfield, Illinois. The study includes questionnaires and interviews conducted with 60 children and their adopted families. The book explores the children's relationships with parents, extended family members, siblings, dates, and friends. The children's view of their role in the community and at school is also examined. The study found no difference when comparing the suffix teen of the children adopted by a white couple to that of youngsters adopted by Black families. The process of transcultural adoption began when Korean children replaced in white adoptive homes in the 1950s because there were not enough white, healthy infants to meet the increasing demand for children by white middle class families.

Dr. McRoy's study is one of only a few to explore the effects on a Black or mixed race child adopted by a white family. This book was actually an outgrowth of my dissertation research which focused on the self-concept of trans-racially and in-racially adopted Black children. I was particularly interested in this topic primarily because I formally served as an adoptions worker, was involved in the placement of Black children in white adoptive families. And wondered over a period of time how those children might be adjusting. So when I had the opportunity to select a topic for dissertation research, I decided I would explore the notion of trans-racially and in-racially adopted in racial adoptees, particularly their adolescent years. How long did this research take place in the geographical location of the research? The research process itself took place over a period of about a year and a half and data were collected from the states of Kansas, Texas,

throughout Texas and the state of Minnesota. Okay, and how many families and interracial adopted children were? There was a total of 60 families that participated in the study. 30 of those families had adopted trans-racially, in other words those were white families who had adopted Black children and 30 of the families were Black and had adopted Black children. Those are what we're calling in-racially adopted families. What measure or scale did you all use in the interviewing process? I used several different measures, one involved an interview schedule that was designed for the parents. The adoptive parents, another schedule designed especially for the children involved. To measure self-concept, we used the Tennessee self-concept scale, which is 100 item list of questions in which the respondents rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 5 from a degree to strongly agree to strongly disagree.

This particular scale was given to each of the parents and the children. The family adaptability and cohesiveness scale was also administered to the parents. As another measure of self-concept, we used the 20 statements test, which is an open-ended measure of self-concept in which the individual is asked to describe himself in 20 statements, beginning with the words I am. Each of those were the measures that were used throughout the study. Was there broad economic background for the participants in the survey since money is not a major criteria in adopting? Well, the majority of the families that participated in the study were what you might call middle income. That's characteristic of the majority of families who tend to adopt. Could you give us a little history of the adoption process here in America? Transracial adoptions are just adoptions.

Adoptions and into transracial adoptions. Adoptions, of course, have taken place almost since the beginning of time. We have what we call now formalized legalized adoptions that take place either independently or through agency settings. In terms of transracial adoptions, we're talking about an activity that began somewhere towards the latter part of the late 50s, early 60s throughout the 60s, especially transracial adoptions really flourished. During the 70s, we saw gradual decline in placement of black children transracially. And that decline continued through the end of the 70s and we have seen a slight increase in the early 80s. However, the proportion of children placed transracially is still not nearly as high as it had been in the mid 60s. There were several reasons that accounted for transracial adoptions really beginning at that time. Prior to that period, the majority of families coming to agencies wishing to adopt were white.

For the most part, they were wishing to adopt white, healthy infants. During the 60s and the latter part of the 60s, especially in early 70s, a lot of things changed in terms of societal attitudes towards unwit parenthood. For that reason, as values were changing, more and more unwit mothers were choosing to keep their babies rather than relinquish them for adoption. That, of course, was a factor that contributed to the declining availability of infants for adoption. That coupled with the fact that we had changes in our abortion laws, which because more and more unwit mothers were able to secure an abortion, more and more babies were not being born out of wedlock, that was another factor that contributed to the decline in the number of children available.

Those factors together caused many families and agencies to begin to really look at, well, what was the situation in adoption? What kinds of children were available for adoption? Prior to that time, many families had considered adopting children from other countries who had been brought to the United States and they were placed for the most part white adoptive families. In looking at the children that were waiting for placement, most of those were black. Some of them were handicapped children, older children of all races, and there was a large proportion that happened to be black. There also was a category of children that agencies began to define as being interracial, black, white, or mixed race. These are children that came of one black birth parent and one white birth parent. And as a result, many families became interested in perhaps adopting these and many agencies suggested that it would be appropriate for white families to adopt these children because especially the child would have, say, one part of his background happened to be white and there was some sort of a link with the white adoptive families. One other factor was that, to a large extent, black parents were not beating down the doors of agencies to adopt and many agencies interpreted that as meaning black families weren't interested in adopting black children rather than really looking at their own policies to determine whether or not they were really doing what was necessary to encourage black families to adopt.

Historically, black families usually adopted within an extended family, an uncle or cousin or a grandparent adopted a child of an unwed mother. Is that a major factor in the reason why black was not knocking down the door to the quote unquote adoptive families? Yes, black families historically have adopted informally at a rate that equals if not even a higher rate than white families adopting through agency channels. Black families through the extended family or kin support network have always taken in as you're suggesting the child of another family member. Often, those adoptions were not legalized, no attempt was made to go through formal legal channels to finalize those adoptions to actually legally transfer the rights of that child from one parent to the other.

So black parents, yes, historically have by all means adopted but many have not gone through the agency channels for a number of different reasons. One of those reasons being the tremendous amount of red tape that has always been associated with the adoption process. Another factor was the cost involved. Many families would be unable to pay the cost that usually is involved in the adoption of a child. That would have kept a number of families away. I mentioned at the top of the program that the reason you did this particular research is because you were an adoption worker. Could that be a point that there weren't any black adoption workers back in the 60s and early 70s that could go in and try to recruit black families? Most agencies had very few black staff members and we have found that the availability of a black staff member is very crucial to an agency's adoptions program in planning specific recruitment efforts within the black community.

And as you're suggesting, there was really, for the most part, most agencies, nobody there who could relate very easily to the black community and who also could provide those suggestions for policy change that might be necessary to recruit more black families for adoptive parenthood. Besides black children, European children has become a great part of the adoption system here in America from Vietnam War and et cetera. Are these children making a good adjustment to American life in these interracial families? There have been really very limited studies that have focused upon those children as they have grown up in American families. Based upon our research, I would suggest that the same kinds of identity problems that the black children have had and wanted adoptive families might prevail with children from other backgrounds coming into American homes generally white families.

All is said and good with getting black children into some type of family, but some black professional groups, particularly in 1972, was against the total idea has their particular attitude changed in 1984. No, the National Association of Black Social Workers took a position against trans-racial adoptions in 1972. That position was reaffirmed at their most recent meeting in 1984. They do feel that it is preferable for black children to go into black families primarily because of the issue of identity. They also feel that if agencies will reach out and find black families and really look for families for these children, then there will not have to be that choice at any point of placing a black child in a black family versus that of a white family. Within that family concept is the problem more so outside of the home than in the home that racially mixed child?

For the most part, the child is subjected to large extent and some of the children I should say in the study were subjected to negative attitudes on the part of people say within the community or within the school. Within the home environment, there's a lot of love, of course, given to all children there and in terms of the relationships between children and with parents, it's very similar to any other home situation. They're part of the family. They're accepted as part of the family. There's no question about the amount of love that the parents are giving to those children. There were instances in which siblings might, from time to time, use racial slurs in the family situation or do some, become involved in some sort of racial teasing with the black brother sister who happens to be in the home. However, generally in those cases, if that sibling happens to be around when the black brother sister is exposed to that same kind of racial teasing and harassment on the outside, the sibling always comes to the rescue. They will adjust as in most families. It's okay for us to tease and fuss within the home, but we don't want anybody on the outside to treat our brother and sister in that same way.

Our adopted families trying to be more sensitive to the racially mixed child and allowing the child to attend a black church or go where more black children play and etc. There's a great deal of variation in terms of the attitudes of trans-racial adoptive families. There are many that have attempted to make a variety of different efforts to acquaint the child with his black heritage and to give him an opportunity to socialize with other black children. Some have attempted to do so by obtaining memberships saying a church or predominantly black church or some haven't enrolled the child in a predominantly black school. Many have made a variety of different efforts to give that child an opportunity for exposure to some other children and adults who happen to be black. I know you can't shield the child from the realities of the world, but whether any data that stated that it was more comfortable in certain geographical areas or urban rule settings as far as adoptive families with interracial children.

No, we found no real regional differences in this particular study. The major differences we found stemmed again from the racial perceptions of the parents towards the child and also the degree of integration of the community in which that family happened to be living. It seemed as if children who were in families that had sought out integrated communities put the child in integrated school environments and the family had developed a constant or sustained, developed sustained relationships with other blacks with black families. In other words, if the family had developed an interracial style of living and recognized that they no longer could be considered to be a white family by virtue of their adoption of a black child, then children in these families tended to feel more comfortable about their racial identity, tended to feel more comfortable about the fact that they were from black parents. Is it the phenomenon more white parents adopting black kids or some black families adopting Asian or white siblings?

It's very, very rare for black families to be adopting white children. Agencies generally have not practiced this particular aspect of a transracial placement for a number of reasons. I'm sure one that's generally given though is that there are sufficient numbers of white families for white children. Are they? There are a waiting list of white families for especially white infants. There are many white children who are school age, older children, some with handicaps, physical, emotional handicaps that are waiting for placement. Were brothers and sisters included in your survey? Yes, there were a number of families that had adopted more than one black child. For the most part, the children were not biological siblings though. Has the attitude towards adoption in general changed?

The attitude towards transracial adoption? To some extent, I believe at this point, more and more agencies are beginning to question the issue of transracial placements and the outcome of such placements and now are really pushing for black families who will adopt black children. In your opinion, are these transracial adoptions working? I know you have to probably wait till they're much older, but do they seem comfortable in the home settings? Well, it depends on how you interpret the meaning of the word working. They seem to, the children seem to be happy. They seem to be happy in their home environments. Most of them are in a fairly good situation from that perspective. The primary issue that has come out of this research is the notion again of racial identity and how these children are going to feel about themselves as black people and how they're able to develop a very positive self-feeling and also an unambiguous racial identity. And if so, that will be what you might call a positive outcome.

Does the role of television come into play in what a racial child see on television versus what he sees in particular family life of how blacks are depicted on television and in movies? As we found in the study actually that many of the black children who were living in predominantly white environments who had had very limited or perhaps no contact at all with other blacks had developed stereotypic opinions of blacks. They tended to have very negative stereotypes. They were picking up these from the media and also from their white peers who frequently would make racial jokes and that kind of thing. We had several kids in fact indicate that in response to a question that we ask what would be different if you were growing up in a black family. A few of these kids said well we would probably be poor or we might be militant or we use bad English. Something to that effect. Come into mind two programs that are currently on television, different strokes and Webster. Is that a good depicting of what adoptive life for a black child in a white family?

Not really. Both of those shows have tend to focus upon a child in one case two children that have come into a family situation primarily because their parents wished that these particular couples raise them. That's how it's depicted in the movie. Rather than in a trans-racial adoption kind of a situation. So it's a little bit different. This is the case in which the parents of each of those children Webster and also on different strokes have said you know if something should happen to me I would like for you to take on responsibility for my children. So that's a little bit different kind of a context. In terms of the reality of it we're talking about a situation in both those shows of very very wealthy people being able to provide all kinds of opportunity for those children. The opportunities there for the child to live a normal life besides what he or she sees on television and the conflicts in which they encounter in the normal world.

To a large extent I would say that they are living normal lives whatever that you know might be. Also though the children must somehow develop a sense of reality what it's really like out there for a black person in a white society. Sometimes depending upon the environment in which they happen to be growing up they tend to be sort of sheltered from the reality of what it's like. The fact that when they get away from home there appears both black and white are going to tend to view them as black regardless of how they might portray themselves. If they are phenotypically black regardless of what they might be genotypically they're going to be viewed still as being black and just has to do with the social mathematics within the society. At the current time how many black virtually mixed children are currently placed in white adopted families.

We only have estimates of that number but the figure generally is something like 15,000 black children that have been placed in white adopted families. And how many is on the waiting list. How many white families waiting to adopt black children. I couldn't give you that figure any specific number. Or racially mixed children are waiting to be adopted. Throughout the nation the figure that is often given in terms of children waiting for adoptive placement is something like 100,000. Now some of those, a large proportion of those are black. And when I say black I'm referring to the child with one or two black birth parents. Many of those children also happen to be some maybe handicapped or older children. How do you get more black families in the adoption process. Throughout outreach efforts on the part of agencies. Reaching families through the church, through the community, through the PTA and other kinds of groups.

Letting them know about the availability of children waiting for adoptive families. Also letting them know about the process involved. Many agencies have streamlined that process. Many agencies have either waived fees or reduced fees to enable more families to adopt. So the main effort in terms of getting more black families interested in adoption has to come from agency personnel themselves trying to reeducate in a sense the community to the needs of black children. Will there be a follow up to this study. I'd like very much to follow up all of the children and families that were included in this study. And perhaps five years just to see what's happening at the time of this study. The children ranged in age from 13 to 26. I'd like to follow that group five years later just to see exactly how they're doing, how many are married now exactly what kinds of choices they've made, how they're defining themselves. What recommendations would you have for trans-racial and interracial adoptions?

In terms of agency policy, I would recommend that agencies first of all select families, attempt to find families that are of the same racial background as the child. I would recommend that if after reasonable period of time they have been unable to do so. And those efforts of course should involve using a state regional and national exchange to try to find families for those children. If after a period of time that has not come about, then to look to the families that are waiting for children to large extent those would be white families. But to be very selective in that process, if necessary, to select a white family to be sure it's a family that already has sustained social relationships in the black community. That already has adopted an interracial style of living. That already is living in an integrated neighborhood with children attending integrated schools. So that the child coming into that family would fit in much easier, a family that is able to accept the fact that the child they're adopting is black and be able to help that child feel very good about his racial identity.

And the fact that he is in that particular adoptive family. Dr. Ruth McRoy, Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin, and co-author of a new book entitled Trans-racial in-racial adoptees the adolescent years. If you have a comment or would like to purchase a cassette copy of this program, write us the address is in black America, Longhorn Radio Network, UT Austin, Austin, Texas, 787-12. For in black America's technical producer David Alvarez, I'm John Hanson. Join us next week. You've been listening to in black America reflections of the black experience in American society in black America is produced and distributed by the Center for Telecommunication Services at UT Austin and does not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Texas at Austin or the station. This is the Longhorn Radio Network.