During this whole recent Seti-Umar soap opera something was said by the good doctor during his pseudo-apology. He mentioned that there is an issue with gay whites adopting black kids by the thousands.
This really rubbed me up the wrong way, it’s a classic baited re-directional statement, made to cause anger and rile people up, direct them away from the issue at hand.
I wanted to try and dig a little deeper and find out if there is any truth to his statement, if this is an issue and what are the solutions.
The Numbers – How Many Black Orphans Are Adopted By White Gay Parents?
This is going to be tough, but we’ll try and deduce an estimate.
From what I can gather, in 2013 roughly 400,000 kids were in the USA’s foster care system, around 100,000 of those were looking for permanent homes, with 250,000 entering the system per year. Around half of those do return to their families and of course some turn into adults and leave the system.
So, that’s an estimated 100,000 kids who need homes at any given time.
African-American children make up 28 percent of the foster care population, so we can assume there are around 28,000 African American kids needing foster homes, this was as of 2013 (Source: Christian Post). The number is likely a little higher now.
PBS’s fact sheet states that:
While inter-country adoption may be the most visible category, the majority of American adoptions actually involve children adopted out of foster care. About 135,000 children are adopted in the United States each year. Of non-stepparent adoptions, about 59 percent are from the child welfare (or foster) system, 26 percent are from other countries, and 15 percent are voluntarily relinquished American babies.
So, looking at American kids, (135,000 x 59%), 79650 kids per year are adopted, and 28% of that means that approx 22302 African American children are adopted each year.
But what percentage of those are adopted by white gay parents?
Life Long Adoptions states that “Gay and lesbian parents are raising four percent of all adopted children in the United States.”, so let’s say 4% of the year adoptions are by gay couples. 4% of 22302 is approx 892.
By this very rough estimate, less than 1000 children per year are adopted by gay couples. What percentage of them are white is hard to understand although it’s well discussed that black gay couples are more likely to raise children (src: Huff).
If you have harder statistics, I would love to see them.
Should black kids be given to white gay parents?
Image src: A Family Is a Family Is a Family: A Rosie O’Donnell Celebration
Now we get more into the opinion side of things. And my immediate answer is absolutely, yes! Any stable family that wants to adopt should be given all the resources to be able to do so. There are over 100,000 kids right now that need a family, need someone to care for them, irrespective of color or background.
BUT I do agree that if there is an option a black family should ALWAYS be chosen over a white family, a white person will never be able to fully understand aspects of being a black person no matter how woke and caring they are. Being black comes with nuances and challenges that only a black person can understand.
However, given the choice, a parent is millions times better than no parent.
What about those who say that white gay parents are bad?
Dr. Umar stated that the fact “that they let white homosexuals adopt homeless black kids by the thousands” (Video source).
Even if this is true (which seems unlikely) there is an issue. Kids need homes, and if a homosexual couple will give that home, isn’t that better than allowing them to waste away in the system, jumping from foster home to foster home, parentless, ending up running away, on the streets, finding the very wrong kind of role model.
So, what is the solution?
Black children, where possible, should goto black families. Umar and people who rage against gay white families adopting are misdirecting the blame.
The fact is that more families need to consider adoption within the black community, those 28,000 black kids out there right now need to find peace and understanding, they need to find love and caring and ideally that will rest in a black or mixed race home where the understanding they require can be given to them.
Those who see this as an issue should strive to try and make adoption such a habit of the black community that every kid that can or wants a home should have one.
One thing I will say, personally I believe love and care matters way more than gender. Two fathers or two mothers can provide just as stable a family as a hetero couple. This is my personal opinion and so far the studies (of which there are many) back that theory up.
The number will never be 0 but we can all try and fight.
Now, please, attack my numbers, my thought, my ideas, please break it down for me BUT if you do, offer a solution and an idea.
Thanks.
Ok the positive they are being adopted by white and gay famlies. One could be more adopt children in black neighborhoods advertisements and education more heavier. Many black parents want adopt but see how or to go to learn what is the process to adopted these children. Second what will be long term psychological effects on these children on different levels? We still live and work and play in a racist society. Adopting black children will not stop the white supremacist/racist to harm them in many ways. If these children don’t know themselves,. There African culture and history it still will be rough journey for them. All the love in the world from whatever race you from that wants to adopt will not destroy this sick and twisted white supremacist system,that was started by Europeans in the first place.