Should Black children be raised by White parents?

Jet, August 24, 1998

White parents raising Black children remains a heated and painful issue for thousands and thousands of Black foster children, their birth parents, adoptive parents, social service agencies and others throughout the country.

Experts have debated the issue for years. Should Black children be raised by White parents? Should race even matter when a child is homeless? Shouldn't plain, old-fashioned love and the financial means to take care of a child be the deciding factor in raising children? However, what about the belief that Black children lose their sense of identity when raised by Whites?

A recent case in California has rekindled the long-time debate on the role of race in raising Black children.

A White couple in California almost lost a chance to adopt a biracial child because of their skin color.

The couple, Wayne and Jan Coombs of the Los Angeles area, sued Los Angeles County after an 8-year-old Black child who had lived with them off and on since he was 6 weeks old was removed from their home and returned to his birth mother, who is Black. The White couple wanted to adopt the boy.

Wayne Coombs recalled during an interview with Beth Nissen on "Good Morning America": "We had to come back home and tell him that we were losing him. And he kept repeating to me: `Daddy, can I speak to the judge?' And I'm telling you, my heart was ripped from side to side."

The couple sued Los Angeles County, alleging they were discriminated against as adoptive parents because they are White, and the child is biracial.

The case was recently settled out of court, and the Coombs were awarded $300,000 for "pain, suffering and humiliation."

The Coombs maintain that several of the child's social workers, who are Black, tried to stop their adoption proceedings because they are White.

Wayne Coombs recently told "Good Morning America": "I asked the social worker if we would be candidates for adoption, and her supervisors asked her if we were White. And she said, `Yes, the Coombs are White.' And the supervisor said, `If they're White, there's no way in hell they'll get this child.'"

A judge later ruled that the child be returned to his birth mother.

Two Los Angeles investigators later discovered that Black social workers had improperly interfered with the Coombs' efforts to adopt the child, "Good Morning America" reported. The social worker allegedly did not tell the judge in her report that the child's birth mother was arrested on charges of prostitution. She also reportedly was battling cocaine addiction, "Good Morning America" reported.

The Coombs legally adopted Adam and his sister, Ebony, and sued Los Angeles County.

"They did discriminate against us," Coombs told Beth Nissen of "Good Morning America." "They did impede our efforts to provide a permanent home for Adam."

The Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services had no comment on the case, except for a prepared statement, which said in part, "Race is a non-issue in adoption today."

But the debate continues. Adoption workers such as Kirsten Albrecht of the TransRacial Adoption Group, who was adopted as a child by a White family, told "Good Morning America": "There are still a multitude of families across the United States who are encountering difficulties in their attempts to adopt Black and biracial children."

Attorney Asher Isaacs, who is Black and was raised and adopted by a White family, believes that society is not "color-blind." While his White adoptive parents certainly loved him and raised him to the best of their ability, he says his "sense of racial identity was really missing."

Many like Isaacs believe that Whites just don't understand how to help a Black child develop a good sense of self and pride in his heritage in a White society steeped in racism.

With the shortage of homes for Black children, many Americans have come to believe that it just does not matter what color a foster or adoptive family is. A person's color should not stop a loving person from raising a child and providing that child with a nurturing, secure environment. Color does not raise children, love does, they believe.

Illinois Senator Carol Moseley-Braun co-sponsored a federal law that states any discrimination against an adoptive parent on the basis of race violates the law.

She sums up the belief of many Americans as she shares her philosophy. She said on "Good Morning America": "Every child is entitled to a loving home, and a child's race or ethnicity should not be a barrier to them having an adoptive family, if it's possible."

She stressed, "I believe that love is color-blind."