TRANS-RACIAL ADOPTION- LOVING FAMILY OR IDENTITY STRUGGLE?
Trans-racial adoptee Malcolm Crouch shares his story.
"Race never mattered to me. A home and loving parents, that's all you need as a child"
Adoption is a win-win situation, most people would say. A homeless child gets a family and a childless couple gets a baby. But is it really that simple?
Trans-racial adoption remains a topic of debate even today. Is it acceptable to place a child of Asian ethnicity in the hands of a white couple? Or a white child in the hands of black parents?
While a lot of people argue that it is ultimately about giving a child a home and a family, is it fair to impose on the child a life of identity struggle?
The UK government may have introduced guidelines to end the blocking of adoption on the basis of race and ethnic backgrounds in 1998, but adoption agencies in Britain lack any kind of a set policy.
While most agencies look up to British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) for their polices, the agency is itself reluctant to comment as a result of the on-going reviewing of polices. Their response when the guidelines were released was that “We don't want this to raise expectations among prospective adopters.
Race will still play an important part of any assessment of any adopter for a child because it's a very important part of a child's heritage.”
At Families for Adoption, says Eric, “We try and place the child in the hands of the family with the same ethnic background as far as possible. If a match is not found, the child is given to a different family.”
Celebrated British Fashion Designer Bruce Oldfield and Vice President of Barnardos, has a different take.“It's crazy not to let the white middle classes give homes to black children”, he says. Bruce is himself of a mixed race and was raised in the children’s charity by a white foster mother.
He says, one out of four children stays in temporary shelter for more than a month due lack of a matching family and once these kids cross the age of two, it becomes even more difficult to find a family for them.
“Sometimes I feel my life would have been easier if I was with an Asian family”, says Christopher James who is of Asian descent and was placed into the hands of a white couple when he was one. “I can’t thank my parents enough for what they have given me, but growing up would be easier if I wasn’t with them. Then again, it is better than being in foster care”, he admits.
