Is the lower cost of AA or bi-racial adoption a racism issue?

I'm wondering if the higher CC rate is due to the meth explosion..

Absolutely!! I don't know where the stats are or where I read this (several articles) but they did say the meth thing is a huge part of why there are more CC kids in foster care now. They compared it to the increase of AA kids going into care in the 80's due to the crack issue.

In my county Meth is definitely reason most of the CC kids are in foster care. It's always been majority CC but the reason for removal shifted over the years. My county does raids on meth labs on a regular basis and people always seem to have kids up in the mix especially in the rural areas. You would be shocked at the number people (CC & AA) in rural areas who run drugs just to so they can stay in the country. There's no industry out there so they have to be creative in making a living. Our last DFCS CW was a little suspicious of some of the foster parents. Huge homes and lots of property but not quite sure of their source of income...always self employed. The recovery rate from meth is extremely low so the children either go to family members are placed in adoptive homes. I wonder why minorities seem to have little interest in meth. The whole meth thing makes shopping inconvenient at times... you go to the store so many things are locked up... baby formula, cold medicine and etc.

I am not sure why meth is not as wide spread amongst Blacks. I have not come across an article pondering such. I hope Blacks keep away from meth, the poor communities cannot take another wide sweep of another addictive drug. Dh and I loved the cable tv show on the chemist who thought he was dying, and became caught up in the meth fabrication. The dad from Malcolm in the Middle played the main role, very good show. I forgot the name.Added: Breaking Bad is the name of the show.

Our FD was placed with us as a newborn. She is Hispanic and was born meth exposed. Here is an article you may find interesting on the reaons why meth has become such a problem in the latino community. [url=http://www.asu.edu/courses/css335/p5.htm]METHAMPHETAMINE ABUSE[/url]

I'm hoping blacks are staying away from meth because they've seen what crack did. I don't know if we'll ever fully recover from the crack epidemic.

This brings up a question though. If I were to go into an agency not caring about the race of the child I wanted to adopt and was told it was $20,000 to adopt a CC child and $10,000 to adopt an AA child, why would I not adopt an AA child? For me and many other parents out there, the color of my child's skin is a complete non-issue. This thread made me think of something else too. Years ago, I ran across a website that broke down a ton of information about international adoption from different countries. I was shocked to see how many counties consider being a boy as a special need, thereby lowering the cost and time involved in placing the child. Is this sexist or is it just harder to place boys so they are offering incentives hoping to recruit more parents willing to adopt them? My son is adopted from foster care. I was willing to take any race or mix of any race. When I did my foster parent classes, one of the things they had us do was this marble exercise. They gave everyone a dish of colored marbles (white = CC, black = AA, brown = Hispanic, yellow = Asian) and an empty dish. Then we were asked questions like, "What race are you," "What race are most of your friends," "What race are most of your coworkers," "What race are your neighbors," etc. and we would put marbles that represented the races in our empty dish. At the end, they asked us what race we thought our foster children would be and had to put that marble in the dish. In the end, I had a dish with a ton of white marbles and two little black marbles (I work in a very diverse company). It made me really question whether or not I was doing a minority child a disservice by adopting him into my life. I talked with a lot of multi-racial families and eventually decided to stick with my choice to take any race, but the exercise was very eye opening.

It cheapens the situation based on the child's race etc; due to how we deal with racism in this society. Bottom line adoption and money should be basic fees, no additives... period. Then we would not be there going .hmm I can go with the cheaper kid, and then think about how to raise said minority child later on. I was adoption naive, but at least I read a book or two before I went agency shopping. Apparently what occurs in foster to adopt is different than private agencies. A private agency/facilitator/attorney services may or may not provide adequate classes, resources on raising a Black childOrientation class, private agency: I saw a CC woman being told she was too old, and since she had an older child from a previous marriage..she would not qualify for the healthy CC newborn program. Poor lady was devastated already, all nervous,with nails that were chewed down to the nub. So next on the agenda was IA (international adoption). Oh, okay she and her husband said. I mean, how much thought went into that, or was it just at that point desperation to have a child "any" child. Even the CC newborn program is set up as an the top of the echelon within some agencies.. okay you do not qualify here are some "secondary" options. Of course the agency may say well, the options are based on the birth-moms preferences, really? I guess other race moms do not want the "best' for their child. It was interesting hearing some of the "reasons", business tactics.

This is a problem in this country too. Girls are much easier to place for adoption. There are a lot of men who refuse to raise another man's son. A son will carry on the family name and a daughter will not. When you look at other countries who may follow Confucian principles bloodline comes first. It's getting better though... many of the popular countries have started media campaigns to promote adoption. We have become jaded about celebrities adopting here but in other countries it's really helping children remain in their home countries and break down the cultural stigma against adoption.

Sleeplvr - I think you are brave to say this but I also believe it to be true for some and perhaps many, but not something most are willing to admit or talk about because they will be opening up the door to be judged. D

Most people are not willing to admit it... My DH has talked with numerous men since we adopted and they are amazed that he was willing to adopt a boy. This is from people I would have never thought would think like that but they felt comfortable talking to DH and wanted to understand how he could do it. DH actually changed a few minds along the way.

That is sad and I truly had no idea so many men felt that way. I bet the foster/adopt people loved me when I said I only wanted a boy! Maybe that is why he was placed with me so fast.

Hadn't ever heard that about men before. Guess I better speak up for the males then. The running joke at our house is that as the only son of an only son, of an only son means that Matthew is carrying on the family name, such as it is. We get a big kick out of the idea that someday down the road an ancestor will be checking their heritage and wonder when we switched colors! :)So this is one man who has no problem with his adopted son. Don't really even like that word adopted sometimes. He's my son.

Where's the "like" button when you need it!

Holy cow, Nickchris I was holding my breath hoping you weren't going to say that they offered the woman an AA child. It's just sad that these little babies are looked at as commodities. And that little CC babies are the gold-standard. When I look at DD, my stomach aches knowing she was thought of as "less than" because of the color of her skin. And sleeplvr, you brought up a good point about men not wanting to raise boys who aren't biologically theirs. I wonder where that comes from. I mean, are men yanked aside as little boys and groomed to know that they should reject and boy child that is not "their own"? Interesting. Interesting enough to make me ask my DH why he only wants girls...