Are The Haitian Adoptions Of Childen Of Color More Symbolic Than Anything Else?

Tuesday, January 19, 2010



I'm all up for people helping out in the time of need especially during a natural disaster when the damages to a country who's economy is already fragile is in the billions - but it's headlines like Quebec holding new Haitian adoption requests over child smuggling fear that begs the question of what type of help is really needed.

Kids need homes.

No one's going to argue against that.

No one should be arguing against that.

But what about the implications of race? What about the implications of the majority of these kids probably being placed into White families as Children Of Color who grow up into Adults Of Color with I'm assuming little thought to that fact right now?

What if that child actually wasn't an orphan?

What if they were a part of a larger human trafficking ring?

I have to wonder if these adoptions of children of color might be more symbolic than anything else considering the following statement in an article from the NY Times today:

It normally takes three years to adopt a child from Haiti, because of a lengthy process required under Haitian law. The Haitian government has had reason to be cautious; there are about 200 orphanages in Haiti, but United Nations officials say not all are legitimate. Some are fronts for traffickers who buy children from their parents and sell them to couples in other countries. “In orphanages in Haiti there are an awful lot of children who are not orphans,” said Christopher de Bono, a Unicef spokesman.
With the U.S. now loosening its policy on adoptions in Haiti because of the earthquake, with that policy affecting roughly 900 children the question becomes this:

Does that number of children affected by this policy change outweigh what might be used and exploited as an open door for child trafficking?

I'm not going to say that there aren't other things to think about. I'm not going to say that it's a simple topic to dissect - race, adoptions, foster care - especially on a larger global scale - but I have to think - at least right now - that the answer to the last question is no.