ironweed
02-16-2006, 12:20 PM
These figures surprised me. Though I'd like to see the 93% of black women who'd be willing to adopt Asian babies.
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Race Doesn't Matter In Adoption
Howard Altstein
February 16 2006
In 2002, the last year for which there are national statistics, 300,000 women between the ages of 18 and 44 were seeking to adopt a child and had taken specific measures to do so.
It's not surprising that about half of the women preferred a single nondisabled child under the age of 2. What is significant are the racial preferences of these black and white women toward the race of any future adopted child.
Eighty-four percent of white women seeking to adopt would "prefer or accept" an African-American child, compared with 75 percent of African-American women who would "prefer or accept" a white child, a difference of only 9 percentage points.
Supporting these changing racial preferences, 93 percent of black women seeking to adopt would "prefer or accept" an adoptee other than black or white, compared with 95 percent of white women seeking to adopt who would "prefer or accept" an adoptee other than black or white.
These strikingly similar figures, a difference of only 2 percentage points, speak to a fundamental shift in family creation and, indeed, reflects a shift in defining what it means to be family member.
I am not at all surprised by the overwhelming willingness of white and black women to adopt across racial lines.
Continued (http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-adoption0216.artfeb16,0,644082.story)
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Race Doesn't Matter In Adoption
Howard Altstein
February 16 2006
In 2002, the last year for which there are national statistics, 300,000 women between the ages of 18 and 44 were seeking to adopt a child and had taken specific measures to do so.
It's not surprising that about half of the women preferred a single nondisabled child under the age of 2. What is significant are the racial preferences of these black and white women toward the race of any future adopted child.
Eighty-four percent of white women seeking to adopt would "prefer or accept" an African-American child, compared with 75 percent of African-American women who would "prefer or accept" a white child, a difference of only 9 percentage points.
Supporting these changing racial preferences, 93 percent of black women seeking to adopt would "prefer or accept" an adoptee other than black or white, compared with 95 percent of white women seeking to adopt who would "prefer or accept" an adoptee other than black or white.
These strikingly similar figures, a difference of only 2 percentage points, speak to a fundamental shift in family creation and, indeed, reflects a shift in defining what it means to be family member.
I am not at all surprised by the overwhelming willingness of white and black women to adopt across racial lines.
Continued (http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-adoption0216.artfeb16,0,644082.story)