CHILD WELFARE AND RACE

Walk into any New York City family court and you can find plenty of white faces among the judges and the lawyers – but almost none among the families whose fate depends on those judges and lawyers.

Thirty percent of New York City's children are African-American, 23.5 percent are white. [i]

But 73 percent of New York City's foster children are African-American, only three percent are white. [ii]

In Central Harlem, on any given day, nearly one of out ten children was in foster care in 1998. [iii]  

It is often argued that the overrepresentation of Black children in the foster care system is solely a function of the fact that Blacks are overrepresented among America's poor.   But common sense, and plenty of data, say there is more to it than that.

In a society in which a Black man of any income level is far more likely than his white counterpart to be followed around a store and presumed a shoplifter, and then far more likely to be unable to hail a cab to take home what he's purchased, it's odd at the least to assume that even the best-intentioned child protection worker always will be able to check her or his prejudices at the door.

And the data show that they can't.

For example, predominantly Latino Hunts Point, in The Bronx, is even poorer than Central Harlem.   The rate of single parenthood in the two communities is the same (and, in any event, children are no more likely to be abused in single parent homes than in homes with two parents, when the figures are adjusted for family income). [iv]    But a child is almost twice as likely to be taken from his or her parents in Central Harlem.   One in 19 children is taken in Hunts Point versus almost one in ten in Central Harlem. Compare these data further, to a poor white community, and there is evidence of discrimination against Blacks and Latinos: In predominantly white Ridgewood and Glendale in Queens, which has about half the poverty rate of the other two neighborhoods, only one in 200 children was in foster care in 1998. [v]

Similar results can be found all over the country.

For example, a study by researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found that when doctors examined children, " toddlers with accidental injuries were over five times more likely to be evaluated for child abuse, and over three times more likely to be reported to child protective services if they were African American or Latino. " [vi]

Prof. Dorothy Roberts of Northwestern University Law School amassed other evidence of racism in child welfare in her book, Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, (Basic Civitas Books: 2002)

                    · A study of decisions to "substantiate" allegations of maltreatment after they are reported found that caseworkers are more likely to substantiate allegations of neglect against Black and Latino families – and the only variable that could explain the discrepancy is race. [vii]

                    · A study of women whose newborns tested positive for cocaine found that the child was more than 72 percent more likely to be taken away, if the mother was Black. [viii]

                    · A comprehensive federal study of child maltreatment found that "even when families have the same characteristics and lack of problems, African-American children and Latino children, to a lesser extent, are more likely than white children to be placed in foster care." [ix]

                    · But perhaps most telling is what happens when caseworkers are given hypothetical situations and asked to evaluate the risk to the child.   The scenarios are identical – except for the race of the family.   Consistently, if the family is Black, the workers say the child is at greater risk. [x]

Prof. Roberts writes: "[T]he child protection process is designed in a way that practically invites racial bias.   Vague definitions of neglect, unbridled discretion, and lack of training form a dangerous combination in the hands of caseworkers charged with deciding the fate of families." xi]

But the harm done by racism in child welfare goes beyond the harm done to individual children wrongly taken from loving homes.

The removal of children from impoverished Black homes happens so often that it inflicts "collateral damage" on entire communities.   The loss of so many children demoralizes their families.   Roberts writes that the removal of these children "disrupt[s] the family and community networks that prepare children to participate in future political life."  And this needless removal of children reinforces the very stereotypes about Black families that are used to excuse such removals in the first place.

African Americans are not the only ones to suffer from the racism of the child welfare system.

Latino children risk be taken from Spanish-speaking parents and thrown into foster homes where only English is spoken.

In 2001, the head of the trade association for America's child welfare establishment, the Child Welfare League of America, apologized to Native Americans for CWLA's complicity in a program to systematically take native children from their communities and adopt them into white families.

Other minorities have yet to receive any apologies.

And America's child welfare establishment needs to do more than say "I'm sorry."  From frontline workers to agency directors, they need to constantly "audit their feelings" to be sure that their decisions are based on facts, not personal prejudice.   More generally, they need to work to rebuild the child welfare system emphasizing safe, proven programs to keep families together.   Just as an overemphasis on child removal disproportionately harms minority families, a system oriented toward keeping children safely in their own homes will help reduce such discrimination.

[ii] Child Welfare Watch, The Race Factor in Child Welfare (New York: Center for an Urban Future, June 1, 1998) available online at http://www.nycfuture.org/content/reports/report_view.cfm?repkey=9 &area= childpol

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Thomas D. Morton, "The Increasing Colorization of America's Child Welfare System," Policy and Practice , Dec. 1999, cited in Dorothy Roberts, Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare (New York: Basic Civitas Books: 2002), p.48.

[v] Child Welfare Watch, note 2, Supra

[vi] The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Press Release, Minority Children More Likely to be Evaluated for Physical Abuse; Abuse in White Children May be Overlooked , PR Newswire, Oct. 1, 2002.

[vii] J. Eckenrode, et. al., "Substantiation of Child Abuse and Neglect Reports," Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 38 (1988) 9, cited in Roberts, Note 4, Supra.

[viii] Daniel R. Neuspiel and Terry Martin Zingman, "Custody of Cocaine-Exposed Newborns: Determinants of Discharge Decisions," American Journal of Public Health 83 (1993), p.1726, cited in Roberts, Note 4, supra.

[ix] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau , National Study of Protective Preventive and Reunification Services Delivered to Children and Their Families (Washington, DC: 1997), cited in Roberts, Note 4, Supra.

[x] Roberts, Note 4, supra.

[xi] Roberts, Note 4, Supra, p.55.