Points of light: informal adoption in the black community

Children Today,  Sept-Oct, 1990  by Charmaine Yoest

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However, formal adoptions in the black community are increasing, albeit slowly. Efforts to encourage that trend will be successful only to the extent that they are culturally sensitive. Working within the black community necessitates an understanding of the dynamics and resources already in place, and then building on them.

Informal adoption is just such a resource. When informal adoption arrangements are included, the black community has a very high rate of adoption: providing homes for an estimated 900,000 black children in today's society. (9) Additionally, informally adopting families take in more children per family than formal adoptive families-61% of informal adoptive families have taken in three or more related children. (10) MaDear is a good example, as is Grandmother Jones who, in addition to Gale and her brother and sister, also raised another niece. Gale said, laughing, "Black families have a revolving door."

Children come through the revolving door in different ways. The Sandven/Resnick study identified two separate categories of informal adoption: shared parenting and gift" children. In shared parenting, the mother has help from someone else, usually her own mother, with the childrearing responsibilities. Gale began her life in this situation, but eventually became a gift" child. With gift" children, the mother may remain in the home, but all acknowledge that primary care for the child comes from someone else-usually the grandmother. According to Hill, two-thirds of the informally adopted children live in informal arrangements where neither parent is present. (11)

In his book Strengths of Black Families, Hill lists the extended family as one of the black community's most valuable assets. The prevalence of informal adoption is a manifestation of this characteristic-strong kinship bonds and taking care of one's own is a hallmark of black culture. Nadine says of MaDear:

  "To this day, I try to figure her
      out.  Why did she do some of the
      things she did?  You know?  Not
      to receive anything in return.
      She didn't have any ulterior motives.
      Nothing from the state,
      which could have been paying
      her welfare checks.  But that
      wasn't the case at all.  She just
      took care of us."

For MaDear, her decision about the children's care was automatic-of course they would stay with her. This attitude springs from what Edelman calls "the strong black tradition of self-help." Another writer, James King, talking about this tradition says: All black families in America have a common sense of `peoplehood' in the sense that they have had to help each other in the struggle against oppression since arriving in America." (12)

This strong sense of kinship, expressing itself as a network of help, was very much a part of Nadine's young life: "Because my family is so close-knit, they always helped to provide for us," she says. One of her cousins made her clothes, and they all pitched in to make sure the children always had Christmas presents. The aunt that Nadine most admires (and who paved the way as a role model) was able to attend college because the family held dinners to raise money for her tuition.