Cultural Genocide and the Destruction of the Black Family: Child Welfare Personnel's Refusal to Follow the Law
As a social justice and family preservation advocate, it is my duty to both stay informed and to educate the public about the many injustices perpetrated by our child welfare system. As I have written many times before, I have both personal and professional experience with the “system.” It was because of my own horrendous experiences — and the experiences of many others — that I have dedicated the past several years to extensive child welfare research and to child welfare reform advocacy. Therefore, when I stumbled across a recent shared post from renowned child welfare reformer Richard Wexler, I immediately took a look.
What I found in the article was both validating and disturbing. The author very matter-of-factly stated what many child welfare reformers — and anyone else whom has had firsthand knowledge of or experience with the child welfare system — already knew. That child welfare professionals — including caseworks, judges/magistrates, parental/child attorneys, and CASA’s — routinely, and without a moment’s or second through, thwart the law by simply ignoring the “reasonable efforts” legal mandate. Again, anyone who has had any contact with our child welfare system knows this to be true in 90% of cases. But what made this revelation — and the article itself — so striking — and indeed noteworthy — was the fact that child welfare professionals provided the data/information themselves.
The article was written in response to a national convention wherein some 700 child welfare legal professionals — from around the entire country — attended. The author surveyed these 700 attendees by asking the individuals present to give details on the circumstances when their agencies actually provided the legally necessary “reasonable efforts” to keep reported families together — rather than to promptly and needlessly remove the children and place them in foster care which is so often the response of child welfare professionals, especially when black families are concerned. Needless to say, the results were mind-blowing. Out of the 700 child welfare legal professionals in attendance, only 12 — yes, twelve — individuals were able to provide details about a case wherein “reasonable efforts” to keep a family together was enforced and implemented.
With these numbers, it is clear to see how and why the gross over-representation of black children and families — specifically removals and termination of parental rights— within the child welfare system is, and continues to be, a significant — and never adequately addressed — problem throughout the country. And while the author of the article takes great care to make excuses for such blatant disregard for the sanctity of family — not to mention the law — and to absolve child welfare professionals of any malice, I am not and will not be so gracious; for I — and most child reform advocates — know better. It is clear that racism and discrimination — institutional and structural — is pervasive at every point in the child welfare system from reporting to termination of parental rights and adoption.
It is the fact that child welfare professionals refuse to follow the law — legally mandated reasonable efforts — that make this wholesale destruction of the black family possible. The fact that child welfare professionals have been allowed to get away with such tyranny — and to do so with impunity for 40 plus years — demonstrates just how disconnected the public — and our elected officials — are. Then again, when one thinks about it, it is easy to understand why such a “system”, as what our child welfare system has become, has been allowed to continue unchecked.
After all, how many white middle-class, upper-middle-class, or wealthy families have been subjected to such a system? How many of these well-off and socially connected families have been subjected to the kind of intense invasion of privacy and social control that our child welfare system melts out to poor — and overwhelmingly black — families every day? Don’t worry I’ll wait.
Yet and still, hardly a day goes by in the mainstream media when we don't hear some pundit and or elected official screaming about and railing against a couple thousand illegal immigrant families that have been separated at the border. These same usually do-nothing individuals — elected officials from both parties — have worked — at lightning speed — to pass legislation to keep these families together while steadfastly ignoring the inhumane treatment and ripping apart of thousands of American — overwhelmingly black — families which occurs daily.
Can you see the dysfunction and hypocrisy here?
The outright and widespread refusal of judges and child welfare professionals to apply and rigorously enforce the “reasonable efforts” legal mandate only highlights the real need for federal protective legislation — The African American Child Welfare Act — that I and other advocates have been arguing for all these years. One of my absolute favorite quotes is by Albert Einstein and I believe he says it all when he says the following:
A Call to Action:
I’m calling upon advocates, at-risk families, and woke child welfare professionals everywhere — those who are really ready to make a positive difference and combat the cultural genocide of African American families, and indeed all families, all across the country — to call and write the appropriate committees and/or legislators and tell them that you will not stand for this injustice. Please call or write your representatives and request that the African American Child Welfare Act, or one similar, be introduced in YOUR state.
#NAFPAorg #AfricanAmericanChildWelfareAct #BlackFamilyMatters #BlackLoveMatters #BlackLivesMatter #BlackFamiliesBelongTogether #BlackHistory #KeepBlackFamiliesTogether #AbolishCPS #RacistDHS
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Latagia Copeland-Tyronce, MSW, CADAS, is a longtime parental rights and social justice advocate, child welfare reform activist, writer/blogger, and journalist whose work has been featured in BlackMattersUs and Rise Magazine. She is the founder, president, and executive director of the National African American Families First and Preservation Association (NAFPA) a groundbreaking 501c4 nonprofit origination, the first of its kind, devoted exclusively to the protection and preservation of the African American (Black) Family though policy and legislative advocacy.
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