Hey Mainstream Media, Stop Promoting this Transracial Adoption Of a 5-Year-Old Black Boy As a “Heartwarming Feel-Good Love Story” Because It’s White Supremacist Adoption Porn!
I really didn’t set out to write this piece but I truly felt compelled to because this story is everywhere and I can’t get away from it. And frankly, it has ticked me off to the fullest existent. Its been covered in all the major and mainstream media outlets and publications including the New York Times and CNN. I also felt an obligation to write this because this happened here in Michigan which is where my home base is. Needless to say, this whole thing is extremely disturbing and problematic despite the narrative and spin that has been placed on it. I found out about this story only a few days ago and I shocked at the viral response. I was first introduced to the story while was checking my daily Facebook notifications and I noticed that someone had posted a link with the headline “Young boy invites entire kindergarten class to his adoption hearing” in a group that I am active in. I clicked on the link and I was absolutely disgusted at what I was reading and seeing. I literally felt sick to my stomach afterwards.
It was obvious to me that this very young child is being exploited by the adults involved. But before we get into that, lets start with the story itself. This story centers around a five-year-old boy named Michael Orlando Clark Jr. (or at least that’s what his name used to be as I am sure it will be changed soon). Apparently, young Michael Jr. — was but one of 36 children to be adopted on Thursday during Kent County’s 23rd annual adoption day in Grand Rapids, Mich — invited his entire kindergarten class at Wealthy Elementary School, almost completely white, to his final adoption hearing because, per his teacher, he wanted his “whole family” to be there on his special day where he was being adopted by foster parents David Eaton and Andrea Melvin (both white too of course). Everyone’s (the kids, teacher, principle, child welfare officials, and judge) so happy for Michael and his saviors, I mean, new mommy and daddy. So that is pretty much it. Now let’s get to the reason we are here.
There Is Something About This That Doesn’t Feel Right…
First, it has been established that the Kent County court had decided to terminate the parental rights of Michael’s biological/True parents during the Spring — prompting Eaton and Melvin to pursue adoption. But in all of the many articles that have featured this story, I cannot find any information on what the circumstances were which caused Michael’s removal. What were and/or are his birth family dynamics? Does he have any bio siblings? Why were his birth parent’s rights were terminated? And why couldn’t he be placed with any birth family in kinship care? This is all highly suspect to me. I know that child welfare cases and adoptions are confidential, however, under these special circumstances — a literally public adoption and national/international media story — there should be a least a little background provided. Instead, there is nothing, nothing at all as if Michael had no life or existence before he came into the care of Eaton and Melvin which of course is impossible. And then there is the elephant in the room, which no one in the mainstream media has dared utter, every adult featured and/or present here is white. In fact, little Michael is the only African American/Black person involved in the court room.
When I first spoke out about this via twitter (see above) I said that the whole thing reminded me of a slave auction — anyone who is familiar with Black history will see where I am coming from. I have a huge problem with these (white) adults are using this (African American) child to promote their county’s adoption day — I have serious issues with adoption day and national adoption month and have written about it/will provide links below. This is just plan wrong because the (white) adults are using this child to push their own ideas and assumptions about familial bonds and especially (transracial) adoption. All the while, these adults are failing to address race which is undoubtedly a factor in this child’s life as it is in every African American child’s life — which makes them part of the problem as we do not live in a colorblind “post-racial” society. After all, he and we are Black first and how are these adoptive parents going to be able to teach Michael how to be a Black man? How are they going to support him and help him deal with the reality of being a Black male in America? Yeah. no mention of that. That’s not to say that white adoptive parents can’t do (some) of these things it is just that they will need assistance doing so and few even bother — most are too busy fetishizing their adoptive child which seems to be the case here. Sorry but it’s true.
The Reality Of The Child Welfare System…
As a African American woman, longtime parental rights activist, former foster child who was unjustly removed from my activist mother for two plus years and mother of several children unjustly taken from me by the racist Ohio child welfare system and transracially adopted out, I know the heartbreaking reality of this situation. I have lived it and seen it firsthand in the lives of countless other African American families. I know that there is nothing joyful or inspirational about having your child taken from you, your/their family and adopted out to people who don’t even look like you or have a similar life experience never to hear from or see your child again. The reason being, even in the social media era, that many of these white adoptive parents purposely and aggressively isolate their African American adoptive children, some going so far as to change “Black sounding” and/or “ethnic” first names of the child to Caucasian sounding ones without the knowledge of the birth family — I call it Caucasianizing and it happened to my children/family. Many flat out try to erase their adoptive child’s blackness and previous identity entirely — all this is encouraged by child welfare officials of course most white also. These adoptions could and should be open, if they must be done at all, but almost all are closed and callously so — with many of these white adoptive parents treat their African American adoptive children more like property than a person with a culture and feelings (sound familiar?). This process is a million times more painful if the removal and “forced” adoption was wrongful and this is outrageously common with African American parents and families who are already targeted and discriminated against by the (racist) child welfare system.
This Is a Slap in the Face to All (African American) Families That Have Experienced Child Welfare Abuse and Forced Adoptions.
I find everything here disingenuous and shameless adoption peddling at best and at worst outright white supremist child welfare adoption propaganda and I am leaning towards the latter. Even more unsettling is that you have thousands of people praising this as if this child has won the lottery of life and they simply don’t know what they are talking about. Every adoption — even a open and justifiable one which I am definitely not saying is the case here — begins with a loss. Every. Single. One. And although we have no background and therefore don’t know what lead to this adoption whatever happened it happened quickly. And per my professional and personal experience, it is likely that the state (and the child welfare officials and judge) deliberately failed or refused to provide the services necessary to successfully reunite Michael with his birth/true parents and/or bio family in blatant favor of (transracial) adoption which can be done under ASFA (the adoption and Safe Families Act) — African American children are twice as likely to be removed than white children with similar or worse circumstances and are less likely to be reunited with their birth parents and families.
Michael is five years-old why is everyone acting as if he knows and truly understands what is happening to him and the life changing/altering consequences of this adoption. All he knows is that he wont have to move around anymore — which may or may not be true since there is always a number of children who are retuned to the state AFTER an adoption when the adoptive parents no longer want them. That said, I believe that the adults involved put young child, a baby really, up to this whole thing considering the fact that child welfare adoptions, especially transracial adoptions, are kept confidential and certainly aren’t open to the public or media. Still, I wish Michael and his REAL family all the best and may they be reunited some day. Until then, I will continue to fight for family preservation.
#NationalAdoptionMonth #NationalAdoptionAwarenessMonth #NAFPAorg #WhiteSupremacistCPS #AfricanAmericanChildWelfareAct #CasaSoWhite #BlackFamilyMatters #BlackLoveMatters #BlackLivesMatter #BlackFamiliesBelongTogether #BlackHistory #BlackMothersForCPSAbolition #BlackMothersForChildWelfareReform #AbolishCPS #AbolishFosterCare #RepealASFANow #EndCPS #KeepBlackFamiliesTogether
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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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