If Native Americans Can Have Their Child Welfare Laws Enacted Without A Fuss (Federal and in Michigan) Than Black People Should Have Theirs Too!!!
As a Black woman — mother and social justice advocate — I am, and will always be, supportive of the protective child welfare legislation — federal and state — that Native Americans have been able to pass — especially since most child welfare scholars agree that legislation was indeed warranted. That said, I find it both unacceptable and blatantly hypocritical that these legislators — who have championed the rights of the Native Americans to raise their own children and to not be subjected to the racism and detrimental effects of the predominately white run child welfare system — have yet to acknowledge the need for, introduce, and pass similar child welfare legislation for Black people — who too have suffered persistent and long-standing oppression, racism, discrimination, destruction of the family, and cultural genocide at the hands of whites — and their institutions — for hundreds of years.
I have been writing about and advocating for federal — and state — protective child welfare legislation for Black families since 2015 — a few years after several of my own children were unjustly taken from me for the heinous and inexcusable crime of being poor, Black, and alone. Yet and still, to date, only one state — Minnesota — out of fifty has made any real effort to introduce state legislation — the Minnesota African American Preservation Act — that would attempt to address the systemic and institutional racism, gross over-representation, and negative outcomes that have decimated thousands of Black families and children within the state’s child welfare system. And although I was well aware of the federal ICWA — the Indian Child Welfare Act enacted in 1978 — I was unaware until recently, that Michigan, a state that I reside in, had passed robust state child welfare legislation for Native Americans “to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families,” according to the Michigan Supreme Court. The Michigan Indian Family Preservation Act (also known as MIFPA) was quietly signed into law in 2013. MIFPA, for all intents and purposes, effectively mirrors ICWA at the state level by imposing strict precautions/protocols and much higher legal standards for removals, child placements, and termination of parental rights — clear and convincing and beyond a reasonable doubt as opposed to the preponderance and clear and convincing standards that non-Native Americans (i.e. Black people) are subjected to.
There was even a recent case here in Michigan wherein a Native American man — who voluntarily relinquished his parental rights to his two young children — had the termination of his parental rights reversed by the Michigan Supreme Court as a result of MIFPA; the Michigan Supreme Court held that the man should have been given adequate time to withdraw his consent to terminate his parental rights because the adoption of his children has not yet been finalized — something that the MIFPA allows, and something that Black people have no legal right to do in most states including Michigan. Now, don't get me wrong, this is a wonderful thing for Native Americans and their families. After all, history clearly shows us that Native American families have suffered much at the hands of whites and their racist child welfare system. But here’s the thing, so too have Black families. And, it would be disingenuous for me to say that I am not truly disappointed and dismayed — okay, outright livid — that the legally sanctioned destruction of the Black family has been all but ignored by the same individuals who so rightly and valiantly — and successfully — lobbied for ICWA and MIFPA.
Here Are The Hard And Well-Documented Facts
— White families, even in identical situations as their Black counterparts, are far more likely to be kept together and to receive help and supports from the child welfare system and child welfare professionals.
— White families are less likely to go through a full child welfare investigation.
— Research found that caseworkers are quicker to perceive Black children as being at risk and in need of removal from their homes.
— Research done at the University of Pennsylvania found that Black children are four times more likely to be removed, they spend longer periods of time in foster care, and it’s harder to find them a stable foster placement.
— Research done at the University of Minnesota found that children who went through foster care had more behavioral problems and internalized issues than kids who remain with their families while receiving help and support.
— Research concluded that there are twice as many Black children in foster care, twenty-eight percent, than there are in the general population, 14 percent.
— Research further concluded that Black parents are also subjected to termination of parental rights at higher rates than white parents.
— One study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that despite similar rates of substance use between Black and white pregnant women, Black women were 10 times more likely to be reported to child welfare authorities for substance use during pregnancy.
— Other studies found that doctors are more likely to report injuries on Black children as suspected child abuse than identical injuries on white children.
— The predominately white run child welfare system, places unfair, often unreachable standards on parents who are raising their kids with very little money.
— The neighborhood and ethnicity of the parent(s) impact whether or not their children are and will be removed.
— “Implicit bias” greatly contributes to the differences and negative outcomes of black families within the child welfare system.
— According to Emma Ketteringham, a family court attorney, “If you live in a poor neighborhood (like a high percentage of black families do), then you better be a perfect parent.”
According to legal Scholars — and long-time child welfare reform advocates — Dorothy Roberts and Lisa Sangoi:
Research shows these racial disparities, resulting in the over-representation of Black children in the child welfare system, are not due to a higher incidence of abuse and neglect in Black families as compared to white families. Black people in America are targeted by the punitive arm of every legal system at disproportionate rates. Thus, it should come as no surprise that Black families are more commonly targeted for child welfare supervision, child removal, and termination of parental rights. Indeed, we should consider foster care an extension of the same racist carceral regime that includes these other punitive systems.
Why Black People Still Lack The Child Welfare Litigation We So Desperately Need
The fact that Black people have yet to have our own federal and state legislation — despite ample and credible research which clearly indicates otherwise — reveals, for all to see, just how little we, our children, and our familial bonds, matter in and to this country — which in of itself isn’t much of a surprise considering white America’s history and its treatment of Black people in general. Still, such blatant and outright refusal to protect the constitutional and inalienable rights of Black people to raise their children — within our own homes, families, and communities — only serves to reinforce the status quo and power structure wherein Black people are placed at the very bottom of the totem pole — even in 2018. Simply put, whites — and many Native Americans themselves — consider Native Americans to be “people of color,” but NOT “Black,” this was and still is very important, and thus were — and still are — placed legally and socially above Black people. This (racist) way of thinking, professionally known as racial/cultural bias — whether or not these individuals will admit it — is prevalent in many child welfare workers and state legislators. This, my friends, is the real reason that Native Americans have federal and state child welfare legislation and we, Black people, — by and large — do not.
In Conclusion
It has been a decade since Jessica Dixon — legal scholar and child welfare expert — has argued in favor for the creation and passing of federal legislation — the African American Child Welfare Act — that would legally address the systemic gross-overrepresentation and destruction of Black families within the child welfare system; but unfortunately, few have taken notice, and even fewer have acted. In all honesty, if we were talking about any other race of people — a people that have been subjected to decades of institutional racism and cultural genocide within and due to the child welfare system — in such a predicament, I wouldn't be sitting here writing this piece because something would've been done long ago to address the problem as evidenced by the Native American child welfare legislation. Needless to say, I believe that protective federal and state child welfare legislation for black people is WAY overdue.
A Call to Action…
I’m calling upon social justice and parental rights advocates, families/parents at-risk, 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 state 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 #BlackFamilyMatters#CASASoWhite #KeepBlackFamiliesTogether #AbolishCPS #AbolishFosterCare
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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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