Within the last few years interracial adoption has become quite popular. Still is rouses complaints with in the Black community when they see a White family raising a Black child. Blacks feel slighted as if the child is merely an accessory amongst the family's many collectable items. Some Blacks even become angry when they here about celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Mary-Louise Parker, and most recently Sandra Bullock with their Black children. My question is why? Why is it such a big deal who is raising the child if they love them and care for them? The main concern for a child's well being should be if they are in a loving environment. As far as we know they are. If the tables were turned and Whites refused the adopt Black children, Blacks would be outraged. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would be there in a heart beat. Some are upset that only African babies are being adopted by Whites and not African American babies (Sandra's child is from New Orleans). My answer to that is as difficult as life is for Black children in America, its far worse in many African countries. So, why does it matter to us who adopts Black children when its a well known fact that many Blacks do not adopt and haven't for some time? Well I guess it goes back to that painful stigma that White women, especially wealthy White woman, raise their children better than Black women. That Black women are some how unfit to take care of their own children. Remember the anger you felt when you watch Halle Berry's character cry in the bathroom when her child was taken away from her in Losing Isaiah? Remember that infamous line on the movie when Sam Jackson's character says, "Black babies belong with Black mothers"? This is why. Blacks feel like someone who is outside of their race cannot love a Black child like they can. I don't. I cringe when I hear comments like that. I think that if you truly love a child unconditionally, it doesn't have anything to do with their race. You will take care of them no matter what. If we were to ask Theo and Mikaela Spielberg, Steven Spielberg's adopted children, how their lives were they would probably tell us that they had the love and support of their parents. Let's open our minds to the World. It is ok for family's to adopt children out of their race. Martin Luther King famously said people should be judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character; he wasn't just talking about "us."
