Bethany --
I completely agree that being open to adopting a child of latina/o, asian or biracial AA/CC heritage but not being open to adopting a child who's fully African American is 100% an issue of skin color. It's incredibly sad.
It disgusts me when adoption agencies who place children from other countries -- I'm thinking specifically about Guatemala, but there are others I'm sure -- go out of their way to state that an available child is light skinned or 'white appearing'. Same thing with adoption 'professionals' in this country talk about percentages with regard to biracial/multiracial children. "I'll take a 1/4 AA, 1/2 CC 1/4 NA child but not a 3/4 AA, 1/4 Cuban child" ?!?!? When are people going to realize that by choosing to build your family through transracial adoption you're making a life-long commitment to becoming a multiracial family that makes a daily effort to incorporate the racial and cultural background of that child into your life -- to include a vibrant community of same race role models (and not just other children). This is regardless of that child's apparent skin tone.
I live in MAINE. It's going to require great effort on our part to create a community of color for our son. (Through we live in Maine's biggest 'city' and do have friends and neighbors who are people of color.) It's my job as his parent to do this. If that means we move to a more racially diverse area before he hits school age, so be it.
My son, so far, is relatively light-skinned. This makes him no less a person of color. This makes my job no less urgent to provide him with every opportunity to develop a comprehensive racial identity that celebrates ALL facets of his racial background.
I'm not sure if linking to educational articles is allowed, but I'm going to try and link one of my favorite articles on the common acceptance many white adoptive parents have toward adopting a biracial child when they wouldn't consider a child of full AA heritage. Should this not be allowed, I apologize in advance and ask that this post be edited to just take out the link. Thanks!!
http://pact.best.vwh.net/press/articles/easier.html