[kayleekay]

My question is then, why do adoption agencies charge less for full AA babies ??
What happens if for one reason or another the baby comes out very light skinned with light brown eyes and the birthmom and birthfather are full AA...
do they say " oh wait a second, the price has to go up on this little baby because he 'looks' biracial, now you owe us $12,500 and not the $10,000 that we arranged earlier... " !!!!
That really makes no sense to me at all. They are basically basing the price of a baby on his skin color are they not !!!
The birthmom can tell the adoption center anything she wants, especially if the birthfather isnt in the picture, she has that right !! She might think that the father is full AA but maybe he isnt.Ultrasounds cant tell you what race that baby is.
I think this is one of the reasons that many people are so hung up on biracial / full AA adoptions !!! Just my opinion !!
My friend Lisa is cc, her husband is aa, they have 2 children. The little boy is very light skinned, dark brown hair and brown eyes. Her little girls complexion is very dark, but has lighter brown eyes than her older bro and her hair feels more like cc hair. The bottom line is that you never really know what you are going to get. That is the whole joy of it all !!

For us adopting a biracial or multi-race baby is a personal choice. Even though that little child may look full aa and not biracial, they will atleast know that one of their birthparents has something in common with their adoptive parents, even if they cant see it directly. That is our reason for looking into adopting a biracial baby.

Jillian

[HappyMomAnna]

When we try to step back and think without putting the racial issues on the subject the real fact is that there are More Whilte couples looking for babies then there are AA couples looking--there for the number of interested families for white babies increases and so do the fees....

Personally I agree with you--comepletey and have the same feeling about it....but when it boils down to numbers....things sometimes change.

[BethanyB]

I just wanted to let you know that I too was stunned by the pricing for adoptions of full AA children.

I even asked an agency the reason for the price difference. The woman told me that there are an abundance of AA and biracial children who need homes and not enough people to adopt them. Because of this reason they do not usually have to charge for all of the profile fees and do not do much leg work like they would for a couple who is waiting and "competing" for a CC child.

I still think it's crazy but that is what they told me.
Hmmmm?

[HappyMomAnna]

Well it is sort of the same kind of issue with Foster Children who are classified as "Special Needs" thus recieing Adoption Subsidies---All Miniority children are classified as special needs--because fewer families are wanting to adopt them and there are greater numbers of minority children needing to be adopted....

I wish this was were not the case....

[BethanyB]

In NJ only minority children over the age of 2 are considered special needs. But I hear ya!

[Kelli]

As an AA family, seeking an AA child we also questioned this when we started the process. We were told by our agency a little over three years ago that one of the main reasons for the difference in fees is not only to make it more "affordable" for AA families, but to make the concept of adoption more "acceptable" for us. Even though the fees are suppose to be for services rendered, extremely high fees can sometimes appear like gouging and baby buying. The whole "purchasing of people" idea sometimes doesn't sit well with some AA families, for obvious reasons. I had never thought about it that way until she mentioned it to us.

Jillian, best wishes to you in your adoption journey.

Peace and blessings,

Kelli

[LisaCA]

Kelli, I think that explanation may work only so far, since some agencies have a three tiered pricing, with the % AA determining the pricing. If they actually recruited families of color, I might believe this explanation. A better path is a sliding fee scale based on the income of the paparents. Avoids the whole issue of race.

There's been a long history of valuing the % white in blacks ("quadroons"1/4 black, "Octaroons" 1/8 black, etc). In slave auctions, those perceived to be "mixed" were generally priced higher.

today you can see this if you search adoption profiles. The vast majority are willing to take in a child of same race, a few "biracial" and even fewer "AA". birthmothers with children of color are turned away from agencies because they have no one interested in their child. It is a sad fact of life. Even AA families who adopt are often looking for "pretty" babies ( ie 'good" hair and light skin). Clearly racism has damaged the psyche of more than just whites.

I hear all day from folks who think my daughter is beautiful-they pull me aside and ask about her, they'll often ask if she's biracial (!) and I say "no". The usual reply is that biracial babies are so pretty (I won't go into the racism in this statement, but I could write an essay!). If you'll notice, television and paper advertisements have replaced children perceived as "black" with children perceived as "biracial". Pretty grim.

LisaCA

[Kelli]

Originally Posted by LisaCA

Kelli, I think that explanation may work only so far, since some agencies have a three tiered pricing, with the % AA determining the pricing. If they actually recruited families of color, I might believe this explanation. A better path is a sliding fee scale based on the income of the paparents. Avoids the whole issue of race.

Lisa, I hear ya and agree, however, this was one of the explanations given to us from an AA "placement specialist" with many years in the business who worked for a major christian agency. My sense is that she may have come to feel this way through experience. This agency does actively recruit AA families in churches, billboards, etc. (I still receive calls from them asking if we're ready for #2 yet or if I know of other families interested) because many (if not most) of the pbmoms are AA. We live near a major southern city that's pretty well known for having a high concentration of AA's in particular, mostly transplants from other places. This agency did use a % sliding scale, however, there was a minimum base and a maximum ceiling, and guess which program had a lower minimum and maximum? It wasn't a straight and even % for all.

I certainly don't think her explanation is true in all cases, maybe not even in most (I had never even considered it myself) but I think her explanation was probably valid enough for her to say it.

Even AA families who adopt are often looking for "pretty" babies ( ie 'good" hair and light skin). Clearly racism has damaged the psyche of more than just whites.

Clearly.

The usual reply is that biracial babies are so pretty (I won't go into the racism in this statement, but I could write an essay!

Co-authors of this essay ???

If you'll notice, television and paper advertisements have replaced children perceived as "black" with children perceived as "biracial". Pretty grim.

Yes, I've noticed the change in tide . . . pretty grim indeed!

Peace and blessings,

Kelli

[kllee4]

When we questioned a SW (AA), we were told that there were 2 reasons that she saw may be a cause for the difference in fees. She had said that she witnessed many AA moms who never really thought about adoption since it is more "socially accepted" and the fact that there was more of a willingness for a family member to step in and help the mom raise her child (mom, grandmom, etc.). She said that when she offers adoption as one of the options for moms, it is culturally not accepted. She said that the majority of the mothers were well aware of what assistance was available to them and were willing to "do the best that they could". One young woman told her that "if [her] mother and grandmother could do it, then why couldn't she?"

As an AA, it bothers me that browner skin is a reasoning for reduced adoption costs and a "perceived notion" that white is "right" and , therefore, the better option. Even that subtle message rings loud and clear for most of us. It is a harsh reality and one that is clearly mirrored in our society. And we wonder why racism is still alive and well in this country!

[jleasterday]

Our agency told us that the reason AA/biracial/multiracial fees were lower was because they sometimes had newborns that were waiting for adoptive parents. They also didn't have to do advertising that they did for couples wanting to adopt CC or hispanic or asian babies.

Jennifer

[spaypets]

Originally Posted by LisaCA

I hear all day from folks who think my daughter is beautiful-they pull me aside and ask about her, they'll often ask if she's biracial (!) and I say "no". The usual reply is that biracial babies are so pretty (I won't go into the racism in this statement, but I could write an essay!). If you'll notice, television and paper advertisements have replaced children perceived as "black" with children perceived as "biracial". Pretty grim.

LisaCA

Lisa, it's not just in the US where this happens. My dd is from India and is quite dark (as dark skinned as many AA people). We subscribe to India Today, so that we have positive images of Indian people -- except that the people so often pictured in the pages are almost as fair as I am (a European American)! And when a friend gave DD a Barbie from India, he did it with an apology. The doll was blonde, blue-eyed and in a sari! The old colonial prejudices live on years after independence.

In order to qualify for international adoption, DD had to be presented to 3 Indian families and turned down. Since she was healthy and beautiful, we can only imagine that she was "too dark" for the region where the orphanage is. They're loss is our gain.

It's very sad.

[kayleekay]

Adoption is so full of what-ifs as it is and this whole color thing really ticks me off. But really, can anyone one out there answer me on this one...

So an AA woman who is pregnant goes to an adoption agency and tells them she wants to make a birthplan for her baby. As far as she knows the babys father is CC but there is a possibility that the babys dad may be her x-husbands and he is AA.

So the baby might be born full AA or biracial.

How does the agency search for adoptive parents??

Do they have to wait to see what color the skin turns after he is born?

Do they charge a biracial adoption price for a full AA baby because they just dont know? (which is wronf anyway)

How would you feel if you wanted a full AA baby and later found out that he/she was biracial or the other way around? People out there do care !!!

Jillian

[HappyMomAnna]

I cannot answer you here--but I have a story that has happened just this year....

A CC family in a small CC town someplace in the USA wanted to adopt any baby....
The agency they used allowed the potiential birthmother to select the families she would interview....

An AA mother who was having an AA baby interivewed several families--and for whatever reason HER choice was the CC couple?

No one knows why--the CC family struggled at first only because they realized that this child would the only person in the town that was AA--but, they decided if the mother chose them then she must have had her reasons...

[mckenna]

as many before me have pointed out, there is really no such thing as full any race. i think you have to be comfortable adopting a child with any % of aa if you are willing to adopt outside of cc (speaking from a cc's point of view). i was really surprised to learn that agencies charged different fees for aa vs biracial adoption. the agency i am using does charge different rates for cc vs minority (something i don't agree with either). i have really been trying not to post on this thread as i have a very strong opion about the well being of children adopted into homes that would not be comfortable if they were full aa. i would not nor could not care if my child was bi-racial, multi-racial, etc, etc, etc.

[Sleeplvr]

They consider the baby full AA and charge the fee for AA. Most agencies consider the baby as biracial only if the Mother is CC. I know it doesn't make sense but that's how it is. Plus not very many AA women having biracial babies place them for adoption. If she couldn't take care of the baby a family member would. An AA family normally does not let a light skinned baby out of the family, especially if they live in the South. I live in the South.
One agency I contacted here in Georgia said that if the baby turned out to be biracial instead of full AA they would increase their fees to the biracial fee schedule. The fee for biracial was $4000 more.