Virgil
Sandra Bullock's Adoption
by , 04-29-2010 at 10:12 PM (2875 Views)
Perhaps you’ve seen that Sandra Bullock has adopted. To be honest I barely know who Sandra Bullock is; I’m not hip with pop stars. Since my wife and I are in the process of adopting, I thought this an interesting read and I searched around for a number of perspectives. Unfortunately most of what I read was silly celebrity news, but there are a couple of tid bits that raised some eye brows.
First she is adopting as a single mom. I guess this was a late development since she is divorcing her cheating husband. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100428/...lock_divorce_4
Still I don’t exactly know what to think of letting single moms adopt. That woman who put her adopted boy on a plane back to Russia was a single mom. Maintaining a job and being a single mother to an infant is an incredibly difficult balance. I’m sure Sandra Bullock has the resources to hire whatever help she will need, and she certainly doesn’t have a typical nine-to-five job, but what about the average single mom? With all the families looking to adopt, I’m not sure a single mother should have priority over a nuclear family. It probably should be assessed on a case by case basis, but that woman with the Russian boy couldn’t handle it, and she was a nurse, not some dim-wit. Now in fairness to Sandra, she did not start this process as a single woman. Events just unfolded this way.In a lengthy interview and photoshoot with People magazine, Bullock spoke of her joy at being a mother for the first time, and her sadness at ending her five-year marriage to motorcycle maker and reality TV star Jesse James.
"Yes, I have filed for divorce," Bullock, 45, told the celebrity magazine. "I'm sad and I am scared."
She said she had adopted a son, three-and-a-half-month-old Louis Bardo Bullock, who she now planned to raise as a single mother and put her acting career on hold for awhile.
Second issue, her child is black and of course she is not. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/cel...ck_is_a_n.html
I don’t have a problem with that, but apparently a number of black commentators do. In fact it had been a long held policy in the United States (stopped apparently in the 1990’s) that all efforts were to be made for a black orphan to be placed with a black family, and it’s not white people that have pushed this policy it’s been African-Americans. Black Spin magazine had an excellent article on the subject, presenting all sides of the issue: http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/04/2...-bullock-baby/
Read the entire piece to get the full range of the issue. But how about the converse: would the issue be the same, or perhaps even more intense, if the orphan was white being adopted by a black family? My wife and I briefly knew a woman, white, fairly well off financially, an acquaintance, she being a friend of a family member, who had adopted two children – a white boy and a light skinned black girl. The boy was around twelve, well adjusted and apparently a high achiever. The girl, fourteen I think, had deep identity issues and ran away from home several times and apparently had some psychological problems. We’ve lost touch with this family, so I couldn’t tell you how it turned out. But there were problems there. The mother by the way was also a single mom and from what I could tell not the most forceful or strong willed person. Still this is one case and I don’t know the entire history.Some studies -- including a 2008 study by the Evan B Donaldson Adoption Institute, which was endorsed by several prominent organizations -- have suggested that black children raised in white adopted families have a difficult time adjusting to being different in an all-white environment.
The National Association of Black Social Workers felt so strongly about this issue that, back in the early '70s, it branded trans-racial adoption "cultural genocide." The workers wrote:
"The National Association of Black Social Workers has taken a vehement stand against the placement of black children in white homes for any reason. We affirm the inviolable position of black children in black families where they belong physically, psychologically and culturally in order that they receive the total sense of themselves and develop a sound projection of their future."
There is definitely something to be said for the importance of a deep-rooted sense of culture and heritage and growing up around other people who look like you. It can be hard for someone who is not black to really grasp exactly what that means and how important that is for a person's psyche. Even the most culturally aware white person cannot know what it is like to be black, and I doubt whether it is something they could be taught or teach. Hopefully, Bullock has some great black people in her life who can connect with the child and provide that for him.
Third issue, Sandra’s adoption process took four years. Supposedly she did not cut any corners with her wealth and fame. My wife thinks she didn't. I have some doubts. This is a US adoption and the child is three and a half months. I’ve heard that US adoptions can take up to seven years, especially for such an infant. In a few weeks it will be three years since my wife and I started our adoption process, and ours is overseas, and we still haven’t gotten to an orphanage. So who knows? I wish her and the little child well. He was named after Louis Armstrong, with this wonderful song in particular in mind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTJiINGFO7Q
Go to Profile
Mark as Read
