Expert: Kalua - 12/10/2001

Question
What is your opinion on white people adopting black children?

Thanks for your time!  :)

Answer
I think that an abandoned child is colorless.  I've watched "Raising Isiah" a few times and it breaks my heart that the courts took this child from the only mother it had ever known, but in the end the black mother (Played beautifully by Halle Berry) had to call in the white mother (Jessica Lange) to soothe the child.

If the family is solid and happy and willing to take on the child of another race I think that they should be allowed to do so.  It is real love to want to help the child and not just adopt on the basis of ego (does he or she look like me?).

The argument about identity of the child is moot.  A teenager will seek out what and who they are and develop their identity based on what makes them feel the most comfortable.  A child is unaware of these differences.

I am not "more black" because I grew up in the South and know some black forms of language.  I'm black, because I am black.  It is not a religion, it can be a community but we are all so very different from each other.  My West Coast friends are incredibly different from me but they are no less black.  My light-skinned friends are still black or identified as such.

Color is not identity but it does identify.  A black child is a black child whether they are reared by white parents or not.  A healthy and loved child is a child that I'd like to see regardless of hue.

So I think that any couple who adopts any child is beautiful and selfless and helping a society of abandoned souls who NEED them.  Any other argument is ridiculous and racist.

That's my opinion.