Blog Post 10 - Option 2:

There are a multitude of factors contributing to the racial disparities in the welfare system of America. It would be a monumental and nearly impossible task to try and gather every bit of history, and social practices that have led this country to where it is today. However, Dorthy Roberts, the author of "Shattered Bonds; The Color of Child Welfare" provides plenty of evidence to make the strong claims that she does about the issue of racial imbalance in the welfare system. She starts by talking about the very start of what would become the system; where the wealthy people began charitable missions in the late nineteenth century to try to help children that needed it. However, these orphanages more often than not refused to accept black children. "By the time of the 1923 census, thirty-one northern states reported a total of 1,070 child-caring agencies. Of these agencies, 35 were for Black children only, 264 accepted all races, 60 took nonwhite children except Blacks, and 711 were reserved for white children" (7). One of the other historical pieces she cites that stood out to me was, "...whites opposed the War on Poverty precisely because of its link to Black civil rights" (16). Which is evidence of the problem that African Americans will begin to have with the system. 

Factors that I feel might contribute to these racial imbalances are that there is still an attitude toward the African American race that keeps them down more often than not; they might not have all of the opportunities to advance in life that they would be allowed had their skin been a different color. Meaning to say that they have worked just as hard, if not harder than a white person but that their skin color has affected their social status. To continue with that assumption, I'm guessing that the system is run by predominantly white upper-middle class people that potentially do not see their biases. They probably mean well, considering they entered into the field that they did but we live in a nation where prejudices against African Americans are ignored, as shown in the article we read about 'silent racism'. It could be difficult to convince a judge or social worker in the midst of the system who sees Black parents (good and bad) considerably more often than white parents, that there is something wrong, which will just continue to perpetuate the ideas that landed them there to begin with.  These are just a few of the areas that I believe contribute to the discrepancy among Blacks and whites within the American welfare and foster care system.

-Judy