'Black Babies Cost Less': The Racial Realities of Adoption in America
LatestIn 2010, NPR’s Michele Norris started The Race Card Project, a website through which she solicited six word statements from listeners on “race and cultural identity.” She gets honest statements like “race is a white man’s problem” and “I feel guilty because I’m white,” but the most recent one she’s chosen to explore is somewhat shocking in its frankness concerning the hierarchy in America of kids of different races: “Black babies cost less to adopt.”
In her piece, Norris starts with the circumstances that surrounded Michelle P. of Covington, Louisiana’s decision to adopt her son:
“We decided to adopt a child years ago. We are not infertile, but felt like it was a great way to add to our family, while loving someone who needed us. Our research showed us that African-American children, especially boys, are the least adoptable in our country. We decided to adopt via a non-profit agency, a child of any race. In the US, whether you use a non-profit or a for profit agency, black children are cheaper. I have read the reasoning behind this, but I really don’t care to repeat the rationalizations here. My son was cheaper than if he’d been white. How will he feel, if he ever finds out about that?”
Norris’ piece dives into some of the price differentials for children of different races being adopted domestically. She cites one example of a woman who was told that black babies cost less than $20,000, while biracial children were around $25,000 and white kids were $30,000.