Racial Disproportionality in Child Welfare Systems

The Child Welfare System is Just as Important as the Criminal Justice System

With the recent release of the book Torn Apart by Prof. Dorothy Roberts, I finally felt the inspiration to write this. As a child welfare affected mother, longtime pro-Black child welfare reformer and abolitionist, I can say with certainty that too many of our families are being permanently split up and too few of us are pissed off about it. I understand why there are countless criminal injustice reform activists and more importantly why there are so many of us pissed off about the murdering of Black men, women and children by the white supremacist police including the recent killing of another Black man Patrick Lyoya and we should be. We should be taking to the streets about police brutality and the murdering of Black people by white police officers. However, that’s not the only wrath worthy issue that we should be up-in-arms about. The child “welfare” system is just as important to us as a people as the white supremacist criminal injustice system because it too is also a matter of life and death for countless Black families. This is an important issue because it deserves to be. Our families continue to be systematically targeted, our children removed en mass and our babies forcefully adopted out to mostly white strangers.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

  • According to NSCL.org, in 2018 Black children were 13.71% of the population, yet 22.75% of children in foster care were Black. Moreover, Black children also make up a disproportionate number of children identified as victims by child protective services and children waiting to be adopted.
  • White, Asian and Hispanic children are all underrepresented in the child welfare system.
  • 58 percent of child welfare social workers are White, 24 percent are Black, 15 percent are Hispanic, and 4 percent are another race or ethnicity (Dolan et al., 2011).
  • Prof Roberts states in Torn Apart that, “72 percent of Black children in Los Angeles County will endure a CPS investigation during the course of their childhoods” (Roberts. D, 2022).
  • More than HALF of Black children are subjected to at least one CPS investigation at some point during their childhoods — almost twice the lifetime prevalence for White children.
  • Per Casey.org, Black children are MORE likely to be reported for maltreatment, have their case investigated, substantiated and stay longer in foster care. Meanwhile, Black children are LESS likely to reunite quickly with their families.

The (il)legal Destruction of the Black Family is Real

I could go on forever about who, what, when and how this all happened policy wise but for now I’ll briefly concentrate on the Adoption and Safe Families Act (also known as ASFA). This blatantly racist and repugnant piece of legislation signed into law by Bill Clinton continues to destroy thousands of Black families annually and has created what I like to call mass removal of our children. ASFA is a federal law that promotes and removals and adoptions of Black children to mostly white strangers with finical rewards. The Adoption and Safe Families Act is the 94 Crime Bill of the child welfare system, it’s that detrimental to Black families. The negative affect to Black families has been and continues to be so devastating that I and many of my fellow child welfare reformers and abolitionists have accurately likened it and the system to which it belongs to as modern-day slavery and rightfully so.

The great teacher and prophet Malcom X (who along with his siblings was removed from his mother by a white social worker at 13 and placed into Michigan state care supposedly due to his mother experiencing a nervous breakdown after years of struggling with single parenthood after the murder of her husband Malcom’s father, Earl Little, by a white supremist group the Black Legion) also referred to the child welfare system as modern-day slavery. Too bad no one listened to him way back then, if enough people had many be countless other Black families, including my own, would have been speared the same fate.

“I truly believe that if ever a state social agency destroyed a family, it destroyed ours” (Malcom/, Haley, pg. 26).

It’s Time to Abolish CPS

I have spent so many years speaking out against the racist as hell child welfare system, ASFA and the black cultural genocide that its created and it’s been a lonely fight. It’s time to punish CPS, their agents and the entire system itself for what it has and actively continues to do to us. We need to take it further than just policy change (although I will continue to push for the African American Child Welfare Act and repealing ASFA). There is a small be dedicated #AbolishCPS movement and we need your support. Our families, our children need to be protected from this insidious and white supremacist institution that has been structurally and systematically oppressing us for almost a century. During chattel slavery the white masters removed and sold our children and the American child welfare system is the same thing (even more so since ASFA). There is NO acceptable kind of chattel slavery therefore there is NO acceptable kind of CPS, at least not in its current form. For those interested in learning more, please check out my blog where I have written several articles that go into much greater detail about ASFA and the child welfare system, how it operates and why it’s so dangerous.

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Insightful read. It’s like a tickler in a lot of ways. I feel like it’s just the tip of the iceberg on this topic. Hopefully in subsequent articles we can learn more about why ASFA is a problem and how they weaponize it against us.

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This is a must watch.
Exhibit A of a race soldier Karen disguised as an adoptive parent abusing their Black enslaved property adopted child at a Costco store.

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F0x3TS6SukE
Let's not forget the about the Hart family and how those 2 psychotic lesbian race soldiers disguised as "two moms" sadistically abused and starved their 6 kids up until the infamously tragic murder-suicide. Yes, these demon Karens murdered these children and themselves by giving themselves and the kids drugs and driving off a freaking cliff! They even forced all of these innocent children (especially Devonte Hart) to dress up in horrendous looking, outdated, slave play, Get Out type clothes and hug and take pictures with their white oppressors and random strangers in order to promote a sick, politically driven agenda. Disgusting and horrific.

View image at the forums

View image at the forums

This seriously looks like Get Out.

View image at the forums

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No kids, however I understand the importance of the family unit. What is even more important is the Extended Family. At some point we as a people are really going to have to explore CoOperative Business Models for many services that we “Accept” from state, federal, & local govts. A few ago in NC there was a push to eliminate one aspect of Child Welfare, that being Child Support. Am not sure what “model” was advocated to replace the current model. As far as CPS is concerned it has become prominent as the Extended Family has become almost non existent in the Black Community. To be quite honest & it often occurs to me that the preponderance of Family Reunion T-Shirts that were often seen through the ‘90’s dissipated in the mid- early 2000’s . And now we have CPS. Damn Shame. I can only wonder if the demise of the Extended Family & the rise of CPS is juxtaposed & reflected in any Social Science research. As far as reforming the system I think many men are 100% all for it. However it will probably only be successful if the women lead the push, & the reforming of Child Support has to be a part of the overall effort. This is where the Black Woman should & needs to be strong; for Family.‼️

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I would like to support you. How do I find your blog?

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Support 6ZEROS so they can bring more content like this.

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Both the crack pandemic and the birth of crack and heroin babies in the Black community in the 80s and 90s helped CPS rise to prominence and power. Then you still have the allegations of neglect and abuse. Lots of Black children were stripped away from their families completely when they didn't have to be. Think of the movie Losing Isaiah for example. CPS and tenancy laws have been attacking Black families and targeting vulnerable Black mothers and their Black children (especially those with divided or "imperfect" families) while the race soldiers and school to prison pipeline have been targeting Black men and boys.

One thing about CPS is that even if there are eligible Black relatives available to care for the child(ren), they will give them a difficult time too and do everything they can find them ineligible or unfit to care for the child due to any reason. And with people having less and less children these days, CPS and the foster child / adoption organizations have become even more desperate to take away our kids and suck in more vulnerable kids into their broken, for-profit system for any reason they can find or make up. CPS especially loves to adopt out biracial children who are mixed with Black and white because they are considered to be prized at the expense of the biological Black and white parents.

These "child advocacy" groups are also in bed with CPS and they are anti-family and even anti-child.

Here's a comment I wrote in another thread about racist Native Americans that applies here:

There needs to be a dedicated thread about CPS, the families negatively impacted by them and their evil sociopathic case workers, the abusive racist white families they adopt/foster Black and mixed kids out to, and the wicked corruption from top to bottom. The CPS services in this country from the local / county, state, and federal levels are fucking corrupt and outright evil towards Black families and our children.

Of course these anti-Black racist bastards are going to fight tooth and nail against the African American Child Welfare Act or anything that prevents them from adopting and abusing Black children from elsewhere if they can't adopt and foster Black and Biracial children from the US.

How else can these white and non-Black adoptive / foster parents put on a front and show off and brag how progressive, caring, understanding, and accepting they are because they have Black and Biracial foster / adopted kids? And if and when we successfully prevent whites and non-Blacks by law from adopting/fostering our babies and have the law protect us and our children from them, then they and the US Government will be forced to admit and come clean about their historical and current anti-Black racism against us and our children and they. cannot. ever. fucking have that day of reckoning arrive for our sake and for our lives!!! These demons are in deep, deep denial and delusion and are hellbent to destroy us.

If you run into a corrupt and devious CPS case worker "just doing their job" and both they, their corrupt rogue "doctors" with no real background or history, and their corrupt office/management decide to take your kids away because you were "neglectful", "abusive", or "failed a psych or drug test", they will proudly advocate for the foster/adoptive family and the rigged courts and their corrupt staff will often side with CPS and even silence you while they are allowed to commit perjury and tamper with their findings and "lose" paperwork.

Racist public defenders will also remain silent and will not even stand up or speak out for you while your rights get violated and you are silenced. You don't even have to be charged with a crime to have your children legally abducted from you. CPS's strategy is to exploit you and your family's weak spots and get you to trust them so that can make false statements and get an opportunity to remove your child so they can meet their quota.

This is a soft form of domestic terrorism funded by our taxpayer dollars and they pick their targets one by one instead of all at once to prevent open revolt / massive public shitstorm and make things seem more "isolated" than they actually are. Police departments use and adopt this same strategy, but their form of domestic terrorism is more violent. It is all systematic warfare.

And they'll let the foster / adoptive family do whatever they want with the kid and they can be as unqualified, messed up, abusive, racist, neglectful, drugged out, sick, inhumane, and trashy as they want to be, especially if they are white. And if they are a white LGBT couple they'll definitely turn a blindside for fear of seeming "homophobic" for accusing them of something bad, especially pedophilia and child sexual abuse.

If you raise any concerns about the foster/adoptive parents and how they, their other kids or others they hang around are harming your child, they and their CPS nurses will brush it off and make you seem difficult. And it is nearly impossible to even fucking sue them for violating your rights, causing damages to your family and harming your child. I’ve even seen CPS file for child support with false info against biological parents even though CPS already gets money from the state, and the courts will refuse to repair the economical harm done to the biological parents. Yes, they're that demonic and fraudulent.

All of the anti-CPS private attorneys are not only expensive, but most of them seem bought out by CPS as well. A lot of them are also uncaring about their Black clients, their concerns, and their cases too. Covertly racist private attorneys do exist and Black families can find themselves equally screwed over if they have the wrong lawyer that is combative, indifferent, dismissive, and unhelpful to them. Don't be fooled by good ratings and reviews. Low ranking lawyers aren't always great. And a lot of these high ranking lawyers are like a lot of the medical doctors that are considered in the best in the state (for whites and others), but yet the worst for you and your family due to their anti-Black racism.

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For all those interested in learning more the link to my blog is Latagia Copeland Tyronce, MSW, CADAS – Medium

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