Customer Reviews

Shattered Bonds: The Color Of Child Welfare

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I read Ms. Roberts book and believe that she is on target to the destruction of the Black family. The number of African American children in foster care is not a new theory. In fact, Black children have been in the foster care system since slavery. Slavery in itself was a form of foster care. The continued systematic destruction of the black family is caused by poverty, poor education and MISeducation, as well as, a host of factors created by the racism and classification of "minority" for black people. It is very easy to place fault on poor parents but the system pays more money to pull families apart than to help form the bonds of the bloodline.

In the state of Missouri, for example, black children make up only 14% of the total population of children in the state. Nonetheless, 44% of all children in the foster care system are black. A highly disproportionate number. One state, but multiply that by all states and the math speaks for itself.

I highly recommend this book.

While this book purports to be an unbiased account of the foster care system and its impact on African-American children, it fails miserably. The author is biased against the system from the very beginning, and presents only stories that back her view of the system. There are definitely issues with the foster care system including: overworked case managers, lack of funds, inability to assist children in an appropriate fashion 100% of the time. Certainly there is a racial issue since the majority of children in foster care and up for adoption are minorities, but is this because of the foster care system itself or are we missing a major piece in the puzzle? It is this missing piece that is missing from Ms. Roberts' book.