Disclaimer:
I am not suggesting there are race problems in America. In fact, we need to realize there is less racism than we think. Focus on the good. An interesting book on American view on race is : Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal—America's Racial Obsession
I love literature. I love heroes and heroines. I once had a foster child that was two years old from Liberia. He was with us for two years. The one thing I wished he had was a black hero to look up to. At the time children had Harry Potter, Alex Rider, and most Super Heroes are Caucasian i.e. Spider-man, Thor, The Hulk. We need a black hero!
Our little boy stayed with us for two years and forever changed our lives and the way we look at the lives of others. I stay in touch with him and talk to his mother over the phone on Tango. She shares stories from Africa and shares that she misses Africa. She has been in the United States since about the age of 10 and still misses Africa! This surprises me because everyone wants to come to the United States, right? The United States isn't everything if you don't have help and support or family. She misses her family most of all. She said in Africa they help each other- in American we are expected to do everything by ourselves. This is hard for a single mother!
I now have a African American girl I have adopted. Her roots are in Louisiana and Cuba. The history of Cuba and blacks is very interesting and another story. But, her roots are now with us. And I want her to love herself for her differences i.e. kinky hair, brown skin, wide nose, full lips and a beautiful round bottom!
I don't want her to desire straight hair, fair skin, or less of her body. She is beautiful and I want her to love herself. I love every thing about her curled eyelashes to her brown toes.
The one thing literature is missing is a good black hero and/or heroine. My story did not begin with, "hmm...how can I have a black hero." It came about very naturally and I like it that way. I started with my husbands roots, Native American. He is Apache, but I have chosen the Inuit of Greenland. The suicide rate is another story and I would like to work that into the novel. Greenland has the highest suicide rate in the world. I have heard once that you don't want to have one of each race in your story. Well, I have broke that rule. I have an African, an African American, Inuit, and a stuttering Caucasian. I love my story and know that others will too.
Our next generation is much more open about race and difference. Sometimes I feel that Caucasian families are taught to not look at color- color blindness. Instead, we should notice color and embrace it. We can't pretend we are all the same color. We are different and it is why we are beautiful. Having one of each character fits this generation because that is what is at school. There is more integration of races at school, they have friends of different colors and there should be one of each!
One other fact is that foster kids are an enigma to other kids. No one wants to say, "hey, I am a foster kid." We are afraid of what we do not know. Hopefully, other kids would not have such a stereotype for foster kids or fear them.
Statistics:
Foster kids facts
Every year, approximately 30,000 young people leave the foster care system without lifelong families – most at age 18.
There are more than 400,000 children and youth in the foster care system.
Young adults aged 18 to 25 with serious psychological distress were less likely than other adults with serious psychological distress to have received mental health services: 29.4% of those aged 18 to 25; 47.2% of those aged 26 to 49, and 53.8% of those aged 50 or older with past year serious psychological distress received mental health services in the past year.
In fact, data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) show that between the ages of 8 and 9, the probability that a child will continue to wait in foster care exceeds the probability that the child will be adopted. Further, the number of children in this older age group is growing, now representing almost half of the children waiting to be adopted nationally.
New Jersey's facts of Children awaiting adoption: Mostly Black for the state of NJ.
click here
2011
Alaska Native / American Indian<.1
Asian 0.3
Black 47.7
Native Hawaiian / Other Pacific Islander<.1
Hispanic (of any race)18.3
White 24.6
Two or More Races 4.4
Unknown 4.5
Missing Data 0.0
I am not suggesting there are race problems in America. In fact, we need to realize there is less racism than we think. Focus on the good. An interesting book on American view on race is : Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal—America's Racial Obsession
I love literature. I love heroes and heroines. I once had a foster child that was two years old from Liberia. He was with us for two years. The one thing I wished he had was a black hero to look up to. At the time children had Harry Potter, Alex Rider, and most Super Heroes are Caucasian i.e. Spider-man, Thor, The Hulk. We need a black hero!
Our little boy stayed with us for two years and forever changed our lives and the way we look at the lives of others. I stay in touch with him and talk to his mother over the phone on Tango. She shares stories from Africa and shares that she misses Africa. She has been in the United States since about the age of 10 and still misses Africa! This surprises me because everyone wants to come to the United States, right? The United States isn't everything if you don't have help and support or family. She misses her family most of all. She said in Africa they help each other- in American we are expected to do everything by ourselves. This is hard for a single mother!
I now have a African American girl I have adopted. Her roots are in Louisiana and Cuba. The history of Cuba and blacks is very interesting and another story. But, her roots are now with us. And I want her to love herself for her differences i.e. kinky hair, brown skin, wide nose, full lips and a beautiful round bottom!
I don't want her to desire straight hair, fair skin, or less of her body. She is beautiful and I want her to love herself. I love every thing about her curled eyelashes to her brown toes.
The one thing literature is missing is a good black hero and/or heroine. My story did not begin with, "hmm...how can I have a black hero." It came about very naturally and I like it that way. I started with my husbands roots, Native American. He is Apache, but I have chosen the Inuit of Greenland. The suicide rate is another story and I would like to work that into the novel. Greenland has the highest suicide rate in the world. I have heard once that you don't want to have one of each race in your story. Well, I have broke that rule. I have an African, an African American, Inuit, and a stuttering Caucasian. I love my story and know that others will too.
Our next generation is much more open about race and difference. Sometimes I feel that Caucasian families are taught to not look at color- color blindness. Instead, we should notice color and embrace it. We can't pretend we are all the same color. We are different and it is why we are beautiful. Having one of each character fits this generation because that is what is at school. There is more integration of races at school, they have friends of different colors and there should be one of each!
One other fact is that foster kids are an enigma to other kids. No one wants to say, "hey, I am a foster kid." We are afraid of what we do not know. Hopefully, other kids would not have such a stereotype for foster kids or fear them.
Statistics:
Foster kids facts
Every year, approximately 30,000 young people leave the foster care system without lifelong families – most at age 18.
There are more than 400,000 children and youth in the foster care system.
Young adults aged 18 to 25 with serious psychological distress were less likely than other adults with serious psychological distress to have received mental health services: 29.4% of those aged 18 to 25; 47.2% of those aged 26 to 49, and 53.8% of those aged 50 or older with past year serious psychological distress received mental health services in the past year.
In fact, data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) show that between the ages of 8 and 9, the probability that a child will continue to wait in foster care exceeds the probability that the child will be adopted. Further, the number of children in this older age group is growing, now representing almost half of the children waiting to be adopted nationally.
New Jersey's facts of Children awaiting adoption: Mostly Black for the state of NJ.
click here
2011
Alaska Native / American Indian<.1
Asian 0.3
Black 47.7
Native Hawaiian / Other Pacific Islander<.1
Hispanic (of any race)18.3
White 24.6
Two or More Races 4.4
Unknown 4.5
Missing Data 0.0
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