Child Welfare Gordon Summary

In the boiling pot of America most people have been asked “what are you?” when referring to one’s race or nationality. In the short story “Borders” by Thomas King he explores one of the many difficulties of living in a world that was stripped from his race. In a country that is as diverse as North America, culture and self-identity are hard to maintain. King’s short story “Borders” deals with a conflict that I have come to know well of. The mother in “Borders” is just in preserving her race and the background of her people. The mother manages to maintain her identity that many people lose from environmental pressure.

In the past year and a half with events like DPAL, Native American rights along with the rights of other minority groups in the United States haven’t been shown the same rights as Caucasians when it comes to civil liberty issues. In 1978 Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Under the ICWA tribes have significant input on whether the removal of children from them is necessary, “efforts must be made to support and rehabilitate a family before its child is placed into foster care or adopted.” (Ryznar, 2013). The ICWA also was enacted to examine how it “establishes standards for state-court child custody proceedings involving Indian children… “the consequences…of abusive child welfare practices that [separated] Indian children from their families and tribes through adoption or foster care placement, usually in non-Indian homes.” (Cornell University Law School). In 2009, a couple from South Carolina, Melanie and Matthew Capobianco, wanted to adopt a baby whose father (Dusten Brown) was an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and mother Christina Maldonado of Hispanic background. Due to Brown being a registered member of the Cherokee Nation, and under the ICWA, a child that

Parents wishing to adopt have challenged the adoption laws regarding American-Indian children. For many decades, people wanting to adopt African-American children from disturbing situations have been put through several issues. A law was passed called the “Indian child welfare act” to end what was then a common practice. The state claims they thought that American-Indian children were better off in homes with non-Indian parents. A handful of recent lawsuits say the federal law and similar legislation at state levels make it harder to find stable homes for children. they’ve had many cases fall apart, because parents adopting don’t want the children. Most adopting parents believe it's unfair to them if they can’t adopt American-Indian children.

I do not fit in one box on a federal checklist, I am of several cultures. My experience of listening to my Grandmother’s stories made me acutely aware of this fact. I am not just an American, I am a Mexican-American. Living in the Rio Grande Valley, I am part of this “third country” that Anzaldua calls the borderland (Anzaldua Borderlands 1987, 3). In this third country where the “third world grates against the first and bleeds”, the spilt blood creates a new country; an uneasy fusion of both cultures (Anzaldua Borderlands 1987, 3). In my case I was born to a father from Mexico and a mother from America, I am part of the third culture, the Mexican-American. I am proud to be an American and a Hispanic, yet America devalues me because of my heritage.

More than likely that title was alarming to most people because how can one be “too old” for food and a place to say? Imagine being somewhere from the time you were a toddler, then all of a sudden your eighteenth birthday comes and suddenly you are kicked out of the only place you have had to call home for 18 years. That’s how it is for a teenager in the foster care system. It doesn’t matter how good you thought your life was, good behavior, or love, for some turning 18 means freedom, cigarettes, army, voting e.tc however, for children in the system 18 means homeless, hungry and alone.

Physical abuse is when a child is physically hurt . Hitting, beating, throwing, shaking are all physical abuse.

As a child, Ermilia was transferred by social services from a foster home to her grandparent’s house. She is horribly mistreated and habitually reminded of how she is a burden to the lives of her grandparents. Ermilia’s character struggles with a sense of purpose and ambition. Although, Ermilia and her friends do experience severe relationship problems as they are caught up in violence in the streets while the Chicano rights movement is at its peak. It is important to examine the dichotomy between Ermilia’s grandparent’s viewpoints and her present outlook on the Chicano people. Ermilia’s grandparents were products of the Spanish conquest that later elicited forms of restriction and racism such as miscegenation laws and construction of freeways. They were conditioned to believe that containment and segregation was a natural part of Chicano life. It was not until the Chicano rights movement in the 1960’s that the Chicano community began to question the laws and legislations that restricted them. Instead of just being contained by the bulldozer, dogs, and helicopters Ermilia and her friends began to question, who were these people that brought these forces of containment and why? Thoughts began to cross Ermilia’s mind such as, “what might happen if the line of people wrapped themselves around the Quarantine Authority officers like a python? Demand. Protest. Organize.” Although, Ermilia may not be the

In “Races isn’t what defines me: exploring identities choices in transracial, biracial, and monoracial families”, Butler-Sweet, Colleen explains that there has been a controversial issue in the United Sates for more than half a century, among black children raised in white homes. The author’s main claim is that transracial adoption will miscarry a black identity. Comparing experiences among monoracial, biracial, and transracial families on black identity.

Even in places where the minority population is small the amount of children removed from their families was still large, in fact about three times as high as their proportion in the general population. “Bremner (1974) states, “Although the rate of child welfare services to Negro children was higher…behavioral and emotional problems were reported for a considerably smaller proportion of Negro children… This raised the question for some professionals that whether placement of minority-group children is precipitated by poverty and lack of supportive resources, rather than disruptive family relationships or perceived habits of the child” (p. 8). The removal rate of Native American children was high as well. Like African American children there were obvious overlaps between removal from the home and poverty. As well during that time most social workers were Caucasian and tended to have different cultural standards in terms of family life therefore creating convolution. Like the circumstances of Native American children being taken from their home in the turn of the century, Native American children, when taken from their home often lost their culture and

If three baby pictures were spread out in front of you would you be able to pick which one fell under the category of an “anchor baby”? The answer yet unknown, is doubtful. A baby is a baby, born with innocence and purity without choice of where they are born. That choice is the mothers to whom the child belongs to. What is an anchor baby, how did the term come about, how is this allowed, what are the statistics, and how is it relevant to Mexican American studies will all answered in this paper.

In her book, The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction, Linda Gordon argues that the events of October 1904 in Clifton-Morenci, and the Supreme Court’s case that followed, were to blame for the development of a more obvious racial hierarchy in the US’southwestern states. The events covered in this book include the New York Foundling Hospital’s use of orphan trains to attempt to place New York orphans with Catholic families in Arizona, the Anglo-Protestant community’s negative reaction to the NYFH’s process, and the legal battle which resulted from this. To support her argument, Gordon illustrates the three way battle of motives between the sisters sent by the NYFH, the Mexican adopters, and the Anglo kidnappers of 1904 Arizona.

The second account of a changing stance toward children’s rights was evolution alongside women’s rights. Before this time, women and children were seen as unimportant under the law, whereas a father was given almost total control over all matters regarding his wife and children. If a father was violent or neglectful, society simply turned their shoulder to it. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, laws pertaining to the family system began to change. A new law recognized the equal rights of fathers and mothers with the mother’s rights reigning over the fathers in regards to the children. Also, the legal system began viewing children as important to the future of society, therefore “appropriate objects of the court’s

Child welfare is an issue that is vastly debated today in the United States. Regardless of party lines, socioeconomics, gender, religion, or race, it seems like everyone has a stake in shaping this issue. As such, progression in policy can be difficult and is often controversial. Throughout the 1900s, the United States Supreme Court heard and decided several cases that set forth precedent, giving more power to, and enabling, parents to raise their children as they see fit. As constituents, parents have a substantial say in what policy should and will be enacted. However, as individuals, parents do not have nearly as much power alone as they do in groups to influence public policy. Therefore, by banning together and creating interest groups, as well as participating in political parties, individuals who have an interest in child welfare, are more likely to make a substantial difference.

INTRODUCTION: “Child Abuse occurs when a parent or a care taker physically, emotionally, or sexually mistreats or neglects a child resulting in the physical, emotional, or sexual harm or imminent risk of harm or exploitation, or in extreme cases the death of a child,” child abuse is a big deal because in today’s society many children face abuse, there are many effects and reasons as to why a child may be abuse.

Child protection gets involved for many reasons such as: your children not going to school, somebody calling them on you, or if you're going through some personal issues. A child in need is usually a child that's left alone, has been abused or sees abused between parents.