Shattered Bonds : The Color of Child Welfare

Description

Shattered Bonds is a stirring account of a worsening American social crisis--the disproportionate representation of black children in the U.S. foster care system and its effects on black communities and the country as a whole. Tying the origins and impact of this disparity to racial injustice, Dorothy Roberts contends that child-welfare policy reflects a political choice to address startling rates of black child poverty by punishing parents instead of tackling poverty's societal roots. Using conversations with mothers battling the Chicago child-welfare system for custody of their children, along with national data, Roberts levels a powerful indictment of racial disparities in foster care and tells a moving story of the women and children who earn our respect in their fight to keep their families intact. Content: Introduction: Facing the Racial Reality of Child Welfare PART ONE: Destroying Black Families in the Name of Child Protection 1 . The Color of America's Child Welfare System 2. The System's Inferior Treatment of Black Children 3. Tracing the Disparity to Black Child Poverty 4. Is Racism the Cause? 5. The System's Fundamental Flaw 6. A Racist Institution? PART TWO: The New Politics of Child Welfare 1. The Assault on Family Preservation 2. Why Family Preservation Fails 3. Is Adoption the Answer? 4. Welfare Reform: Ending Aid to Poor Children 5. Locking Up Parents and ChildrenPART THREE: The System's Racial Harm 1. Protection of Family Rights 2. A Theory of Group-Based Harm Conclusion: Child Welfare and Social Justice Notes Acknowledgments Index