In People’s most recent double issue, America’s sweetheart Sandra Bullock graces the cover, holding her newly adopted, 3-month-old son, Louis. The baby seems content and peers at the camera from the corner of his eyes. You can almost feel the warmth emanating from the glossy pages of the magazine.
Unfortunately, not every person saw the same picture. Despite having millions of dollars and a clean image, Sandra Bullock has been the recipient of some disparaging remarks for her secret adoption. Why? Louis, a child from New Orleans, happens to be black, and Bullock is white. While browsing through the Internet, to my astonishment and my disgust, I saw many backward, racially charged comments criticizing the adoption.
Like Madonna and Angelina Jolie, the Academy Award-winning actress has been accused of having a white-savior complex and using the adoption for attention. What people fail to realize is that Bullock underwent a four-year adoption process, well before the shooting of “The Blind Side” or the outing of her husband’s repulsive affair — Louis had been adopted weeks before the scandal.
In America, blacks constitute only 13 percent of the population. In the foster care system, however, black children represent more than a third of all children. Many are left to rot and are never placed into the care of a stable family, black or white. Without a stable home, many of these children fall through the cracks and, as a result, turn to a life of crime and poverty.
Despite these facts, too many blacks are uncomfortable with the idea of white couples adopting black children, even if the couple is financially stable and desperate to raise a child. Some feel that only a black woman is capable of raising a black child. Others claim that interracial adoption has a negative effect on black children and can cause cultural and identity crises.
Fair enough. But where are all the black families rushing to adopt? Not enough black families are adopting black children. Should a white family with no criminal background be discouraged from adopting children of other ethnicities when so few black families adopt children themselves?
Sandra Bullock should be praised for her decision. She is one of the few celebrities to adopt a child from America. Says Bullock in People, “I want Louis to experience all cultures, nationalities, countries and people like I did. I want his mind to be open and free. … We were raised that we are all the same. No one greater, smarter, more powerful. We are all equal.”
I couldn’t agree more.
