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When it comes to adoption, Americans might assume that each child is treated equally. But research shows that darker-skinned children are repeatedly discriminated against, both by potential adoptive parents and the social workers who are charged with protecting their well-being.

Social workers are often called upon to assess a newborn’s skin color, because skin color influences potential for placement. As a 2013 NPR investigation found, dark-skinned black children cost less to adopt than light-skinned white children, as they are often ranked by social workers and the public as less preferred.

According to Washington University law school professor Kimberly Jade Norwood, “In the adoption market, race and color combine to create another preference hierarchy: white children are preferred over nonwhite. When African-American children are considered, the data suggest there is a preference for light skin and biracial children over dark-skinned children.”

As a social worker with an interest in the social effects of skin color, I believe that the social work profession must be held accountable for its discriminatory practices.

Light skin versus dark

Regardless of race, adopting parents prefer to adopt a light-skinned child. A 1999 study at the Institute of Black Parenting, a Los Angeles adoption agency, showed that as many as 40 percent of the African-American couples expressed a preference for a light-skinned or mixed-race child, regardless of their own complexion.

Children who are white are slightly more likely to be adopted out of foster care. Of the more than 400,000 children in foster care awaiting adoption in 2017, about 44 percent were white, while the majority were children of color. However, of those who were adopted with public agency involvement, 49 percent were white.

According to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2004 data shows that children with lighter skin were adopted more quickly out of foster care

 While white children waited 23.5 months on average, black children waited 39.4.

In preparing a paper on this subject in 2017, I found a 1999 report from the American Civil Liberties Union which conducted a court-authorized review of 50 adoption case files in New York City. They concluded that the practices of social workers favored children with more Caucasian features. When social workers were asked about this, they contended that it was to insulate dark-skinned children from rejection.

Research suggests that the skin color issue continues to be a problem across the U.S. A study similar to that of the ACLU’s was conducted in 2010 in the state of Michigan. This study looked at 1,183 adoptive Michigan families who adopted children from 2007 to 2009, through both public and private adoption agencies. According to the findings, 42 percent of adoptive parents’ most recently adopted children were “very fair or somewhat fair” in skin color, while 31 percent were “somewhat dark or very dark.”

Finally, research shows that it costs more to adopt a white child in the U.S. than it does to adopt a black child. According to the NPR investigation, it costs about US$35,000 to adopt a white child, absent legal fees. Meanwhile, a black child cost $18,000.

These prices, which are set internally at adoption agencies based on a number of factors, suggest that white children have a higher market value in the adoption marketplace and are more highly sought after by adoptive parents.

The dark side of adoptions

The evidence suggests that social workers do discriminate based on skin color. What’s more, private agencies that do not employ social workers no less enable skin color discrimination by referring to adoptees’ skin color.

Adopting parents may ask for a child who looks similar to them or who has lighter skin. Currently, even when skin color is not an official record, social workers are inclined to share such information casually in response to parents’ questions.

When social workers accommodate a preference regarding skin color – by evaluating a child’s skin color or by responding to parents’ questions about a potential adoptee – they are breaching their code of ethics. The official Code of Ethics for the National Association of Social Workersclearly states that social workers “should not practice, condone, facilitate, or collaborate with any form of discrimination” on the basis of race, ethnicity or color, along with other factors.

Assessing children by skin color allows for a ranked ordering, where dark-skinned children may be singled out as less valued. While it is not always a matter of formal record, children assessed as dark-skinned clearly have a different experience than white children in the adoption process.

No doubt, the significance of skin color requires it be noted in files – but, in my view, it should not be monetized. I feel that skin color should be maintained as a confidential record, unless social workers can establish a clear reason why sharing it would lead to the best adoptive outcome for the potential adoptee.

I believe that it’s important to expose the dark side of adoptions that children regardless of skin color be valued and safe from discrimination.

Source: theconversation.com

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New Delhi Jan 28, 

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The post April 2018 Abiy Ahmed administration is reforming the EPRDF government of the past 27 years by mainly cleaning the regime from corrupt system and officials. This included the arrest of human rights violators within the regime mainly within the security sector.

Most officials of the pre-April 2018 EPRDF have run into hiding in Mekele, Tigray region or have fled the country since the coming to power of Abiy Ahmed or after recent arrests started.

The demonstration is going to call the government to immediately take measure on these former officials widely implicated by former victims as main suspects.

The current administration of Abiy Ahmed has not also been able to effectively execute court orders and arrest former heavyweight spy heads of the Ethiopian intelligence, Getachew Assefa, suspected to be hiding in Tigray. Several other main suspects from the police and attorney office, who previously had senior positions, have fled the country as soon as the arrests started.

In spite of the countless abuses committed against by former officials, most of them hailing from Tigray region, there were protests seemingly called to oppose the Federal government’s attempt to bring these suspects before justice.

The upcoming protest in Addis Abeba is hence, likely going to be a response to those protests held in Mekele and urge the central government to immediately act.

However, the Addis Abeba Police Commission stated today that it has not given a permit or recognition to the planned as there are other events already planned in the streets of the Capital.

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Social Democracy’s Mattias Tesfaye is on the recognized journal Politico’s list of 28 political “disrupters” that are likely to have a major influence on Europe in the near future.

Mattias Tesfaye (S) is a political profile that has a major influence on Europe in the coming years. It considers the recognized journal Politico.

The Immigration and Integration Rapporteur is on a list of only 28 names, as Politico Trace will “disrupt” European policy in 2019.

“He is the representative of the center-left party (Social Democracy, Red. ) New hard line of immigration up to a parliamentary election that will be settled by the question,” justifies the article.

The below article is from Politico

The party is busy making up for the more internationalist chapters of its past, advocating tight borders, heavy-handed integration incentives and eye-catching laws that tell Danish voters and the wider world that immigrants should steer clear of the country. The Social Democrats supported confiscating the jewellery of refugees to pay for their asylum, putting immigrants’ children in compulsory child care and banning the niqab. “Denmark is a welfare state,” says the 37-year-old Danish MP. “We’ve succeeded in winning public support for high social distribution. This public support stands on some kind of cultural cohesion, and migration is not good for this social cohesion.”

In 2017, Tesfaye published “Welcome, Mustafa,” a review of 50 years of Social Democrat immigration policy that argues that skepticism toward immigration is part of the left’s history, rehabilitating figures in the party who warned early on that integration could be a problem. Does it help for such policies to be articulated by a man with brown skin and an Ethiopian surname? “So, because of my father’s background I can’t have certain opinions?” Tesfaye asks. “Of course, I’m the child of a refugee … but it’s more important for me that I’ve been a bricklayer. If you ask me what my identity is, it’s more close to that.”

* * *

IN HIS OWN WORDS

One thing you would change about the EU.

I would make it possible for member states to have border control. Not the end of Schengen, but the rules that regulate this should be changed.

One living person you consider a hero.

My wife.

One living person you consider a villain.

Bashar al-Assad.

A turning point in your life.

When I had my first child.

A number with a special meaning for you.

Five. It has always been a lucky number for me. It was on the back of my soccer shirt when I was a child.

What is your definition of “European values?”

I try to avoid defining “Danish” or “European” values. It makes no sense to me, since everyone can decide for themselves what they understand about them. What is important to me is to defend and develop the social and democratic values.

Name a person you admire.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He is one of the greatest contemporary European cultural personalities.

If you could reform one thing about the EU, what would it be?

I would make sure that the basic rights of workers are taken into consideration with the same seriousness as the free movement of capital and services.

Tell us something surprising about yourself.

People are always surprised at how boring and ordinary my life is.

What is the biggest loss the EU faces as a result of Brexit?

I fear, above all, that populations in more countries will follow. We forget quickly. My own generation has not experienced war in Europe.

What is the biggest loss the U.K. faces as a result of Brexit?

The U.K. will be fine. It is not the end of the world that they are leaving the EU. Nevertheless, I fear that their economy will become more introverted and that over a number of years it will mean lost prosperity.

Check out the full POLITICO 28 Class of 2019, and read the Letter from the Editors for an explanation of the thinking behind the ranking.

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The Spokesperson for Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Meles Alem, said last week that as part of the grand reform process taking place in Ethiopia, the MoFA is also conducting a reform process as a result of which new ambassadors and diplomats will be appointed across all Ethiopian missions around the world.

Meles noted that there were issues of party loyalty in appointment in the past and diplomats served only those that supported the politics and policies of the ruling Front.

He said the new appointment includes famous Ethiopians, who are not even members of the ruling Front and there will be a focus on reaching out to the Ethiopian community in the Diaspora and helping them rather than living a cosy life in gated houses and attending receptions.

Alem explained that out of 412 diplomats the country deploys abroad, half of them have been recalled for consultation. However, there are reports that most have refused to return back home for consultation. Those, who have been refusing to give passports and Visas to Ethiopians based on their ethnic and political inclinations are still in their positions, said a former diplomat.

We have noticed that resisting the new reshuffles, Ethiopian diplomats in Europe and the rest of the world have continued to harass and deny services to citizens and especially those they considered as pro-reform.

We will be presenting specific cases of absolute carelessness and inefficiencies within Ethiopian embassies in the Diaspora soon.

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