Social Welfare Policy

Regulation and Resistance Among People of Color

Jerome H. Schiele

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781452238562
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

Applying the social control paradigm to people of color, this text uses a racism-centered perspective of social welfare policy analysis to examine how such policies have regulated the lives of people of color and then employs a strengths-based approach to describe how they have refused to go along with the oppressive features of these policies. It illuminates the need for culturally competent social welfare policy practitioners, illustrating how racism continues to be at the center of many contemporary social problems such as issues of employment, public and bilingual education, housing and residential patterns, citizens' rights, and affirmative action—and of the social welfare policies used to address these issues.

This book is an ideal core or supplementary text for Social Policy courses in departments of social work or human services. It is also a must-read for social welfare policy advocates and analysts and for anyone interested in how the themes of social welfare policy regulation and resistance are relevant to people of color.

Part I

Regulation and Resistance Among African Americans

1

Regulating the Lives of Children

Kinship Care as a Cultural Resistance Strategy of the African American Community

Tricia B. Bent-Goodley

INTRODUCTION

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The disproportionate number of African American children in the child welfare system has grown to a point of grave concern (Hill, 2008; McRoy, 2004; Roberts, 2003). As of September 2007, there were 496,000 children in the foster care and adoption system in the United States (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2008). One hundred thirty thousand (27 percent) were waiting to be adopted (USDHHS, 2008a). African American children, although only 15 percent of the U.S. child population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003), represent 32 percent (162,722) of the children in out-of-home care (USDHHS, 2008b). The disproportionality of African American children in the foster care system can be viewed as a form of racial regulation that devalues the strengths, resources, and culture of many African American families. The disproportionate removal of African American children from their homes serves to disempower African American families by severing the psychosocial and sociocultural ties between children and their familial traditions. This disconnection process is a major problem because it lessens the likelihood of African American children receiving the socialization necessary for helping to replicate traditions that protect and advance African American communities.

This chapter examines kinship care as a form of cultural resistance in the African American community, and it contends that this type of care helps offset and combat the problem of disproportionate removal of African American children from their homes. This chapter also conceives kinship care as a necessary strategy to reduce the social problems that African Americans disproportionately confront and that place African American children at risk of disproportionate removal.

Through a convergence of economic and job discrimination, public welfare, and the War on Drugs, African Americans have experienced significant vulnerability related to family structure and relationship building that has had residual effects on the number of children at-risk of removal from the home. Contemporary kinship care has evolved as a culturally based strategy that helps to preserve families, share traditions, and maintain connectedness despite multiple familial and societal challenges. The implications of this resistance effort are to find creative ways to help support this indigenous response, both within and outside of the community, while respecting and not diminishing it through formal social welfare policy regulation.

Formal kinship care has been defined as “care provided by relatives as foster care under auspices of the state,” and informal foster care has been defined as “all other caregiving provided by relatives in the absence of a parent” (Harden, Clark, & Maguire, 1997). According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2000), more than 6 million children receive care from kin providers. Of these, more than 2 million children are known to the child welfare system (USDHHS, 2008a). Kinship care has often been viewed as a form of family preservation, resilience, and a conviction in the importance of keeping the family together (Scannapieco & Jackson, 1996). Although not viewed as a form of resistance, it does fit the conceptualization of passive resistance. Passive resistance has been articulated as a value-oriented form of resistance within the African American community and, as such, includes “a collective attempt to restore, protect, modify, or create values in the name of a generalized belief” (Smelser, 1962, p. 313). Unannounced and off the radar, caring for African American children, maintaining them in the home, and passing on family traditions and history are protective mechanisms that allow for family values and culture to be passed on to the next generation. This chapter examines the significance of this form of passive resistance as a strategy to combat the racial regulation of African American children.

THE NATURE OF RESISTANCE IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY

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I can’t believe I’m raising a three year old and a ten year old. I’m 58 years old you know. I would have never seen this for myself at this age in my life. I could have retired you know but not now. My husband died about 15 years ago with diabetes complications. Lord, I miss him. My daughter has a drug problem. She’s been out there for years. I keep telling her that she’s got to get herself together for these kids. I’m not always going to be around to take care of them you know but there [sic] not going into the system. I can tell you that. Not while I’m alive and still breathing. No. Those people just mess you up. No, for now, I can make it. It’s hard though because everything is out of pocket. Things are so expensive. When they get sick, that costs money because they aren’t under my health insurance. I would have to take my daughter to court and I’m not doing that. My oldest son helps me a lot with things. He comes by and talks to the 10 year old and gives me money when I need it. I’ve used almost all of my retirement money but I know that God will provide. This is what African American people do. We take care of our children and these are my babies. We’ll work it out and get through just like our families have always done.

The above quote of a grandmother raising her grandchildren evidences a form of resistance. Resistance can take many forms. As described earlier, resistance can be active whereby there is an outward cry or act taken. However, resistance can also be unannounced, not as obvious but nonetheless present and powerful. Some definitions of resistance include “the power or capacity to resist”; “the inherent ability of an organism to resist harmful influences”; and “a psychological defense mechanism wherein a patient rejects, denies, or otherwise opposes the therapeutic efforts of a psychotherapist.” Thus, resistance may take place without a conscious effort to oppose something but can be a defense mechanism activated when one feels a sense of eminent harm but also a sense of power and the ability to stand in opposition. It helps one to understand how African American families can build on strengths of communalism and the value of extended family through a sense of empowerment and capacity of rearing African American children.

Resistance in the African American community has an historical context that dates back to slavery when Africans Americans learned to read when literacy was a crime, formed lasting unions when it was illegal to marry, and those who maneuvered through the Underground Railroad when death was the result for escaping from slave masters (Franklin, 1997; Hill, 1997; Martin & Martin, 2005). The very nature of resistance, therefore, is a part of the experience of the African American community. Resistance is therefore linked to survival both individually and collectively. Frederick Douglass said, “ Without struggle, there is no progress.” The end of legalized slavery and the success of the Civil Rights Movement are evidence for many African Americans that success will come and that struggle is a natural part of achieving that success. Thus, resistance is not viewed as something abnormal or disabling. Resistance does not require outside recognition but instead action, sacrifice, and hope that things will be better.

One cannot talk about African American children and not be aware of the African American family, with its challenges and its strengths. African American children are inextricably linked to the family and the community (Hill, 1997). Despite major challenges in the African American family, African American children are still regarded as key to the survival of the community and at the heart of the African American family. The focus on family and prioritization of the success of African American children is critical to understand because despite contemporary challenges, the focus on the African American child remains and is still central to the life of the family. This idea feeds into the expectation that children are to be cared for despite the circumstances around their reason for being in care. Resistance also evidences how African American people make sense of social and economic challenges (Carlton-LaNey, 2001; Davis & Bent-Goodley, 2004). The response counters what people know about African American culture, its organization and bonding, even when it appears to be disorganized and fragmented. The response counters the misperception that African Americans are always seeking a handout and that there are more African Americans in the system then outside of the system. Resistance is then inextricably tied to the desire to maintain the connection within the African American family. The act of resistance speaks to a survival ethic that builds on strengths and defies stereotypes. It speaks to the ability to adapt and be fluid when confronted with challenges unseen.

DISPROPORTIONALITY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILDREN IN THE CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM

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At one time, formal systems did not provide services to African American children (Billingsley & Giovannoni, 1972; McRoy, 2004). African American children in need of care received services from African American providers through settlement houses, orphanages, and other structures developed to meet the needs of African American children (Hodges, 2001; Peebles-Wilkins, 1995). These responses often included a focus on life skills development, inclusion of the family and community, civic engagement, and building trust and connectedness with the family and community (Carlton-LaNey & Carlton Alexander, 2001; Hill, 1997; Peebles-Wilkins, 1995). These services were usually provided in the community, with providers deeply invested in the success of the child both while in and out of care. The sense of accomplishment was best met when the child was able to survive successfully beyond care and feel a sense of connection with others in the community. The large number of African American children in the mainstream child welfare system can be traced to the 1950s and 1960s, with overrepresentation of African American children being identified during the 1970s and 1980s as a point of concern (Jenkins et al., 1983). The rise in contemporary kinship care patterns were identified in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Geen, 2004). Currently, African American children are three times as likely as white children to be placed in out-of-home care (Hill, 2008). The reasons for this disproportionality have been largely attributed to the prevalence of substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, and poverty in the African American community (Chipungu & Bent-Goodley, 2003; McRoy, 2004; Roberts, 2003). Poor families are more likely than middle-income families to be identified for child abuse and neglect, and families with incomes under $15,000 are more likely to have substantiated cases of abuse and neglect compared with those making more than $30,000 (Chipungu & Bent-Goodley, 2004; Lindsey & Martin, 2003). Substance abuse has been identified in 50 to 78 percent of child welfare cases, yet, there continues to be limited substance abuse treatment facilities available in communities of color (Choi & Tittle, 2002; Semidei, Radel, & Nolan, 2001). The problem of children orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS has received increased attention, as more than 125,000 children in the United States have been estimated to have lost their mother because of AIDS (Thaler, 2005). The full impact of AIDS has not yet been completely understood in the child welfare arena (Chipungu & Bent-Goodley, 2004). Unfortunately, African American people are disproportionately affected by poverty, substance abuse, parental incarceration, and HIV/AIDS (Bent-Goodley, 2003; Davis & Bent-Goodley, 2004). Consequently, these social factors have been identified as fueling the disproportionate numbers. Additional factors of limited cultural competence, functioning based on stereotypes and misconceptions of African American families, system bias, poor service provision, and insufficient training with how to engage and work with families of color have all been identified as fostering inequity within the child welfare system (Chipungu & Bent-Goodley, 2004; Cross, 2008; McRoy, 2004; Miller & Ward, 2008; Roberts, 2003; Rodenborg, 2004).

CHALLENGES TO THE AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILY AND ITS IMPACT ON AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILDREN

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It should be noted that nearly half of African American families continue to be led by both parents (Hill, 1997). Therefore, there is a continued effort to stay together and build lasting African American partnerships. However, it is the disproportionality of the number of African American children and families in crisis that is cause for concern and action. The role of contemporary kinship care is a response not only to the probl...