Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Adoptees of Color Roundtable Statement on Haiti

 
 

Sent to you by moya via Google Reader:

 
 

via Leaving Evidence by Mia Mingus on 1/26/10


A great statement on the adoption of Haitian "orphans" and so, so much more.  I wish i could quote the entire statement.  Fierce and brilliant.  Thank you!

"We bear testimony to the ways in which the intercountry adoption industry has profited from and reinforced neo-liberal structural adjustment policies, aid dependency, population control policies, unsustainable development, corruption, and child trafficking…  We uphold that Haitian children have a right …to a family and a history that is their own and that Haitians themselves have a right to determine what happens to their own children. We resist the racist, colonialist mentality that positions the Western nuclear family as superior to other conceptions of family, and we seek to challenge those who abuse the phrase "Every child deserves a family" to rethink how this phrase is used to justify the removal of children from Haiti for the fulfillment of their own needs and desires. Western and Northern desire for ownership of Haitian children directly contributes to the destruction of existing family and community structures in Haiti. This individualistic desire is supported by the historical and global anti-African sentiment which negates the validity of black mothers and fathers and condones the separation of black children from their families, cultures, and countries of origin."

Click here to read the entire statement: Adoptees of Color Roundtable Statement on Haiti


 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

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