
Freedom
Child essay
It has been argued that the c
onfusi
on of African American
child rearing techniques with
abuse is at least partially resp
onsible for the fact that African American
children are grossly over represented in the foster care system across the United States (2). While they make up
only 15% of the populati
on African American
children comprise approximately 27% of the reported cases of
abuse. Furthermore, as they progress through the system their over representati
on increases. Currently about 50% of the 250,000
children in foster care are African American . This means that while
only 9% of the white
children reported for
abuse ends up in foster care, 24% of the African American
children reported for
abuse ends up in foster care. If we take into account that African American
children are reported at a rate almost double their representati
on in the populati
on in the first place, the result is that African American
children are being removed from their families at a rate that is almost five times higher than that of white
children.(2) The literature also indicates that, in additi
on to coming into care more _frequently, African American
children remain in care l
onger and may receive fewer desirable placements than white
children (2). McCray's book "Freedom's
Child" argues that the African American preference for physical discipline not
only leads to a higher rate of reported cases of
abuse, and thus a higher rate of initial c
ontact with social services than white families, but that the cultural nature of the African American preference for physical discipline results in an unwillingness
on the part of African American parents to alter their parenting styles.