Erin Miles Cloud ’11, a Stein Scholars graduate, wrote a letter to the editor in the New York Times about black parenting and reported incidents of maltreatment of children.
While the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, cited by Ms. Patton, does show that black parents have higher reported incidents of maltreatment of children, the disproportionate reporting of black families says more about economic injustice and racial inequality than about our parenting.
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Black parents, especially in low-income communities, are more likely to be reported to child protective agencies because those families have more contact with mandated reporters: public schools, public hospitals, public benefit workers and so on.
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This increased surveillance of low-income black parents brings their parental decisions under scrutiny in a way that many white parents never have to consider, with a result of black children being removed from their families and staying in foster care longer than white children.
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I see this every day as a black mother and a public defender in Bronx Family Court. Black parents are routinely asked to prove their worth and defend themselves against stereotypes of anger and violence to keep their children.
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This isn’t to say black parents are without flaws. But let’s be careful not to pathologize historically oppressed communities.
