Imagine a scenario where the New York Police Department decides to collaborate with Defund the Police activists to train their officers. Well, that’s exactly what the New York State Family Court and the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) are currently doing. In a recent webinar attended by nearly 400 ACS workers, parents, child attorneys, and family court judges, advocates who advocate for the complete eradication of the child welfare system provided lectures on why it should be abolished.
It’s probably safe to say that the majority of people, including myself, would agree that the child welfare system is in need of some serious reform. However, the radical and utopian theories put forth by these activists and academics, who call for the complete elimination of government agencies dedicated to child welfare, present a significant danger to our most vulnerable children.
These so-called “abolitionists” start their argument by claiming that the child welfare system is deeply rooted in racist intentions to separate minority families. A prominent voice in this movement, Dorothy Roberts, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, stated during the webinar that the child welfare system is “designed to accuse, supervise, regulate, punish, separate, and threaten.” According to her, agencies like ACS are linked to a history of slavery and settler colonialism, where the separation of families was a fundamental aspect.
Disturbingly, these views are starting to gain traction in mainstream discourse. Last year, an official in the Biden administration responsible for child welfare compared frontline workers to “overseers on plantations” and advised the public not to contact child protective services, as a way to “save Black children from that knock on the door and that tunnel of child welfare.”
But what happens when we label the individuals who have chosen to undertake these challenging jobs as participants in an inherently racist system? For one, it may drive them to quit. In fact, some agencies in the country already experience a turnover rate as high as 40% due to reasons such as low pay, inadequate training, and the emotionally draining nature of the job. Moreover, it might also lead these workers to modify their approach, unintentionally treating black children differently out of fear of being perceived as slave masters.
In a recent report, ACS revealed that its own workers considered it to be a racist agency. However, it’s important to note that only black and Hispanic workers were allowed to participate in the study, and out of the thousands of employees, only 50 chose to take part. As a result, it seems that a vocal group of “abolitionists” is slowly infiltrating the City’s child services department with the intention of shutting it down.
Due to incessant criticism, several child protection agencies are witnessing a concerning turnover rate of up to 40%. The combination of low remuneration, insufficient training, and the distressing nature of the job contributes to this statistic. Addressing this issue, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has spearheaded a significant effort to tackle the adverse effects of loneliness on the American public.
The argument put forth by Roberts and others is that since black children are more likely to be the subjects of investigations by child protective services and subsequently placed in foster care, the entire system must rest on the foundations of white supremacy. However, this argument rarely acknowledges the sad reality that black children are also more likely to experience abuse, neglect, and are three times more likely to die from maltreatment compared to their white counterparts. Unfortunately, the belief that child welfare is fundamentally racially biased has become an unquestionable article of faith.
Just a few weeks ago, Alan Dettlaff, a professor at the University of Houston and leader of the upEnd movement, which aims to abolish the child welfare system, took to Twitter to proclaim, “Dear Journal Editors: Please inform your reviewers that it is not necessary for authors to provide a citation when they state a system is racist. This falls under the category of ‘common knowledge’.” Essentially, with this statement, Dettlaff implies that demanding evidence to support claims of racism is itself an act of racism.
Furthermore, Roberts explicitly suggests that child protective services workers and courts should adopt different standards when it comes to the treatment of black children. She questions whose standards of care and protection should be followed and asserts that they should not align with those of people of African descent. Is it fair to assume that African-Americans are content with subjecting their children to higher levels of abuse and neglect compared to white children?
Critics argue that African-American families are unfairly targeted for disciplinary actions or separations within child services divisions. This echoes the sentiment present in the movement to defund the police, which also claims that race and racism play a significant role in the overrepresentation of African-Americans in the criminal justice system. The proponents of these movements suggest that we should disregard the higher crime rates in certain city neighborhoods, as addressing them might result in the disproportionate arrests of black men. However, this perspective fails to consider the fact that the victims of these crimes are also disproportionately black. Consequently, we are being urged to turn a blind eye to the abuse and neglect inflicted by black parents, even though it is black children who ultimately suffer the consequences.
Fortunately, the NYPD has not gone down the path of inviting radical activists to educate their officers on why police are unnecessary. If only ACS and the New York Family Courts would adopt a similar approach and resist the influence of these radical ideologies.
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