In
Confronting
the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System,
Alan J. Dettlaff presents a call to abolish the American child
welfare system due to the harm and destruction it causes Black
families. Dettlaff traces the origins of the modern child welfare
system, which emerged following the abolition of slavery, to
demonstrate that the harm and oppression that result from child
welfare intervention are not the result of "unintended
consequences" but rather are the clear intents of the system and
the foreseeable results of the policies that have been put in place
over decades.
By
tracing the history of family separations in the United States since
the era of slavery, Confronting
the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System
demonstrates that the intended outcomes of those separations--the
subjugation of Black Americans and the maintenance of white
supremacy--are the same intended outcomes of the family separations
done today. What distinguishes contemporary family separations from
those that occurred during slavery is that today's separations occur
under a facade of benevolence, a myth that has been perpetuated over
decades that family separations are necessary to "save" the
most vulnerable children.
Confronting
the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System
presents evidence of the vast harms that result from family
separations to make a case that the child welfare system is beyond
reform. Rather, the only solution to ending these harms is complete
abolition of this system and a fundamental reimagining of the way
society cares for children, families, and communities.