Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Blog Post 11: Option #1



In the film "Ask Us Who We Are: Foster Care in Vermont", many children tell their stories about their foster care experiences.  One of the very first things that I noticed in the film that was different than the current book we are reading, “Shattered Bonds” by Dorothy Roberts, is the number of white children in the film.  In Robert’s book, she states that child welfare cases have become increasingly more Black (14).  This was not portrayed in this film at all.  Most of the stories that were told were being told by young white people.  There were only two stories that came from black females.  
The second difference between the film and the book was that the filmed portrayed foster care as a good service overall that could help save or change a child’s life.  Again this is not how Roberts sees the system.  On pages 18-19 in Robert’s books she talks about the devastating emotional response that is present when removing a child from their parents.  She also talks about how Black children are more likely to stay in foster care longer and/or never be adopted.  The film does address this emotional response children feel from being removed from their homes, but the tone in which it is displayed is different.  Most the children that speak out within the film seem to have overall happy endings to their stories that end in adoption or permanent placements, or of going to college, and/or starting families of their own with the vows to never parent or be like their parents.  Robert’s book has a tone the displays that foster care is a bad choice for children and that if a child is placed within the system they are doomed to repeat the cycle of their parents or be unsuccessful in their lives.
After reading pages out of Roberts’s book and watching this film, I believe that both views could be correct.  The film takes place in the state of Vermont which is a state that is not known for poverty or crime and if I had to guess not much diversity.  Robert’s book focuses on very diverse places across the United States and places that are plagued with poverty and crime.  Robert’s chosen cities within her book probably do have government systems that discriminate against Black’s due to the stereotypes that exist for that race in poverty stricken areas.  But, I also believe that foster care can be beneficial for kids and that most foster care parents do it for the right reasons and can help those children achieve something that they may have never been given the chance to get without their help.  

Lisa R. 

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