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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