This is Still Happening?

My American Melting Pot is supposed to be a blog dedicated to tracking multi-culti phenomenon in these here United States. And while it seems only appropriate to talk about immigration reform, I'm not going to because I think every possilbe opinion on the subject has already been dissected to death. And besides, a little story from my new home town of Philly, PA has grabbed my attention.

Last week the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on one of those heart wrenching stories of a foster child being ripped from his foster parents because another family wanted to adopt him. And even though the three-year old boy had lived with his foster parents for almost two years (meaning practically his whole life) and they themselves wanted to adopt him, he was still removed in one of those dramatic made-for television moments, complete with police enforcement, confused parents and wailing child. The foster parents, Randall and Susan Borelly, wanted to adopt the child but were informed that because they had adopted a child already this year, they could not adopt Kevin.

Why does this merit mention on MyAmericanMeltingPot? Because guess what, Kevin is BLACK, the Borelly's are WHITE and the new adoptive family is wait for it --mostly Black -- that is, at least one parent is colored, according to reports. So the official reason why Kevin can't stay with the only family he's ever known is because his foster parents made the poor choice to adopt another child first. Does that make sense? Of course what the Borelly's are saying is that Kevin is being taken away because he's Black.

Interestingly, there have been no published reports of the adoptive family and how they feel about all of this. Would they still want to adopt Kevin, knowing another family has already bonded with him and wants to adopt him themselves? In the meantime, the Borelly's are taking legal action to try to get Kevin returned to them and his biological relatives have gone on record saying they think Kevin should be returned to the Borelly's even going so far as to stand in the rain in front of the Chester County Courthouse to lend their support to the Borelly's rally for Kevin's return.

So in 2006 is RACE still a determining factor in who can raise a child? Thoughts?