Jul 8, 2023Liked by Allison Lichter, Lane Anderson
Oof. This is so good. As a protective parent who had to fight like hell to get the court to see and acknowledge the abuse that was happening to my child, this goes to show how not only is the system flawed, but where the inherent biases lie...when someone external to the home deems the situation to be abusive, children are ripped from their families. But when someone inside the home is begging for relief from an abusive parent, the court turns the other way because “all children should be with their families.” I didn’t even know about the prior abuse claims of the adoptive mothers in this story, but the hypocrisy is stunning.
This is such an important topic that no one is talking about, and it resonates for me as someone who survived a white alcoholic abusive family. Not once in my childhood did the possibility of CPS showing up at our house seem like a remote possibility, and there was rampant drug use, physical abuse, domestic violence, you name it.
The following quote from Roxanna Asgarian expresses what I've felt my whole life.
"Although my friends and I were often left unsupervised as our parents struggled with abusive partners or substance abuse or mental illness, the involvement of CPS in our lives was so far from a possibility it didn’t even factor into our or our parents decision-making.”
“Why, as a middle-class white person did I never have to worry about that happening, when everyday Black families are making parenting decisions with the threat of government intervention looming over them?”
Thank you for sharing this, Greg. Your testament here and Roxanna's reporting make me think more and more of CPS as a policing body for marginalized families--esp Black ones. Which is chilling.
"How did these children end up in foster care in the first place? What were the conditions they left, only to find themselves in far, far worse circumstances?"
THIS! Thank you so much for this Allison and Roxana. This just gets at the heart of so many things.
Oof. This is so good. As a protective parent who had to fight like hell to get the court to see and acknowledge the abuse that was happening to my child, this goes to show how not only is the system flawed, but where the inherent biases lie...when someone external to the home deems the situation to be abusive, children are ripped from their families. But when someone inside the home is begging for relief from an abusive parent, the court turns the other way because “all children should be with their families.” I didn’t even know about the prior abuse claims of the adoptive mothers in this story, but the hypocrisy is stunning.
I'm so glad this book is here, thanks for reviewing it. Donald Glover did an episode of Atlanta on this case and it is heart wrenching.
This is such an important topic that no one is talking about, and it resonates for me as someone who survived a white alcoholic abusive family. Not once in my childhood did the possibility of CPS showing up at our house seem like a remote possibility, and there was rampant drug use, physical abuse, domestic violence, you name it.
The following quote from Roxanna Asgarian expresses what I've felt my whole life.
"Although my friends and I were often left unsupervised as our parents struggled with abusive partners or substance abuse or mental illness, the involvement of CPS in our lives was so far from a possibility it didn’t even factor into our or our parents decision-making.”
“Why, as a middle-class white person did I never have to worry about that happening, when everyday Black families are making parenting decisions with the threat of government intervention looming over them?”
Thank you for sharing this, Greg. Your testament here and Roxanna's reporting make me think more and more of CPS as a policing body for marginalized families--esp Black ones. Which is chilling.
"How did these children end up in foster care in the first place? What were the conditions they left, only to find themselves in far, far worse circumstances?"
THIS! Thank you so much for this Allison and Roxana. This just gets at the heart of so many things.