Black Family Gets Lesson in Racism By Adopting a White Girl
Several pairs of eyes follow the girl as she pedals around the playground in an affluent suburb of Baltimore. But it isn’t the redheaded fourth grader who seems to have moms and dads of the jungle gym nervous on this recent Saturday morning. It’s the African-American man—six feet tall, bearded and wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt—watching the girl’s every move. Approaching from behind, he grabs the back of her bicycle seat as she wobbles to a stop. “Nice riding,” he says, as the fair-skinned girl turns to him, beaming. “Thanks, Daddy,” she replies. The onlookers are clearly flummoxed.
As a black father and adopted white daughter, Mark Riding and Katie O’Dea-Smith are a sight at best surprising, and at worst so perplexing that people feel compelled to respond. Like the time at a Pocono Mountains flea market when Riding scolded Katie, attracting so many sharp glares that he and his wife, Terri, 37, and also African-American, thought “we might be lynched.” And the time when well-intentioned shoppers followed Mark and Katie out of the mall to make sure she wasn’t being kidnapped. Or when would-be heroes come up to Katie in the cereal aisle and ask, “Are you OK?”—even though Terri is standing right there.
Is it racism? The Ridings tend to think so, and it’s hard to blame them. To shadow them for a day, as I recently did, is to feel the unease, notice the negative attention and realize that the same note of fear isn’t in the air when they attend to their two biological children, who are 2 and 5 years old. It’s fashionable to say that the election of Barack Obama has brought the dawn of a post-racial America. In the past few months alone, The Atlantic Monthly has declared “the end of white America,” The Washington Post has profiled the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s struggle for relevance in a changing world, and National Public Radio has led discussions questioning the necessity of the annual Black History Month. Perhaps not surprising, most white and black Americans no longer cite racism as a major social problem, according to recent polls.
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bj2468 please stop pretending that anyone ever asked angelina jolie’s lil black babies if they was ok… come on now, ur on black planet so im assuming ur atleast somewhat in touch with what we as a people go threw on a daily basis!!! im not gonna get on here and spew hate, but u gotta be kidding me…. lets make it personal, not fantasy, are u really gonna get online infront of all of black planet and lie and say u would walk up to a lil black girl walking with a white woman and ask her if everything was ok? come on now…if u gonna be part of “our” planet atleast be honest with us and urself
No, it is not racism but pure and simple common sense and we all have the number one racist Alfred C. Sharpton to thank for it. Come on people blacks in this country are not African not by a long shot but American, the color of their skin is totally meaningless but obviously if a little white girl was within a black family or a little black girl was within a white family then there would and should be questions asked just to make sure that everything wad alright.
Having worked in social services for 20 years, including adoption initiatives in Illinois, I’m glad to see a Trans- racial adoption of a White child into a Black family. It’s something that I always thought should happen, since black children were adopted by White families. Every child deserves a loving home.
Where’s the great exodus, I’m waiting! I would have thought, when We elected a other than White President, all the RACIST, would have made a bee-line for some lilly-white border. What happened, why is it taking them so long to leave?
This is America! ‘LOVE IT AND IT’S REALITY OR GET THE *EXPLETIVE* OUT!!! YOU RACIST:(B’s)
The world has not changed. White people can adopt black children and it’s ok but it is not the same for blacks. White people need to grow up these are the 2000’s. If you look around there are a lot of mixed couple these its going to happen more and more.
Madonna can adopt a little black baby but loving black parents can’t raise a little white girl? WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE WORLD. GROW THE %#&* UP.
AS U CAN SEE I WAS MAD ABOUT THIS, LOOK HOW YA’LL HAVE ME TALKING. SHE MAY HAVE TO BE REMOVED FROM HER CURRENT SITUATION INTO PROTECTIVE SERVICES FOR CHILDREN
WOW I THINK WE NEED TO LEAVE THE RACISM THING ALONG HONESTLY!!!!! AS WORKING WITH JUVENILES, LOW INCOME CHILDREN, ABUSE CHILDREN, ETC. NO ONE KNOWS THIS CHILDS STRUGGLE, SHE MAY HAVE NEEDED TO BY REMOVE FROM HER MOVE INTO PROTECTIVE SERVICES DOES NOT MATTER IF SHE WAS WHITE, BLACK, BLUE, ORANGE, PURPLE, SHE IS A CHILD AND NOW SHE FEEL LOVE. WAY TO GO FAMILY I AM SO GLAD YOU TOOK THE TIME TO ADOPT HER AND PROVIDE A FAMILY ENVIRONMENT FOR HER!!!
I felt it as a mother to a mixed child who looked more white (long wavy hair, green eyes, fair skin) and had friends who couldn’t believe she was mine, then whites who (even today at 26 yrs old) freak out when she says “Mom” when addressing me. When she was about 3 yrs old, she playfully ran into an upscale store in the mall and hid underneath some dresses. I wasn’t very happy and spanked her outside the store. One white woman approaches me (and I ALWAYS knew in the back of my damned mind, ONE of them was gonna ‘try’ me!) and says, “If I knew WHO that childs’ parents were, I’d call them and tell them how you’re beating their child!” I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as I look up and see these white people standing there staring at us. My girlfriends were like…”Uh Oh..she done said the WRONG thing!” After I cussed that white woman out and told her that this little WHITE BABY ain’t as WHITE as she THINKS she is and belongs to ME and to get the F*CK out my face with that BLLSHT! She was so red faced and embarrassed, that she couldn’t get away from me and the situation she caused…FAST enough! You think that’s something…my grandson is an exact carbon copy of her and not only have I gotten crazy stares from both black and white folks…his dark skinned daddy gets it WORSE! And my now my daughter is getting those same stares because HER infant daughter came out dark like her husband…and the older she gets, the more like HIM she looks…so in their little town in Oklahoma, she says she gets those same crazy stares and gets followed around, simply because ppl are trying to figure out how this WHITE woman has this BLACK baby!! LMAO! They’re both going thru exactly what *I* went thru, raising her. SMH…
I think a lot of people tend to mix racism with bigotry. I have had to explain that a great deal to my sisters. They live in a small town in the south and their teachers, yes teachers, tend to make comments that are just outrageous. Like “blacks would have been better off as slaves, or slavery wasn’t that bad or why do you people call yourselves African American when you are black” etc., etc. It is ashame that there are many that are still that narrow minded but to those that are open minded/hearted, keep on keeping on.
It is racism. It’s racism because were the adoptive parents Caucasian and the child black, no one would suspect criminal activity. The racism is propagated by media showing the Angelina Jolie adopting African children but never Black parents adopting white children. TomSlick04, what you are suggesting is that it is a normal reaction to assume black adults are engaging in criminal activity if they seem close to white children. The big bad wolf vs the innocuous little red riding hood. But you’ve failed to reason why the same standard is not held for Caucasion parent-black child situation. This is the exemplar of being prejudged by skin color, not character. In a word, the aforementioned is “racism”. Don’t be fooled like most.
That is not new. Blacks have did this sort of thing throughout time, especially at the turn of the 20th century. Please get the facts straight. Go down south and you will hear the stories. My family, of course the older generation, that lived during Jim Crow era raised several white children. Mind you, I am half white but still, just do the research.
Oh please. Stop throwing the term racism around like this. It definitely still exists, and while it’s not as prevalent as it once was it’s still an illness that many are infected with and the television keeps suggesting as a logical mentality. But people being confused and concerned to whether they were kidnapping this girl is NOT an example of racism, it’s just a normal reaction to such a seemingly strange situation. Choose your words carefully people