Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System

Reviews / Votes

Starting at enslavers' brutal separation of Black families, Alan J. Dettlaff adeptly traces the racist foundations of today's child welfare system * a system modeled on white saviorism, surveillance and separation. Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System makes an important contribution to the literature exposing the system's deliberate harms and a compelling call to join the struggle for its abolition."
Dorothy Roberts, author of Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families-And How Abolition Can Build A Safer World * Dettlaff offers a profound and timely exploration of the destructive impact of systemic racism on the lives of African Americans." * Feminista Jones, author of Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World From the Tweets to the Streets * Written with deep passion and a keen sense of urgency, this powerful book is both a poignant historical account of the violent legacy of what the author calls the 'family policing system,' and an urgent call for action. This analysis is just what is needed right now to document the ways that the carceral logic of the so-called child welfare system is a cornerstone of the larger punishment apparatus that has emerged from persistent White supremacy, enslavement, and genocide in this country. The precision by which the author challenges any misconceptions about how and why Black people are targeted by forcible separation, coupled with the clear and well documented argument about mean-spirited policies, make this a tremendously valuable contribution to the growing body of literature on abolition, policy change, and social justice work." * Beth E. Richie, author of Abolition. Feminism. Now. and Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence and America's Prison Nation

* This wonderful examination of US child welfare's devastating history ends with a well-argued chapter on abolition. Skeptical readers should begin at the end. Use the chapter's bright and urgent vision as a guide to understand how where we're at is not where we must be. Dettlaff and his colleagues propose abolition as a practical call to action." * Ruth Wilson Gilmore, author of Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation * The most common phrase in the family policing lexicon is 'best interests of the child.' Alan Dettlaff and his coauthors show us why for children, especially Black children, it also is the most dangerous. This book deserves an important place among the growing literature exposing the dangers of family policing and the 'child welfare' surveillance state." * Richard Wexler, author of Wounded Innocents: The Real Victims of the War Against Child Abuse * This is a thought-provoking book from an activist's perspective. Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. * Choice *