Social Workers Snatched Me from the White Parents I Loved to Make Me Live with a Black Family; How the Colour-Obsessed Foster Care System Sentenced Dawn to a Lifetime of Regret

Byline: by Antonia Hoyle

HER earliest childhood memories are as cherished as they are vivid. There were Saturday mornings digging potatoes in the allotment with her father, and the smell of sausages wafting from the barbecue during family holidays in Cornwall.

Lazy summer afternoons were spent playing in the garden with her three older siblings; family dinners were boisterous affairs; and birthday parties were celebrated with homemade cake.

Dawn Cousins grew up feeling loved and secure, and that her future was full of hope. At least she did until she was seven.

At that point, her idyllic life was snatched away when a social worker took her away from her picturesque Oxfordshire home.

Dawn was informed that despite the fact her parents Gina and Pete had fostered her from birth, they were unsuitable for raising her.

She spent the next six months in a children's home before being adopted by a couple who lived 50 miles away. She had to adapt to her different family, start a new school, and make new friends.

So what was the reason behind social services' drastic decision? Dawn's parents were not abusing her nor were they embroiled in a life of crime. They were doing nothing to jeopardise their little girl's well-being.

They were a decent, middle-class couple who desperately wanted to adopt Dawn, and had attempted to do so.

However, social services told them not to pursue their application because they were white. Since Dawn was mixed race she would be better off with a black family, they said.

Until recently, local authorities made it incredibly difficult for white couples to adopt a mixed-race child.

And although Education Secretary Michael Gove issued new guidelines last year relaxing the rules on inter-racial adoption, it is still more difficult for cases to be approved than same-race ones -- …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Social Workers Snatched Me from the White Parents I Loved to Make Me Live with a Black Family; How the Colour-Obsessed Foster Care System Sentenced Dawn to a Lifetime of Regret. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: Daily Mail (London). Publication date: March 30, 2012. Page number: 32. © 2007 Daily Mail. COPYRIGHT 2012 Gale Group.

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