Since the end of May, a spotlight has been put on how far the issues of racial inequality reach, in a way that makes it impossible to ignore anymore. However, while this spotlight and the reaction to it – all over the world – is unprecedented, the problem is not new. And the effects of racial inequality are not limited to police violence. All over the world people of minority racial and ethnic backgrounds – as well as people living in poverty – are marginalised. Anything that might help them succeed or move ahead is placed (almost) beyond their reach and then they are blamed for the situation they find themselves in. This has far-reaching consequences.
When it comes to child protection and alternative care, this is something that cannot be ignored if we are serious about keeping the child’s best interest at the centre of our decision-making. And if we are committed to upholding the necessity and suitability principles. However, it is ignored or even denied far too often, by a system that is at the very least subconsciously biassed against racial and ethnic minorities in many places, and in some overtly prejudiced.
The marginalisation of children from minority racial or ethnic backgrounds – in almost all countries – starts from before birth and each stage of it has a knock-on effect. Pregnant women with ‘the wrong’ background have a harder time accessing medical care or are outright denied it. Or they may be reluctant to try to access it because of the treatment they know they can expect. This means more children are born without ante-natal checks and possibly even without assistance during delivery.
Due to their parents’ marginalisation, these children are more likely to be born into poverty. They are likely to have more problems accessing quality education. And they are more likely to be taken into care. Children of racial and ethnic backgrounds are over-represented in alternative care – depending on the country they live in, this may be institutional or family-based care.
Often the reasons why the child is taken into care, are reasons created by marginalisation. Parents are denied access to a job (even if they did manage to get qualifications) on the basis of their name or the colour of their skin, meaning they are less able to bring in enough money for their family. They are denied the right to buy or rent the property of their choice, for the same reason and may be forced to accept substandard accommodation in order to have a place to live at all. Just like with medical care, the parents often have less access to services in general, making it harder to find the support needed to deal with challenges that might face any family. All of these things can conspire to make authorities decide that a child is getting sub-standard care and is therefore neglected. Leading to the child being placed in care.
Something else we cannot lose sight of is that when parents are under long-term, unrelenting, high stress, the risk of child abuse increases. Not because of anything inherently wrong in the parents, but because our bodies and brains are not made to tolerate continuous high-level stress and it makes people reach a psychological breaking point at some stage. And make no mistake, systemic racism and marginalisation – something that you have no way of escaping or mitigating – is extremely stressful and absolutely unrelenting with no end in sight.
So, even in cases that seem clear-cut: ‘the child is being abused’, we need to really think about to what extent this is the case because of the situation that the family is placed in by society. Many people who are not part of a minority group find it very difficult to really understand the impact of the different way in which minority groups are treated and how this affects everything in their life. Yet, it is something that is essential. Only if everyone makes that effort can we hope to keep the child’s best interest central. And hopefully, it will also help to bring about change to end the marginalisation.
We appear to have reached a time where there is more of a chance that this will be taken seriously. I really hope so. However, we have to recognise that while toppling statues and doing away with racist branding is a step in the right direction, it is not an actual solution. Systemic racism can only be removed by systemic change.
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