in a time
the two
Cor- and
Friday, March 28, 1976
2
University Daily Kansan
Interracial adoption sides aired
By RON COHN Staff Writer
The success of interracial adoptions is threatened by the mass phenomenon of ethnic prejudice in this country, Donald J. Kendall, professor of social welfare, said yesterday.
When he consults with a couple that is considering the adoption of a child of another race, Chambers said, he tells them to take a long look at the situation.
"I really hate to see prospective adoptive parents walk into a situation for which there is a high probability of a strong dose of human misery," he said.
Ama Fender, a social service worker for the Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) for the state of Kansas, partially agreed with Chambers. But she said that the difficulties of interracial adoptions weren't that great.
Fender said most people who adopted children of other ethnic backgrounds were college-educated, and thus more secure and less prejudiced.
"IT'S A PROBLEM that (couples) can overcome," she said. "Our society has so many different cultures that it really doesn't matter."
The SRS does extensive background checking on all prospective adoptive families, Fender said, and it encourages parents to bring their children along to meet the child being considered for adoption before his actual placement in the home.
She said there was a six-month supervisory period for adopted children who were less than a year old and a 10-month period for children older than a year. This supervisory period would help to determine if there were any problems, she said.
CHAMBERS SAID that the problem involved not only the immediate family, but other family members and the neighborhood.
"I don't want to knock the adoption agencies," he said, "But 'I can't conceive of any agency that could guarantee a positive environment for the child."
Chambers said that not every situation would be negative, but given the extent of ethnic prejudice, it was likely that problems would result.
"The probability is high," he said "that it could turn out to be a grinding situation." Chambers said he particularly opposed interracial adoption if the child was more
than four or five years old. He said that by that time the child had already achieved a fairly strong self-identity, making it harder for the adjustment to take place.
FENDER AGREED that it was harder for an older child to adjust to the new situation and that it was better to adopt the child as soon as possible.
It takes about a year for an older child to adjust to a new family situation, she said, but it is also important to know how the child feels about himself.
"Some older children have a lower level of functioning when living in a foster home before adoption," Seward said. "We have 20 points in a year's time after adoption, 20 points in a year's time after adoption."
Chambers said the lack of the cultural stereotype "the blonde, blue-eyed baby girl" that most people wanted to adopt them to adopt children of other races.
He said three factors that helped cause the declining supply of the stereotyped cheek pads in the pill and a decrease in the rate of the unwed mothers relinquishing their babies.
WHEN THE IDEAL child for an adoptive couple isn't available, they have two alternatives to adopt a child of another one or with one of their impairment or to turn to the black-market.
Fender said that wasn't entirely the case.
Hilder and that wasn't entirely the case. "Many people are far more accepting to them. They will accept normal children, even those who might have minor impairments."
She said that even the supply of children on the black market was hwy.
"Mothers feel more secure knowing there has been assessment and approval," she said.
Chambers said he didn't entirely disapprove of black market adoptions.
"I disapprove of it being a money-making operation," he said.
THE BIGGEST problem with black market adoptions is, that for the most part, they place only ideal children, according to Chambers. Thus, the possibility of adoption is low for what Chambers calls atypical children.
The answer to the problem is to encourage black families to adopt black children, he said, particularly because they were born in the record of taking care of adopted children.
Survey lists KYYS at top
"The first lies in getting next to the black community and seeing what the barriers they have are."
KYYS LED WITT 54 per cent, followed by KBEQ, 26.4 per cent; KLWN-FM of Lawrence, 22 per cent; KANU-FM of Lawrence, 19.6 per cent; and JKHJ.
Chambers said there were two solutions to getting black families to adopt.
A recent survey of radio listeners at the University of Kansas indicates that the front runner, KYYS-FM, Kansas City, Mo., has more than twice as many listeners of its closest competitor, KBEQ-FM, also of Kansas City, Mo.
FM stations dominated the top 10, KCMO, Kansas City, Mo., was the only AM station in the top 10, ranking eight, with 7.5 per cent.
Graduate students interviewed in the survey ranked KANU-FM first. Of KANU's 19.6 per cent total, 32.7 per cent of the listeners were graduate students.
"The second would be an intensive subsidized program, a strong program so that they know they can adopt kids, to ensure that they would receive maintenance program payments. Then they might be more apt to adopt."
KJHK ranked fifth, with 15 per cent saying they listened at "fairly sharp" rates.
"When you look at the number of stations listened to by students," Martin said, "it's not surprising that an alumium-oriented rock station (KYXS) is number one. It's not hard to see why a city station (KBEQ) is very strong with its freshman and sophomore listeners."
"Any station has a difficult time getting into the market," he said. "Fifteen per cent initial impact on the market is a good showing. I've also found out that 40 per cent of KU students have listened to KJHK at one time or another."
QUESTIONS ASKED in the survey were: "Of all the radio stations you hear, what one station do you usually spend the most time listening to?" and "What stations do you listen to fairly regularly?"
He said the survey was taken to show the impact of JKHK-FM, the University's student station, and to show who listens to it on a regular basis.
Martin said the station was going to increase its promotion, especially among freshmen and sophomores, because he had heard that a number of students hadn't heard of JKHK.
He said one of the problems with the Vietnamese orphans was that some orphans' parents were still living in South Vietnam and they had a problem over had custodial rights.
Ernie Martin, associate professor of radio, television and film, said recently that the survey, which interviewed 322 students, was taken between Feb. 19 and 26 by telephone from a systematically drawn sampling of the KU student directory.
Martin said he was pleased with KJHK's results in the survey,
MARTIN SAID J.KH was trying to be an alternative to top 40 and album-oriented
Chambers said he didn't think the prejudice in this country was as heavy against Orientals as it was against blacks. The problem, he argued, is that children wouldn't be as much of a problem.
Chambers related "Operation Babylift," which brought thousands of Vietnamese orphans to this country last year, to the interracial adoption problem.
"Besides playing rock," he said, "we also play excellent rock by artists that aren't well-known and rock that's not played on other radio stations."
A little more than 10 per cent of JKHK's music is jazz or jazz-rock, he said. In addition, he said JKHK was strong on news programming in our educational programming aimed at the KU student.
But it would be hard to find parents to adopt those Vietnamese children when there were so many of them with living parents, he said.
"There is no reason why this country couldn't identify who are the children with massive problems and return them to the South Vietnamese government," he said. "In my view they would certainly be better off."
CHAMBERS SAID that if the Vietnamese
inhabitants weren't taken, they might spend
them for a week.
"The fact of the matter is," he said, "if a bad spend 10 years in foster care, he's not going to grow."
'If we can prevent that, we'll be better off.'
PIGSKIN TUB CHAIR
Natural tanned hide stretched over a hand-hew frame. Artistic rubber base.
Brown and tan
Reg. '39**
Sale $18**
...
MSTISLAV ROSTROPOVICH
one of the world's greatest cellists
(Funded by Student Senate)
Friday, March 26
K. U. Concert Series
8:00 p.m.
Hoch Auditorium
Tickets at Murphy Hall Box Office
$6.00, $5.50 and $5.00
Students admitted with K.U. I.D. and $1.00
RESERVE YOUR TICKET WHILE THEY LAST!
Free shuttle bus service from N-Zone Parking Lot (opposite Murphy Hall) to Hoch
JAZZ JAZZ JAZZ only at
Paul Gray's Jazz Place 926 Mass. above Jonkins Music
Tonite: the Joe Utterback Trio Great Modern Jazz
Saturday: the Gaslite Gang Super Traditional Dixieland
842-9458
Call 843-8575
For Reservations
Taco John's Appreciation Day Saturday, March 27 ALL FOOD ITEMS ONLY 35c
TACO Crop Corn Tortilla, Tasteful Seasoned Ground Beef Grated Cheese Sauce, Leafy Lettuce and Tomato 100
SOFTSHELL Flat Crop Corn Tortilla with Fresh Tortilla Instead of Cure Tortilla 300
BURRITO Flat Crop Tortilla with Pinto Bean Seasoned Ground Beef and Chili Sauce 100
BEEF BURRITO Flat Crop Tortilla with Tasteful Seasoned Ground Beef Topped with Grilled Omea, Onion and Maw 60
TOSTADA Flat Crop Corn Tortilla with Refined Beans, Cheese Sauce, Lettuce and Tomato 350
BEEF TOSTADA Flat Crop Corn Tortilla with Tastefully Seasoned Ground Beef, Cheese Sauce, Lettuce and Tomato 60
ENCHILADA Soft Crop Corn Tortilla with Refined Beans, Cheese Sauce, Lettuce and Tomato 750
TACO BURGER Fresh Box with Seasoned Ground Beef Topped with TEXAS CHILE, Cheese Sauce, Onion and Maw 50
REFIED BEANS A generous portion of Refried Beans mixed with our special beers and Topped with Cheese and Sauce 40
TEXAS CHILI Our very favorite drink Just for Your Test 750
CHILI FRIITO Filtrated Topped with TEXAS CHILL 60
APPLE GRANDE(Gerris' Special Crust Canned Covered with a Tasty Apple Filling, Topped with a Sprinkling of Chocolate and Cinnamon Flakes) 150
SALAD A Tasty Touted Salad with Lettuce, Mallow, AT PARTICIPATING Ingredients (Chicken, Potatoes, Corn, Vegetables)