I don’t watch Ellen, but over on the Christian Adoption blog, Marie wrote about a statement that Queen Latifah made on the Ellen Degeneres show. It seems that Queen Latifah (aka Dana Adams) wants to adopt children. OK, not really newsworthy these days, lots of celebrities are doing it.

Part of what makes this newsworthy is that she wants to adopt from the states, and that she wants to adopt children “from the hood”. From the news clips that I have seen, she is worried about the lengthy wait for a Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) and she has every right to be. TPR’s do not go the way they are supposed to.

She also said that she wants to adopt 18 children, and doesn’t care if it’s all while she’s a single parent.

While doing some digging, I found an article that talked about a song that she wrote back in 2003. Here is a little description about the song:

One of the more touching songs is "The World," which is semi-autobiographical. Latifah said, "The first verse is autobiographical, talking about how I was molested as a child. I didn't know how to tell my parents and it really messed with me emotionally and in terms of my ideas of sexuality. I had parents who explained these things to me, but it happens to you at 5 years old, you can't seem to get it out of your mouth, like, 'Hey, this guy did this me.' You know?"

Yahoo music

Another report says that she plans to become a foster parent before she adopts.

Several reports have revealed that her sister is a social worker in New Jersey.

There is a shortage of African American foster and adoptive homes. An article from Florida shows the disparity, and shows that Florida is actively working to recruit more African American families.

In Florida, African American kids are 37% of the foster care population, but only 33% of foster parents are African American. There is a huge gap that we need to be filling, and if Queen Latifah can help get the word out, more power to her!

Miami-Dade lawmakers launched a one year campaign to try to recruit more African American foster and adoptive homes. I wonder how successful they were? There were also ads placed at bus stops in African American neighborhoods. Something tells me that’s probably not the best medium. If these families are anything like me, unless I write it down as I see it, it’s gone from my mind 5 minutes later. Then again, it’s better than nothing.

With many people opposed to trans racial adoption, why wouldn’t we welcome more people into the “cause” that can help promote awareness and possibly bring in more foster families, of any race or nationality? There is a shortage of foster parents period, so let’s do whatever necessary to promote awareness, rather than criticizing someone who could be a great asset.

With her own personal history and a sister in social services, she’s a step ahead of the “average” foster or adoptive parent.

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