“As public defenders working with parents in family court, we write during Black History Month to urge state legislators to pass a slate of legislation that informs, supports, and empowers families and communities rather than subjecting them to cycles of harm and separation.”
Adi Talwar
Family court in lower Manhattan.
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As public defenders working with parents in family court, we write during Black History Month to urge state legislators to pass a slate of legislation that informs, supports, and empowers families and communities rather than subjecting them to cycles of harm and separation.
The Parent Legislative Action Network (PLAN), a statewide coalition of impacted families, advocates, social workers, academics and attorneys, including our offices, has put forward the following vital pieces of legislation: The Family Miranda Rights Act, S551/A1234 ensures that all families know their rights at the start of a family policing investigation; the Maternal Health, Dignity, and Consent Act, S845/A860 requires that medical providers follow established standard of care and obtain written and verbal consent regardless of health insurance status, or race, class, or other identity markers before screening or testing pregnant and birthing people for drug use; and the Anti-Harassment in Reporting Act, S550/A066, which would prevent abuse of the State Central Register by switching from anonymous reporting to confidential reporting.
In New York City, Black parents and their children are systematically targeted at every stage of intervention by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). ACS is a policing agency that uses coercive and manipulative tactics rooted in systemic racism to investigate families and remove children from their homes. A draft report commissioned by ACS in 2022 showed that parents, advocates, and staff alike felt that the agency “actively destabilizes Black and Brown families and makes them feel unsafe.”
Sadly, this is nothing new: Black families have been ensnared in punitive systems since the inception of chattel slavery, when Black people were forcibly removed from their homelands, separated from their families, and sold into unpaid slave labor. Those who gave birth in the United States faced the devastating removal of their children when they were sold. Married couples were likewise regularly separated, making it impossible for any form of family stability during the devastating centuries of legal slavery in this country. To justify these brutal practices, Black family cohesion and love were intentionally devalued.
The same inaccurate portrayal of Black life and family bonds as being weaker and less important persists to a devastating degree to today. As it stands now, the family policing system, from ACS to services providers and the courts itself, conflates poverty with neglect, which puts Black families at a distinct disadvantage because they continue to face systemic racism in the labor market.
For example, Black women continue to earn 64 cents for every dollar earned by white men; the Institute for Women’s Policy Research estimates that pay equity will take over 100 years to achieve. And there remains an over $240,000 wealth gap between the median white household and the median Black household. What Black families need, therefore, is not surveillance and family separation but support; they need real investments to counteract these forces.
The theme of Black History Month is “African Americans and Labor.” Black and Brown communities must have the opportunity to earn a fair wage and have access to needed resources to support their families. While this will not eliminate the racism we see daily in the family legal system, it may begin to eliminate the poverty that is so often the underpinning of ACS investigations.
The inability to afford a safe and clean home, lack of sufficient food, limited childcare options, inadequate medical care and the stress and overwhelm that comes with these challenges are often targeted as inadequate parenting, even when children are safe and loved in their families.
The New York State Cash Alliance has brought together advocates from all across the state to support a package of legislation that ensures that New York’s families have the resources that they need. Threats to family integrity persist at every level of our government and the New York legislature must act to make New York a place where families can thrive.
We know that Black children who are taken from their homes and placed into the foster system are moved around more often and receive fewer services than their white counterparts. When Black foster youth age out of the system, they are much more likely to experience homelessness, unemployment, and/or incarceration.
Black families and advocates have made clear that ending the systemic injustices that Black families are forced to grapple with every day requires transforming systems of harm into systems of care. This Black History Month, we call on our leaders in government to do more than post on social media and host celebratory events—they must listen to Black families and take action now to pass the aforementioned bills into law.
Zainab Akbar is managing attorney in the family defense practice at Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. Emma S. Ketteringham is managing director in the family defense practice at The Bronx Defenders. Lauren Shapiro is managing director in the family defense practice at Brooklyn Defender Services. Christine Waer is managing director of litigation in the family defense practice at the Center for Family Representation (CFR).
The post Opinion: Transforming Systems of Harm into Systems of Care for Black Families appeared first on City Limits.
