Policy for young children in South Africa is now receiving high-level government support through the ANC's renewed commitment to redress poverty and inequity and creating "a better life for all" as promised before the 1994 election. In this article, I explore the power relations, knowledge hierarchies and discourses of childhood, family…

Interpretations of the differences between the African American child and the Caucasian child in North America follow two major trends. In one the differences in the African American child are viewed as deviance from the Euro-American norm and therefore inferior or pathological. In the other, the differences are viewed as deviant but adaptive…

Discusses an 18-month effort by Homes for Black Children and the Wayne County (Detroit) Department of Social Services to train child welfare workers concerning the extended kinship network of the African-American family; the role of African-American men in the family and child welfare; and African-American child rearing methods, language and…

It is often the case that lip service is paid to the strength of indigenous culture while the implications of indigenous peoples' strengths are disregarded in actual project design. This paper shows that indigenous peoples and societies are able to cope with an extraordinary number of permutations, and that their coping mechanisms are both…

The actual possibilities for communication among Africans are unsatisfactory. While the north has adopted Arabic as its lingua franca, most African states south of the Sahara still use the language(s) of their former colonial masters as official languages, thereby neglecting their native languages. This situation excludes many people from higher…

Maintains that transracial adoptions will not significantly reduce the number of African American children in the child welfare system. Asserts that recruitment of adoptive African American parents is hampered by child welfare practices and legislative initiatives. Argues that the transracial adoption debate diverts attention from the differential…

This paper identifies themes of the Second African Conference on Child Abuse (1993), notes the importance of the breakdown of family structure, and stresses the importance of prevention. Prerequisites for prevention programs in developing countries are considered and development of a macro campaign and local micro efforts is urged. Examples of…

Child welfare is not the only system in which disparities have been identified in U.S. foster care. According to the recent Children's Defense Fund's report "America's Cradle to Prison Pipeline," racial and economic disparities exist in many systems including child welfare, health care, mental health, education, and juvenile and criminal justice.…

This paper discusses some of the factors that impede or assist in the socialization process of African-American children in day care centers and in elementary schools. It is maintained that most child care and school environments support the hegemonic dominance of European-American culture and values, while discouraging the culture and values of…

Robert Hummer and Erin Hamilton note that the prevalence of fragile families varies substantially by race and ethnicity. African Americans and Hispanics have the highest prevalence; Asian Americans, the lowest; and whites fall somewhere in the middle. The share of unmarried births is lower among most foreign-born mothers than among their U.S.-born…

Addresses the critical need for culturally competent assessments of the risk of child maltreatment in African American families and the implications for both policy and practice. Advocates development of comprehensive, community-based, and culturally synthesizing approaches to evaluating potential and realized risks to the healthy development of…

As "Saving the African American Child" (the report of the Task Force on Black Academic and Cultural Excellence) emphasizes, African American educators must be aggressive in carrying out their inherent obligation to eliminate the impediments to growth and development which restrict the life chances of African Americans. Black America…

This paper explores issues of religion and ethnicity, with emphasis on how these factors relate to adjustment for families (particularly African American families) of a child with disabilities. A framework for further research and policy development is offered, which relates culture/ethnicity, religious connectedness, and family…

A pathological image of the African American has infiltrated U.S. education. With desegregation and the arrival of African American children in white America's schools has come the application of psychological and educational labels that create and constrain the educational experiences of the African American child. These labels have not evolved…

This commentary engages the three elements of a social justice framework in the study of African American Boys and Men's (AABM) positive development, proposed by Barbarin, Tolan, and Gaylord-Harden (2019). In agreement with the importance of and in support of employing a social justice framework in developmental science, we offer theoretical and…