Letter: Looking beyond appearances

Sir: We do not know all of the facts that surround the Norfolk social workers' decision not to match a mixed-race child with mixed-race carers; we do not even know what the racial mix of the child in question is; but what is clear is that both social workers and positive-race policies are under attack yet again.

Even the considered views of Harry Zeitlin, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry ('Children put love first, not black or white', 12 July), reduce the issues to appearances. It may well be the case that some white 'liberal' social workers have definitions of race equality that bear little relationship to the aspirations and expectations of black people, and that crude and simplistic definitions are employed by them. But the fact is that considerable damage has been done to black children over the last three decades by placing them with white families. Some have benefited, many more have not.

Professor Zeitlin may have his doubts about a positive black identity. I myself do not, it is more than a mere matter of black or white appearances, but of pride in one's heritage. In my case, I am proud of my black Nigerian father, and my white Jewish mother. I draw upon the rich heritage that entails and I am in no doubt that I am black, whatever the shade of my skin.

If the meaning attached to having a black skin in Britain were not negative, I would have little doubt that the simplistic analysis of Professor Zeitlin would hold good. But in the real world, a black child does need positive images and reinforcement of his or her blackness.

Professor Zeitlin and your leading article ('A chance to get adoption right', 12 July) are correct to draw attention to attempts to reduce matching a child to adoptive parents on the question of race alone. This should never be the only consideration; but, for a black child, one of a number of important issues to be considered. The others must include language, culture, religion, diet, siblings, etc. That some social workers fail to do so (or appear to) is not an inherent fault of 'political correctness', but perhaps of the British tendency to reduce everything to obvious pigeon-holes. What may be first seen of a black child is their skin colour and not anything else about them. If social workers are guilty of this, so too is the majority of society.

Yours faithfully,

LINDA BELLOS

London, N4

13 July