| 1 | 1 | | Gloria Brissenden talks proudly about her four adopted children. She tells you |
| 2 | | they're all talented, that one daughter's just had a baby and the others are doing well at |
| 3 | | school or college. There's no mention that they're black or of mixed race and that she and |
| 4 | | her ex-husband, John, are white - because for Gloria, 46, it's not an issue. Seeing her with |
| 5 | | Marcus, 19, Zahria, 18, Christian, 14, and Tasmyn-Rebecca, 10, it's hard to imagine a closer |
| 6 | | family unit. |
| 2 | 7 | | But a family like theirs may be an unusual sight in the future because the new policy |
| 8 | | on adoption is that black or mixed-race children should be placed with parents from the |
| 9 | | same race or at least with white parents in areas where they can mix with other black or |
| 10 | | mixed-race children. |
| 3 | 11 | | Things were different twenty years ago. Gloria and John married in 1971.They tried |
| 12 | | for a family, but Gloria was unable to have children. Adoption seemed the answer. After |
| 13 | | going through a lot of trouble, they were offered three-month-old Marcus. His mother was |
| 14 | | white; his Jamaican father had returned to the West Indies. 'The minute I set eyes on him I |
| 15 | | felt he was my son,' Gloria remembers. 'He was an absolute joy.' |
| 4 | 16 | | In 1975, Gloria and John adopted 10-week-old Zahria, who has a Jamaican |
| 17 | | grandmother. Christian, from Barbados, arrived, aged six weeks, in 1979. Four years later, |
| 18 | | Gloria adopted another girl, Tasmyn-Rebecca. |
| 5 | 19 | | 'All my children have details from their adoption agencies about their birth, their |
| 20 | | parents and grandparents, and the subject has always been openly discussed. I've tried to |
| 21 | | make them aware of their origins like you would with Scottish or Irish children,' says |
| 22 | | Gloria. |
| 6 | 23 | | But Anthony Douglas, assistant director of Hackney Social Services, says: 'Policy |
| 24 | | changed because research showed that black children need black adoptive parents, to |
| 25 | | develop a positive sense of racial identity.' What did Gloria's children think about this? |
| 7 | 26 | | 'H might have been nice to meet more black kids at school,' says Marcus. 'I was |
| 27 | | called names a few times when I was about 12, but it wasn't nasty. It's like being called |
| 28 | | Fatty if you're fat. I responded by hitting a few people - that shut them up.' |
| 8 | 29 | | Do the children worry about losing their roots and culture - the main argument |
| 30 | | against mixed-race adoptions? 'I've never wished I'd been adopted by a black family,' says |
| 31 | | Christian. 'If I'd stayed in Hackney with black parents, life might have been rougher and I |
| 32 | | might have got into trouble.' |
| 9 | 33 | | Marcus adds: 'I guess if you encounter racism and have black adoptive parents, |
| 34 | | they're more likely to know how to deal with it. But I haven't had any real problems and |
| 35 | | it's better to be adopted by white parents than not at all. I'd like to visit Jamaica, but |
| 36 | | there's no feeling of "getting back to my roots". I'd like to go to Majorca, too.' |
| 10 | 37 | | Gloria points out: 'All their birth parents were happy for us to have them. Christian's |
| 38 | | mother insisted on him being brought up the western way. She came to Britain with her |
| 39 | | parents, who tried to stick to the ways of their background. It didn’t work.' |
| 11 | 40 | | 'These days my children would have been placed with black or mixed-race couples,' |
| 41 | | says Gloria. 'It's ridiculous. It's not as if we've had any problems with race or adoption. I |
| 42 | | know other white parents of mixed-race families who say the same. None of the children |
| 43 | | takes drugs or drinks too much. They're all healthy. I've met parents who have more |
| 44 | | problems with their birth children. So yes, I'm very proud of all mine.' |
| | | |
| | | 'Woman', November 8, 1993 |
