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emma_hughes_ 's review for:
We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America
by Roxanna Asgarian
eye-opening account of the systemic failures of the foster system, especially when it comes to Black children and parents. Asgarian notes that we’re a society that likes to put individual responsibility on systemic problems, which means that blame for this tragedy was often put solely on the foster parents, while in reality the children were failed in many ways before things reached a breaking point.
I especially liked the way she reported on the birth families - she listed their stories and failures clearly, but without judgment, and with an emphasis on the love they had for the children taken from them. one fact that particularly struck me was how quickly the children were removed from their parents after a single infraction, and how little agency parents had to prove their adequacy to provide for the children. clearly, the system needs reform.
I especially liked the way she reported on the birth families - she listed their stories and failures clearly, but without judgment, and with an emphasis on the love they had for the children taken from them. one fact that particularly struck me was how quickly the children were removed from their parents after a single infraction, and how little agency parents had to prove their adequacy to provide for the children. clearly, the system needs reform.