Misplaced Attention

This billboard reads: Black Children are an Endangered Species

Really?  Based on what foster care system?  

I was driving home from an audition today when I had to drive around the block and park my car so I could take this photo. And now I've been thinking about it all night.  It really bothers me. So I finally pulled out my lap top and started doing research.  Here's what I found: 

According to AFCARS, Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, 42% of children, in foster care, waiting to be adopted, are black.   The most recent reports, available 2010 from the US Department of Health and Human Resources, are representative of the FY (Fiscal Year) 2008.  In them it states there are currently 463,000 children in the U.S. foster care system.  This means there are 268, 540 black children waiting to be adopted in the U.S.  

Around 120,000 children are adopted each year.  If all the children adopted were black, this would still leave 148,540 black children waiting in the wings.  I don't know about you but I'm not comfortable with that number.  

I understand that this billboard has a pro-life agenda but the argument for stopping abortions is false.   Black children, according to the US Department of Health and Human Resources, are alive but not doing so well.  As a matter of fact, every year at least 343,000 children of all color are left unadopted and in foster care.  Perhaps we should turn our attention towards helping those that are already alive instead of spreading fear to prolong an outdated agenda.

Full disclosure, I'm pro-choice.  Just to clarify... This does not mean I'm either for or against abortion, it means I am pro a woman's right to choose what she does with her body without government interference.

On another note: the ad agency couldn't find a less derogatory sounding word than species?  Sure it fits into the definition of the word, but really?  We're not talking about plants here we're talking about children of color.  Ugh.