ty. Therefore, a practitioner must advocate for the child. A child cannot take care of itself, so it is up to the practitioner to keep the child?s best interests in mind.Theory, Values, and EthicsIt states clearly over and over again in Professional Social Work research that racism is unacceptable. Continually, we read about Social Work competencies dealing with cultural diversity issues. We are expected as Social Workers to respect all family systems, even non-traditional ones. However, the National Association Of Black Social Workers (NABSW) made a policy statement in 1972 vehemently opposing Transracial adoption. More specifically, they claim that the future placement of black children with white families must cease immediately. The reasons for this are that raising a black child in a white family denies the blackness of the child. They cannot learn about their culture, ethnicity, or heritage appropriately from a white family. Furthermore, this belief is supported by research that states, ?Agencies do not intentionally seek to be culturally destructive but rather lack the capacity to help minority clients or communities. (Cross 1988)? Our Code of Ethics states that we must have certain competencies. Within these competencies are competencies dealing with cultural issues. Cultural competence is paramount for all adoption issues. If we cannot understand the client?s culture that we represent, we cannot represent our client. Our cultural competencies state, ?Social workers shall use appropriate methodological approaches, skills, and techniques that reflect the workers' understanding of the role of culture in the helping process. [More specifically they must] assess the meaning of culture for individual clients and client groups, encourage open discussion of differences, and respond to culturally biased cues (NASW 2001)?. Understanding a culture is still different then being completely aware of that culture. A practitione...
