How……how did I never think of this? I know that foster parents get money for raising foster kids. How did my brain not piece together that giving that money to parents whose only sin is poverty would FIX THE FUCKING PROBLEM??
When the state has an invested interest in making money off of private prisons/slave labor, it follows logically that “child welfare” systems are structured to feed the prison pipeline. Removing kids from their parents traumatizes them. Then they become more likely for future incarceration. Foster care becomes a way to feed that pipeline, and of course, it overlaps with White Supremacy and disproportionately impacts families of color.
The powers that be think, “that $39,000 to foster care is an investment toward future prison labor and my future profit” in a way that leaving kids in their families and giving them money to survive does not. And again white supremacy is woven into the fabric of this system as foster kids are much more likely to be black but foster parents are more likely to be white.
