Margaret Prescod

The Ethics of Protection

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“We applaud the author's conclusion that to attack the racist, classist, and sexist Child Protection Services that separates families and harms children, money must be wrested from the massive child welfare and anti-poverty industries and instead be used to provide proper support to impoverished families. We know that when welfare was cut to undermine Black single mothers, money for the child removal industry increased by 20,000 percent--from $25 million to $5 billion! To remove children unjustly from their mothers dismisses the bond between mother and child and causes long-lasting harm, as the grassroots women who contributed so much to the book describe. Raising children is work, and those doing it are workers. The author calls for a guaranteed income; we are calling for a guaranteed care income. This would change the narrative of the 'undeserving poor,' tackle the poverty of mothers and children (73 percent of the poor), and undermine the practice of removing children from their homes because poverty is considered neglect. Thank you for moving this agenda forward!”