Speaker 1: One quick thing. A week ago, on Tuesday, January two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office received word from
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice that the foot discovered near the
Speaker 1: crash site in May was positively identified as belonging to
Speaker 1: Hannah Hart. It is now believed by officials that she
Speaker 1: died in the crash with her family. The notice reads,
Speaker 1: Davante Hart is still listed as a missing person with
Speaker 1: the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. The case remains open and active.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for the latest installment of Broken Hearts. Before
Speaker 1: we begin today's episode, Liz and I feel compelled to
Speaker 1: address something we think is vitally important to the story.
Speaker 1: We're white, Loses of Irish Catholic descent. She has freckles,
Speaker 1: and I. She thinks are green, but I'd say are
Speaker 1: blue with a swirl of cinnamon. I am of Jewish descent,
Speaker 1: of blonde hair and hazel eze. We were both raised
Speaker 1: on the East Coast. We both attended private colleges in
Speaker 1: the Northeast. We are both mothers to white children. For
Speaker 1: many reasons, we are not the ideal people to delve
Speaker 1: into the tricky and very problematic race issues that this
Speaker 1: case presents. We'd also be remiss not to talk about
Speaker 1: these issues, as they're crucial to the larger socio cultural
Speaker 1: context of the story. In this episode, you'll hear from
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Davis, who helped raise three of the Hart kids
Speaker 1: before they were adopted, and April Dinwoodie, who was a
Speaker 1: transracial adoption expert here in New York, and more from
Speaker 1: Shaunda Jones, the lawyer who fought to keep Jeremiah, Davante
Speaker 1: and Sierra with their biological aunt. Each of these people
Speaker 1: has a different perspective on how race and bias may
Speaker 1: have played a role in the deaths of Marcus, Hannah Davante, Abigail, Jeremiah,
Speaker 1: and Sierra Hart. From Glamour and How Stuff Works, This
Speaker 1: is Broken Hearts, I'm Justine Harmon and I'm Liz Egan.
Speaker 1: Before Jane and Sarah Hart adopted their second set of
Speaker 1: siblings in two thousand nine, Davante, Jeremiah, and Sierra had
Speaker 1: been Davanta d E v O n t A Jeremiah
Speaker 1: j E R m I A h and Sierra c
Speaker 1: I E r A Davis. They had lived in Houston, Texas,
Speaker 1: with their older brother Dante, their mother, Sherry Hurd, and
Speaker 1: her boyfriend Nathaniel Davis, whose last name the children had
Speaker 1: taken even before Sherry and Nathaniel got married in two
Speaker 1: thousand ten. Here's Nathaniel, Oh, no, tell me that I
Speaker 1: was They chuckles from me and sell it to my
Speaker 1: room and he removed them for less to the audio
Speaker 1: quality here isn't great, but Nathaniel saying that he was
Speaker 1: the only dad those kids ever had, and that CPS
Speaker 1: removed the siblings from his and Sherry's care when Sierra
Speaker 1: was born in two thousand five. The children lived briefly
Speaker 1: with his brother, he says, before all three entered the
Speaker 1: Texas foster care system. Nathaniel remembers the three younger siblings
Speaker 1: personalities well, even though he hasn't seen them in over
Speaker 1: a decade. La Sierra all the time, always tried to
Speaker 1: protective and laugh. Remember, Nathaniel wasn't the only family these
Speaker 1: kids had. Before jenn and Sarah Hart adopted Davante, Jeremiah,
Speaker 1: and Sierra in two thousand nine, their aunt Priscilla fought
Speaker 1: hard to get them out of foster care. Priscilla hired
Speaker 1: Houston attorney Shawanda Jones to help her plead her case
Speaker 1: and was successful in having them returned to her care.
Speaker 1: She even moved to a new house to accommodate the children,
Speaker 1: but a decision to let their mom, Sherry, watch the
Speaker 1: kids while Priscilla went to work, resulted in the kids
Speaker 1: being removed from the home. Sherry had a well documented
Speaker 1: substance abuse problem. According to court records, she was a
Speaker 1: crack cocaine abuser and was forbidden contact with the kids
Speaker 1: and CPS exercised a no tolerance policy. The children had
Speaker 1: only lived with their aunt for five and a half months.
Speaker 1: Priscilla's decision to let the kids mom babysit was a
Speaker 1: bad judgment call, yes, but Shaunda says the tenor of
Speaker 1: the court proceedings stands out in her twenty two years
Speaker 1: as an attorney. The father's rights were being terminated because
Speaker 1: I think she had alcohol problems and the mother had
Speaker 1: drug problems, and so that's why their rights are terminated,
Speaker 1: which I don't take issue with that. I think you
Speaker 1: know in that instant that was the prudent thing to do.
Speaker 1: But I always have taken issue within this case is
Speaker 1: the harsh manner the way that they dealt with Miss Celestine.
Speaker 1: The presiding judge for that court was Patrick Shelton, who
Speaker 1: is now retired. In response to questions about how the
Speaker 1: Hearts were allowed to adopt Davonte, Jeremiah, and Sierra after
Speaker 1: an allegation of child abuse had already been made against them,
Speaker 1: he pointed to the lack of criminal charges in the
Speaker 1: state of Minnesota. Shelton told Criminal Justice site the appeal
Speaker 1: Unless there's a criminal charge, what can you do, Believe
Speaker 1: it or not. Kids get bruises that do not get beat.
Speaker 1: Shelton also denies reports that he or his associate judge
Speaker 1: favored non relative adoptions over placement with family members. The
Speaker 1: agency that facilitated Jen and Sarah's adoption of the Davis
Speaker 1: siblings closed in two thousand eleven. It was called the
Speaker 1: Permanent Family Resource Center. The offices were located on a
Speaker 1: commercial gride of land in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, which is
Speaker 1: about a fifteen minute drive from Alexandria, where the women
Speaker 1: lived until two thousand thirteen, and our chived version of
Speaker 1: the now defunct website says it was started in two
Speaker 1: thousand by three families who had adopted eight children out
Speaker 1: of the child welfare system. According to a page report
Speaker 1: filed by the Minnesota Department of Human Services in September
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, only months after Jen and Sarah officially
Speaker 1: adopted their second set of siblings through the agency, the
Speaker 1: Permanent Family Resource Center was placed on conditional status after
Speaker 1: accruing seventeen licensing violations. The violations ranged from failing to
Speaker 1: submit paperwork to failure to complete proper background checks on families.
Speaker 1: In the past ten years, the Minnesota DHS has only
Speaker 1: issued three conditional licenses for child placement agencies. Back when
Speaker 1: the Hearts were clients, the Permanent Family Resource Center ran
Speaker 1: the Waiting Children Program, a service that provided families in
Speaker 1: Minnesota and North Dakota with access to foster kids living
Speaker 1: in Texas, Washington, Ohio, Idaho, Oregon, California, and Florida. The
Speaker 1: website reads children in this program are living in foster
Speaker 1: homes or residential facilities and a termination of parental rights
Speaker 1: has occurred, they are legally available for adoption. The average
Speaker 1: weight for a child after approval of the home assessment
Speaker 1: is between six months and three years. It took Jen
Speaker 1: and Sarah Heart less than a year to legally adopt Davonte, Jeremiah,
Speaker 1: and Sierra. Our Field reporter Laurence Smiley reached out to
Speaker 1: three former Permanent Family Resource Center employees about how these
Speaker 1: children were matched with the Hearts as we record this episode,
Speaker 1: those emails have not yet been returned. Davantae, Jeremiah, and
Speaker 1: sarah stepdad, Nathaniel Davis, still has a hard time understanding
Speaker 1: why Jen and Sarah were able to adopt the children
Speaker 1: while also being under investigation on allegations of child abuse.
Speaker 1: He goes on to say, I'm going to tell you
Speaker 1: why they figured we were poor, didn't have nothing to
Speaker 1: fight them with. They should have given other people an
Speaker 1: opportunity to adopt them kids. After DeVante, Jeremiah, and Sierra
Speaker 1: were removed from Priscilla Celestine's care, Shanda says she barely
Speaker 1: had a chance to say goodbye to the children she
Speaker 1: had cared for for the past several months. I think
Speaker 1: maybe saw them one last time. Both Nathaniel and Shonda
Speaker 1: believe the institutionalized bias may have informed the court's decision.
Speaker 1: You just got the complete feeling that they already had
Speaker 1: made up their mind. It's almost like you're just wasting
Speaker 1: their time. You're in the way, and it's like, this
Speaker 1: is supposed to be a judicial system where you weigh evidence.
Speaker 1: Why would you be so emotional and so angry over
Speaker 1: somebody during their job. Because this lady wanted to make
Speaker 1: sure that she kept her niece and nephews and not
Speaker 1: allowed them to go off as she never seen them
Speaker 1: again in life. Despite trying to find out more details
Speaker 1: regarding the siblings adoption, Shaunda says she was never given
Speaker 1: more information about their placement family. I saw some communication
Speaker 1: with Brian Fisher, who was a children's attorney, and he
Speaker 1: said he would have to fly to Minneapolis, so they
Speaker 1: sent the kids out of state. And that didn't even
Speaker 1: make sense anyway. I was like, as Hughes, Texas, is
Speaker 1: you mean to tell me that there's no one? Why
Speaker 1: is there this effort to harry up and get these
Speaker 1: kids out of Texas. When Lauren reached Brian Fisher over
Speaker 1: the phone in August to ask about the case, he said,
Speaker 1: only no, ma'am, no ma'am, no ma'am. Adoptions are sealed
Speaker 1: in Texas. Goodbye. It wasn't until March of this year,
Speaker 1: when Shanta saw reports of the crash on TV, that
Speaker 1: she realized what had happened to DeVante, Jeremiah and Sierra
Speaker 1: and who got custody of them? So many years ago,
Speaker 1: I was sitting here in my office and I was
Speaker 1: looking at the news and I heard them say Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: and then they said Devant, and then that's when I said,
Speaker 1: oh my god, those are the kids. Shanna called Priscilla
Speaker 1: to break the news. When I finally make the connection,
Speaker 1: I was just horrified, and I had admit, because she's
Speaker 1: somebody who can't listen to a lot of bad things
Speaker 1: that happened. But I called her around like eleven o'clock
Speaker 1: at and I asked her, have you heard about that kids?
Speaker 1: Where the those kids were driven off the cliff? And
Speaker 1: she said no, So she said she couldn't hear what
Speaker 1: I was about to tell her. So I called it
Speaker 1: back the next day and that's when I revealed to
Speaker 1: her they were driven off the cliff. And you know,
Speaker 1: she she she says, she just can't. She didn't want
Speaker 1: to accept that. She always thought that the kids were
Speaker 1: in a better place. But she was, you know, she
Speaker 1: was devastated. She was devastated, like so many people who
Speaker 1: learned the fate of Marcus. Hannah Tavante, Abigail Jeremiah, and
Speaker 1: Sierra Hart. Shanda takes issue with the disconnect between the
Speaker 1: facts and emerged on paper and the fiction Jen Hart
Speaker 1: presented on Facebook. She recalls reading about a particular post
Speaker 1: in which jen called out the racism her children experienced
Speaker 1: on a regular or basis. These kids are being used
Speaker 1: as a prop I read this article where I think
Speaker 1: one of the adopted monks has said she was in
Speaker 1: a store. She was checking out in an older white
Speaker 1: gentleman and this patch here who was also Caucasian. We're
Speaker 1: having this discussion about Davonte asking him something about whether
Speaker 1: he was going to play sports. And I won't believe
Speaker 1: for one moment that that conversation took place. That never happened.
Speaker 1: We scoured Jen Hart's Facebook feed, and sure enough, a
Speaker 1: post from November two thousand fourteen refers to this interaction.
Speaker 1: The post reads, quote, we were standing in the grocery checkoutline.
Speaker 1: An elderly man was standing at the end of the
Speaker 1: bagging area, conversing with the woman checking us out. He
Speaker 1: spots our son looks him up and down. Man Colon,
Speaker 1: I can tell you were going to be a baseball
Speaker 1: player when you grow up. Son pauses, tilts his head
Speaker 1: and gives a closed mouth grin. Actually, no, baseball isn't
Speaker 1: really my thing. The post was on like this a
Speaker 1: little bit, with the woman bagging groceries in what Jen
Speaker 1: describes as a befuddled, nearly astonished voice, saying, quote, what
Speaker 1: I have never met a kaid that looks like you
Speaker 1: that doesn't play sports, and the man agreeing with a chuckle, Right,
Speaker 1: never they all do. Gentleman's having to watch her child
Speaker 1: be subjected to ongoing racial stereotyping, but doesn't step in. Instead,
Speaker 1: she says, her son responds, well, of course you've never
Speaker 1: met a kid like me. I'm one of a kind.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be myself no matter how much people
Speaker 1: try to make me something I am not. She adds
Speaker 1: at the end, I think this kid will be all
Speaker 1: right no matter what is tossed at him. This kind
Speaker 1: of storytelling from Jen may seem benign at first, but
Speaker 1: when it factors into an ongoing pattern of isolation and
Speaker 1: chronic abuse, the narrative takes on a sinister undertone. Jen
Speaker 1: and Sarah Hart had taken six black kids from Houston,
Speaker 1: one of the most diverse cities in America and moved
Speaker 1: them from one rural town to the next. For context,
Speaker 1: a two thousand seventeen census report found that Woodland, Washington,
Speaker 1: the last place the Hearts lived, is at least ninety
Speaker 1: two percent white. Only point three percent of Woodland's population
Speaker 1: is black. Friends of the Hearts often recount the stories
Speaker 1: Jan and Sarah told about how unwelcoming their neighbors were,
Speaker 1: how much abuse this unconventional family faced, and how I'm
Speaker 1: safe it was for them at times. Bill Groner lived
Speaker 1: next door to them in West Lynn, Oregon, where the
Speaker 1: population is white. Bill believes that maintaining a sense of
Speaker 1: fear might have helped Jen and Sarah keep the ongoing
Speaker 1: abuse under wraps. He spent the past four years playing
Speaker 1: keyboard at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Portland. The website
Speaker 1: from Mount all of It claims the church was built
Speaker 1: in seven from lumber provided by the Ku Klux Klan
Speaker 1: to keep the African American organization on what they deemed
Speaker 1: the proper side of town. For the record, Bill is white.
Speaker 1: I've always played music in church. I play at an
Speaker 1: African American church, so I'm aware about, you know, racism.
Speaker 1: It maybe covert rather than over, even if it's kind
Speaker 1: of almost subliminal, I could see parents wanting to protect
Speaker 1: their kids always. Maybe that's part of why they told
Speaker 1: the kids to kind of not be overly conversational or
Speaker 1: friendly with neighbors because people could secretly harbor prejudice against you.
Speaker 1: But when you read more about what's what actually happened,
Speaker 1: I don't think they want the kids to tell what
Speaker 1: was going on. I think that's really part of the deal,
Speaker 1: because all would have taken as one kid to come
Speaker 1: over and say, you know, I'm hungry, could have some
Speaker 1: food for me to call Children's Services. Groner isn't the
Speaker 1: only one who noted the way the Heart women, especially Jen,
Speaker 1: would cut their family off from outsiders, but their festival
Speaker 1: friend Ian Spurling only came to that realization after they died.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, so we have some dates set up
Speaker 1: they canceled, like, hey, let's plan a play date at
Speaker 1: the park list Tuesday. Oh yeah, that'd be great. And
Speaker 1: then the day comes, Hey, we're not going to be around.
Speaker 1: You know, a few little things here and there that
Speaker 1: you know, we never found anything more about. Now looking back,
Speaker 1: it's like she was shielding them from being close to people.
Speaker 1: I felt like we were really close with them. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, are they like our family that
Speaker 1: just stops by all the time? You know, not at all?
Speaker 1: Now looking back, there were some dumb moments there. In particular,
Speaker 1: like Marcus, Marcus and Jeremiah, they were very reserved and
Speaker 1: almost stoic in nature. And then when you talk to him, boom,
Speaker 1: snap into a smile, snap into some personality, and and boom,
Speaker 1: right when you stopped talking, go right back to a
Speaker 1: stoic face. And Ian got closer than most. Back in
Speaker 1: June two, eighteen, our Field reporter Lauren talked to Ken Noatake,
Speaker 1: an activist who started the Free Hugs project. Ken first
Speaker 1: reached out to the family when he saw that viral
Speaker 1: image of Davante hugging a police officer at the Black
Speaker 1: Lives Matter rally. He thought perhaps he could mentor the boy.
Speaker 1: Here's Lauren. Ken first held a free Hug sign at
Speaker 1: the Boston Marathon in He soon extended his campaign for
Speaker 1: peace and racial understanding to Black Lives Matter rallies in
Speaker 1: college campuses across the country. When Davante's photo went viral
Speaker 1: six months later, Ken social media lit up. Ken read
Speaker 1: about how Davante had white moms. He also noticed the
Speaker 1: boy's curious outfit fedora hat, leather, pea coat, and why
Speaker 1: is looking face, the age of which was hard to peg.
Speaker 1: He sent a direct message to Jen's acco out on
Speaker 1: Facebook when his photo of him holding that free Hug
Speaker 1: sign and crying in front of the officer. When that
Speaker 1: went viral, my social media went crazy because it was
Speaker 1: the second time an African American was shown like that
Speaker 1: in regards to law enforcement. And that's what my work
Speaker 1: of the Free Hugs project really begin as. And so
Speaker 1: shortly after DeVante hearts photo comes out with him holding
Speaker 1: that free Hug sign in front of a police officer,
Speaker 1: I'm getting all of these emails from people saying, Ken,
Speaker 1: your work is spreading and look at the impact that
Speaker 1: you're having, even on young people. And so right away
Speaker 1: I felt like I need to meet this kid, and
Speaker 1: so I started searching online and then made contact with
Speaker 1: their family the Facebook thought might benefit from having a
Speaker 1: blackmail figure in his life. In fact, it was something
Speaker 1: he himself had craved growing up. I was raised by
Speaker 1: a single mother, and I appreciate my mother and all
Speaker 1: of the strength that she had to raise four boys
Speaker 1: and my sister, but my entire life I longed for
Speaker 1: a father. Originally Ken thought he was messaging with Davante,
Speaker 1: but then it became clear he was chatting with an
Speaker 1: adult Jen over Facebook. She said she preferred her children
Speaker 1: lived what she called a private lifestyle. Understandable really, how
Speaker 1: many parents out there willingly connect their young children with
Speaker 1: strangers over the internet. And after the amount of attention
Speaker 1: that photos list died, all the more reason to be protective. Still,
Speaker 1: the two remained friends on Facebook, a choice Ken now
Speaker 1: believes was intentional on Jen's part. She kind of intercepted
Speaker 1: that potential friendship or connection that we could have had.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until after that I was like, oh, now
Speaker 1: it all makes sense. You wanted them to live a
Speaker 1: private lifestyle because if he would have started sharing with
Speaker 1: me that food was being with Hell. She kept a
Speaker 1: very close circle of people that she can kind of
Speaker 1: play this role with that everything is okay, and so
Speaker 1: then the truth wouldn't get out or they wouldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: Back when we started looking into this story, we wanted
Speaker 1: to better understand what it takes to make a blended
Speaker 1: family like the hearts work in the real world. Lauren
Speaker 1: spoke with April Dinwoody, a transracial adoption expert and the
Speaker 1: former executive director of the Donaldson Adoption Institute. April Dinwoody's
Speaker 1: expertise and transracial adoption starts close to home. She was
Speaker 1: adopted out of foster care as a toddler by a
Speaker 1: white family and Rhode Island. The way her family dealt
Speaker 1: with their racial differences was to not talk about race
Speaker 1: at all. As an adult, hungry to connect with black culture,
Speaker 1: April moved to Harlem. She became CEO of the Donaldson
Speaker 1: Adoption Institute and mentors kids of color who are adopted
Speaker 1: by white families. She used to host a workshop called
Speaker 1: what my White parents did it Know? And Why I
Speaker 1: turned out Okay Anyway. April is vocal about the flaws
Speaker 1: and the adoption system. More often than not, professionals are underpaid,
Speaker 1: Black children are overrepresented. Not enough attention is paid to
Speaker 1: bias training. Sometimes adoptions are rushed if you look at
Speaker 1: what tends to happen when it comes to data. States
Speaker 1: can have a sense of not leaving young people in
Speaker 1: foster care for a long time, so things get rushed.
Speaker 1: So sometimes the termination of prontal rights happens too quickly.
Speaker 1: Sometimes an adoption happens too quickly. She also believes that
Speaker 1: the American perception of adoption is binary. Adopted parents are
Speaker 1: good parents who can't take care of their children bad.
Speaker 1: She says, not enough attention is paid to the gray
Speaker 1: areas that exist. What kind of words come up when
Speaker 1: you think of parents who have their rights terminated? Poor,
Speaker 1: drug abusers, addicts, You know, all these really loaded terms,
Speaker 1: and then you say, what comes up for you with
Speaker 1: parents who adopt? Family? Love, safety? You so, and then
Speaker 1: even when you look at, you know, families and parents
Speaker 1: who relinquished voluntarily, there is a much warmer feeling about
Speaker 1: that versus parents who have their rights terminated. It's just
Speaker 1: something that we have embedded in our perceptions. Like Shanda Jones,
Speaker 1: April believes that the system may have favored the hearts
Speaker 1: and the family. Like the hearts, I could see how
Speaker 1: they would be very appealing within the foscare system, very appealing.
Speaker 1: She says, there is no way to discuss this case
Speaker 1: without taking a hard look at what she calls the
Speaker 1: deep layers of racism within the child welfare system. There's
Speaker 1: so many issues of just racism and raising class differences.
Speaker 1: It's just hard not to have that just be so
Speaker 1: front and center. You know, you have an aunt who
Speaker 1: is ready willing and able, and you've got families that
Speaker 1: are struggling for whatever reason and doing what they can
Speaker 1: to rehabilitate, and there are people of color, and then
Speaker 1: you've got white family resources available Bowle, and you can
Speaker 1: see it coming so clearly. You know that that this
Speaker 1: is how this would play out. Institutional racism within chow
Speaker 1: Wilfare is this there. There's no question. As a woman
Speaker 1: of color who was taken in by white parents, April
Speaker 1: is uniquely aware of the challenges of transracial adoption, how
Speaker 1: important questions about identity can get glossed over, or how
Speaker 1: a child may grow to feel ambivalent towards their birth culture,
Speaker 1: or as if they're stuck between two worlds. First and foremost,
Speaker 1: they should be living in diverse areas with examples and
Speaker 1: teachers and community members and friends close friends of the
Speaker 1: family that are people of color. Like you just can't
Speaker 1: raise a brown or black kid in a situation where
Speaker 1: they're one of a few people of color. Is just
Speaker 1: not safe anymore. It's not emotionally safe. It's not physically safe.
Speaker 1: Um So I think first and foremost they should be
Speaker 1: living in diverse areas and parents need to be uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: right Like white parents need to make it their business
Speaker 1: to go and be in places where they're in a
Speaker 1: minority so they can get a little bit of a
Speaker 1: sense of what their kid feels. Ultimately, she believes that
Speaker 1: multiple pleas for racial understanding and tolerance on Facebook not
Speaker 1: to mention the family's presence at protests was self congratulatory.
Speaker 1: I just remember looking at Davante's face, went back into
Speaker 1: the two thousand and fourteen right, it was like it
Speaker 1: just struck me. I mean I had no idea honestly,
Speaker 1: and no idea that he was a young person that
Speaker 1: was involved in the foster system. But but something didn't
Speaker 1: sit right, and just so much pain in that and
Speaker 1: it just felt like it felt uncomfortable to me, honestly,
Speaker 1: It just it just did. And and then to find
Speaker 1: out his backstory and this tragic end to his life,
Speaker 1: it's just sort of reinforces this idea that some parents
Speaker 1: do operate this way, which is, you know, look what
Speaker 1: we did, we're symbols of you know, racial harmony, and
Speaker 1: our kids are evidence of that, and it's just really
Speaker 1: really uncomfortable and exploitive and um, it's sort of heartbreaking,
Speaker 1: and it's really calculated. Right Was it calculated or was
Speaker 1: it ignorant? If you reads heartfelt words on the topic
Speaker 1: of systemic racism, you might find yourself impressed by her conviction.
Speaker 1: On July seven, two thousand sixteen, she took to Facebook
Speaker 1: to air her frustrations. My beautiful black boys, she wrote,
Speaker 1: alongside a picture of Jeremiah and Davante smiling in hoodies
Speaker 1: and beanies. We talk endlessly about the realities of this world.
Speaker 1: So much beauty, so much pain and suffering. These boys
Speaker 1: live and lead with love, but I will never deny
Speaker 1: them their human right to be frustrated, sad, and angry
Speaker 1: about the perpetual violence and murder of people of color.
Speaker 1: My feed is filled with people white and POC that
Speaker 1: want to help make a difference but are completely at
Speaker 1: a loss of what to do. Opening up and breaking
Speaker 1: the silence is a start, because white silence is black death.
Speaker 1: If that statement makes you uncomfortable, I'm not sorry. Black
Speaker 1: pain matters, Black anger matters, Black lives matter. Back in
Speaker 1: two thousand seven, after jan and Sarah adopted Marcus, Hannah,
Speaker 1: and Abigail. A case worker visited the women's home in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Her findings were positive. She recommended that Jan and Sarah
Speaker 1: be allowed to adopt a sibling group of up to
Speaker 1: five more children. Her report, filed on July eleven, two
Speaker 1: thousand seven, read the Hearts are open to any race
Speaker 1: and gender, although they would prefer to have at least
Speaker 1: one boy in the sibling group. Jen and Sarah have
Speaker 1: adopted by racial children, and they have the tools and
Speaker 1: knowledge to adopt more children from the African American heritage.
Speaker 1: They are prepared to advocate for their children and to
Speaker 1: secure the necessary services to support their family. Over the
Speaker 1: course of our reporting, Lauren has reviewed over eight hundred
Speaker 1: pages of material from the Clark County Sheriff's Office in Washington.
Speaker 1: Among the documents are official caseworker reports and personal emails
Speaker 1: from the Heart women, and it appears they did try,
Speaker 1: at least at first, to create a nurturing and culturally
Speaker 1: aware home for their children before they even received the
Speaker 1: first set of kids. Gen wrote an email in January
Speaker 1: two thousand and six to her adoption agency caseworker talking
Speaker 1: about having set up an appointment with a child psychologist
Speaker 1: who she calls simply the best of the best. Gen wrote,
Speaker 1: we registered him a SAP because there's a waiting list.
Speaker 1: About three or four months out, they talked about enrolling
Speaker 1: Marcus in special education. Jen calls the school the most
Speaker 1: diverse in the district. A case worker wrote up a
Speaker 1: conversation she had with Jen reflecting on the transracial adoption
Speaker 1: homework Jen had completed about places and people African American
Speaker 1: kids could identify with. It said that Jen had identified
Speaker 1: the Black student Union at a local university. The case
Speaker 1: worker writes about Jen just purchase a couple more children's
Speaker 1: books about African American heritage. One book is called Martin's
Speaker 1: Big Words about Martin Luther King. In pictures that were
Speaker 1: released of the inside of the Heart's home in Washington,
Speaker 1: their home library showed what looked like African masks hung
Speaker 1: on the wall. The book collection included books like Mandela
Speaker 1: and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Another thing that
Speaker 1: really stood out was back in March two thousand nine
Speaker 1: email to some friends. This is after the adoption of
Speaker 1: the second set of kids. Jen says how well the
Speaker 1: kids are doing and mentions the maternal aunt trying to
Speaker 1: get the kids back. Gen wrote, the kids are all
Speaker 1: doing swell. I don't know why they insist on growing
Speaker 1: up on me. Sierra will be four next month. Abby
Speaker 1: and Jeremia are five now, Davante six, Hannah's Evan and
Speaker 1: Marcus ten. Davante, Jeremiah, and Sierra are doing incredibly well.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't know they are the same kids that came
Speaker 1: to our home nine months ago. I'm so proud of
Speaker 1: them for all they have accomplished in such a short time.
Speaker 1: We finalize their adoption last month, Thank goodness. I have
Speaker 1: been a ball of anxiety just waiting for that day
Speaker 1: to come. Until a couple of months ago, a maternal
Speaker 1: aunt was still trying to get them back. Long story,
Speaker 1: happy ending or beginning. A two fifteen evaluation of data
Speaker 1: on six children adopted in Minnesota examine whether being raised
Speaker 1: by someone of a different race is inherently damaging, and
Speaker 1: the conclusion was no. Emma Hamilton's, the lead author and
Speaker 1: a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at the University of
Speaker 1: Texas at Austin, put it this way, beings by someone
Speaker 1: of a different race is not inherently damaging to the
Speaker 1: development of the adoptees. But much depends on how white
Speaker 1: parents talk about race with their children of color and
Speaker 1: help them identify with people of their own race. This
Speaker 1: mirrors what April Dinwoody has found in her personal and
Speaker 1: professional life. You almost have to become an activist, and
Speaker 1: I think a true activists one that goes into the
Speaker 1: school and says black and brown kids are disciplined and
Speaker 1: higher rates, and you've got to make yourself known to say, hey,
Speaker 1: not my kid. You've really got to become, you know,
Speaker 1: a champion of your child safety physically and emotionally. I
Speaker 1: think the Hearts tried to sort of like put that
Speaker 1: idea out there of like racial kind of coming together,
Speaker 1: but it was like very very superficial and uncomfortable quite frankly,
Speaker 1: and how they sort of paraded the children around it.
Speaker 1: Just that's not what that looks like. What it really
Speaker 1: looks like when you embrace bringing a child of color
Speaker 1: to your family and you're a white family, there better
Speaker 1: be people that look like your kid in that community.
Speaker 1: And the better, you know, really be authentic. And the
Speaker 1: way it becomes authentic is learning about birth family. Like
Speaker 1: you know, there are a lot of ethnicities and cultures
Speaker 1: within black and white people and brown people, So it's
Speaker 1: kind of like you gotta have some information so that
Speaker 1: you actually know what your kid may have been experiencing
Speaker 1: in their birth family. In so many ways, the mythologies
Speaker 1: Jen and Sarah Hart told about their children had their
Speaker 1: intended effect. They told people the kids were crack babies
Speaker 1: in eighties term now widely debunked. People believed them for
Speaker 1: April Dinwoodie. These stories are evidence of white saviorism, the
Speaker 1: idea that white people can swoop in and fix non
Speaker 1: white people. It's one of those things that really just
Speaker 1: makes me so angry because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it may well be true that these young people come
Speaker 1: with those traumatic experiences that manifest and behavior and health issues.
Speaker 1: That just means that family needs more support, and those
Speaker 1: those parents who are going to parents as children need
Speaker 1: not use that as any form of excuse or even
Speaker 1: be talking about private things about their children unless it's
Speaker 1: with a licensed therapist. That dressed so much suspicion and
Speaker 1: so much just emotion around the fact that that would
Speaker 1: be utilized as a way to mask some of the
Speaker 1: abuse and neglect that was happening within the home. It's
Speaker 1: just just disturbing the and Sparreling now sees how the
Speaker 1: use of loaded terms like crack babies may have helped
Speaker 1: reinforce a certain narrative. Everyone was very envious of them
Speaker 1: because of how they could pull this off, how they
Speaker 1: can raise the six quote unquote developmentally the late children.
Speaker 1: Good for you, nice work, you saved him. You know,
Speaker 1: that was the narrative always. You know, we talked extensively
Speaker 1: about it. So it was just like, you know, she
Speaker 1: had a very detailed story about how they were adopted
Speaker 1: and what they went through prior. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: white saviorism symbolic in this right now that I never
Speaker 1: understood or knew about, trying to build this portrait of
Speaker 1: a you know, idealistic situation or these white ladies came
Speaker 1: in and saved these six black children. Um, which just man,
Speaker 1: it's tough. We loved those kids so much. Okay, so sorry, okay.
Speaker 1: Jen and Sarah's artfully spun stories were alarmingly effective. They
Speaker 1: neatly explained away some of the kid's strange behavior while
Speaker 1: also reinforcing a cocoon of silence around what happened behind
Speaker 1: closed doors. They kept the kids from being able to
Speaker 1: connect with people who had similar backgrounds. They kept the
Speaker 1: neighbors from interfering. These stories even prevented the children from
Speaker 1: being in touch with their own flesh and blood. And
Speaker 1: most importantly, these stories ensured that the voices of the
Speaker 1: hard children were never ever heard. If you suspect a
Speaker 1: child as being abused, call one eight hundred for a
Speaker 1: child that's one eight hundred numeral four a C H
Speaker 1: I l D. Or visit child help dot org to
Speaker 1: find out how to report your concerns next time on
Speaker 1: Broken Hearts, when I realized that she was on school, mama, like,
Speaker 1: there's no way in hell those kids are learning. I mean, really,
Speaker 1: those third parties came here and scoured the bluffs with
Speaker 1: fancy helicopters and airplanes and boats. I can't even imagine
Speaker 1: how many miles he walked on those beaches and bluffs
Speaker 1: and drove around and sat on the cliff with his
Speaker 1: binoculars day after day after day after day. I remember
Speaker 1: making this comment, like you're like an abused wife, and
Speaker 1: she just kind of gave me this look like no kidding.
Speaker 1: For access to exclusive photos and videos and documents about
Speaker 1: the case. Visit Glamour dot com slash Broken Hearts. Have
Speaker 1: questions for us about this podcast, reach us on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Glamour mag or at Broken Hearts Pod. If you
Speaker 1: like what you heard, leave us a review. Broken Hearts
Speaker 1: is a joint production between Glamour and How Stuff Works,
Speaker 1: with new episodes dropping every Tuesday. Broken Hearts is co
Speaker 1: hosted and co written by Justine Harman and Elizabeth Egan
Speaker 1: and edited by Wendy Nogal. Lauren Smiley is our field reporter.
Speaker 1: Samantha Barry is Glamour's editor in chief. Julie Sheen and
Speaker 1: Diana Buckman head up the business side of this partnership.
Speaker 1: Joyce Pandola, Pat Singer and Luke Zeleski are our research team.
Speaker 1: Jason Hope is executive for Doucer On behalf of How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works, along with producers Julian Weller, ben Kie Brick
Speaker 1: and Josh Thaine. Special thanks to Jen Lance h