Was White Right ~ as in the bad old days

in USA child custody disputes

Was it more of the "calculated hysterics" - as Judge Childers called it?

Shaoqiang He came to America to work on a Ph.D. in business in Memphis Tennessee. Their daughter Anna Mae He was taken from them shortly after her birth and placed with a white couple - Jerry and Louise Baker, who demonstrate the financial capacity to care for the child properly.

The past four years have been a continuous, ongoing custody battle in the American courts for Shaoqiang and his wife Qin Luo He. Are the cards stacked against the poor foreign couple? Or are the non-white (Chinese) parents simply lacking in the values of more prosperous "middle class" families, who can therefore properly instill the now-five year old Anna Mae with those values, providing a preferable upbringing?

My own bias is against America's eurocentricity and arrogance. Meanwhile the child custody tug-of-war, now going on five years, is used as justification for leaving the child with the foster parents.

The Bakers are planning to formally adopt little Anna Mae, and so far Circuit Court Judge Robert Childers has given them reason to hope. The latest decision nullifies the biological parents Parental Rights.

According to the AP report by Woody Baird, the judge rejected arguments by the Hes that they had initially put Anna Mae in what they thought was temporary foster care in 1999 because of financial and legal hardships.

Childers ruled that the child's "best interest" is served by staying with the family she has become to regard as her own. Why, after all, does she regard the Bakers as her family? Because they have raised her till now.

The Hes face possible deportation to China, are determined to appeal, and a citizens group, the Greater Memphis United Chinese Association, promised to continue helping them pay legal bills.

"This is a typical travesty of justice," said Shaoqiang He after hearing news of the decision. Next to him, his wife cried uncontrollably as she held her two younger children.

The trial was scrutinized by Chinese-Americans and Chinese citizens across the United States. The Chinese embassy in Washington sent representatives to pretrial hearings and wrote to the Tennessee courts seeking assurance the Hes would be treated fairly.

The Bakers argued that Anna Mae has become part of their family, which includes four biological children, and taking her away would be emotionally devastating for her.

Judge Childers obviously agreed. Jerry Baker's statement said: "We're so relieved and proud that Anna is going to be allowed to wake up in the same bed that she woke up in since she was 3 weeks old."

"One day, we're going to be allowed to walk her down an aisle when she gets married."

The judge cited Qin Luo's sobbing and claimed she was "unstable" and demonstrated a pattern of irrational behavior.

"Mrs. He's courtroom hysterics were calculated," Childers said.

The judge also cited China's "one-child-per-family" policy in his ruling, noting that families with more than one child in China were subject to financial penalties and the loss of government benefits.

Shaoqiang's trouble started when he was accused of sexual assault by another student in 1998. The accusations were not proven, but the damage had been done.

He was acquitted, but not before the university had stripped him of his scholarship and stipend. The U.S. government then revoked his visa and initiated deportation proceedings, which were put on hold because of the custody fight.

The Hes say they were forced to find help caring for Anna Mae because they were out of work and faced large legal and medical bills.