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Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography
Foster Care Odyssey: A Black Girl s Story
Without signing the documents that would permit adoption, young Theresa Cameron's mother placed her little daughter under the aegis of Catholic Charities, and then the mother vanished forever.
During the 1960s and 1970s this abandoned, unadoptable child was shuttled through foster homes in the vicinity of Buffalo, N.Y. Insecure, desolate, and frightened, she was rotated through group homes and the houses of alien families, the victim of religious hypocrisy, racial prejudice, and insult.
Theresa remained in this bleak, shame-imposing limbo until she was eighteen. "Foster Care Odyssey" is her candid story.
"What little I owned," she writes, "could have fit inside my usual moving-day luggage--a couple of shopping bags. Besides my clothing, I only had a few school supplies. Like the other girls at the group home, I attached very little sentimental value to the items I owned. . . . The only thing of value that could not be taken away from me were my thoughts."
Theresa places her narrative against the backdrop of the civil rights movement in blue-collar Buffalo, where mixed-race foster homes were almost unknown and where she witnessed a welfare system that accorded only marginal benevolence to children, particularly black children caught in the squeeze of bureaucratic machinery.
As she passed through her turbulent teenage years, she acquired both a strong will and a tough veneer to shield herself from the many hurts in a restrictive world infused with racism and institutional segregation.
Her coming-of-age narrative voices plainspoken criticism of the pernicious system which engulfed her and other helpless abandoned children.
Theresa Cameron is an associate professor of planning in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Arizona State University. She has been published in the "Journal of Health and Social Policy," "Policy Studies Journal," and "Landscape and Urban Planning."
Copublished with the Center for American Places
During the 1960s and 1970s this abandoned, unadoptable child was shuttled through foster homes in the vicinity of Buffalo, N.Y. Insecure, desolate, and frightened, she was rotated through group homes and the houses of alien families, the victim of religious hypocrisy, racial prejudice, and insult.
Theresa remained in this bleak, shame-imposing limbo until she was eighteen. "Foster Care Odyssey" is her candid story.
"What little I owned," she writes, "could have fit inside my usual moving-day luggage--a couple of shopping bags. Besides my clothing, I only had a few school supplies. Like the other girls at the group home, I attached very little sentimental value to the items I owned. . . . The only thing of value that could not be taken away from me were my thoughts."
Theresa places her narrative against the backdrop of the civil rights movement in blue-collar Buffalo, where mixed-race foster homes were almost unknown and where she witnessed a welfare system that accorded only marginal benevolence to children, particularly black children caught in the squeeze of bureaucratic machinery.
As she passed through her turbulent teenage years, she acquired both a strong will and a tough veneer to shield herself from the many hurts in a restrictive world infused with racism and institutional segregation.
Her coming-of-age narrative voices plainspoken criticism of the pernicious system which engulfed her and other helpless abandoned children.
Theresa Cameron is an associate professor of planning in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Arizona State University. She has been published in the "Journal of Health and Social Policy," "Policy Studies Journal," and "Landscape and Urban Planning."
Copublished with the Center for American Places
381 pages, Hardcover
First published March 12, 2002
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136 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 12, 2024
I had this book on my shelf for a long time without reading it, and don’t really know why that from my tall stack of books I’ve been meaning to read, I chose this very unassuming one. I had been spending the past couple months trying to find books to help me cope and better understand myself through people with similar experiences. It let me to find books that dealt with mental illnesses and other struggles, but maybe what I needed all along was a book about foster care. Even though Theresa and I have very different stories as to why we were in foster care and specific outcomes/experiences while in the system, I had never felt more seen and understood in my life. Theresa explained thought patterns and pointed out emotions that I never even thought to notice before. Those complicated nuanced feelings towards social workers and foster parents, feeling desperate for special attention and someone to believe in you, feeling so uncomfortable with reality and try to remove yourself completely.. I cried so many times reading this book. For her, for me, for other children and people and situations. After finishing the book, I did some research and found out that Theresa has passed away. I feel terrible, as if I lost someone dear and close to me, someone who supported and confided in me. I really wanted to reach out to her and just talk, as she gave her email in her note to foster kids. This book deserves so much more attention. It is captivating, it is so real, and in a historical sense it is a great narrative of experiencing foster care and general life as a black person during the time of the civil rights movement. This piece was inspiring and educational. May she rest in peace, and know that she really has sparked something in my life and I am sure in the life of others. I am happy to learn she has a sequel to this describing her life after foster care, and I feel that book will provide me with similar feelings, even more so considering I am in that time period of life after foster care.
January 5, 2015
This is a very good book is shows how she went through so many things
September 24, 2018
Contrary to Night, Theresa Cameron had to battle her traumas alone. Her first foster home (and potentially her best one), was ripped from her at a tender age because of the politics of Catholic Charities placing a foster child in a non-Catholic home. I wish I could say her foster journey goes up from there, but the system, much as it does today, failed her, allowing her to be adoptable when her chance of adoption was slim to none, especially for a black girl growing up in the 60s.
While the first two parts were good, I felt they dragged a bit; I truly, though, was captivated by part three, which chronicled Theresa’s experience in a group home and further displacement until she aged out of the system. The system ultimately failed her most in not giving her a reliable adult to depend on, and when she was forced into displacement again, she commented, “I studied as much as I could, but my concentration level was almost nonexistent. Having this rug pulled out from under me fortified me with the belief that I should never get too attached to anyone or anything. Not even the Catholic Church could provide me with security” (261).
Without even one solid adult in her life, Theresa was left alone. Honestly, it is surprising that she has grown to have what can only be seen as a successful adulthood. She talks further about her journey on 299: “...I thought about the many forced moved I had made. By the early 1970s, changes from the civil rights movement started to filter through the United States. More schools, government agencies, and businesses had adopted affirmative action and other anti-discrimination policies. Admittedly, they were often hard to enforce but at least they had become the law in many places. I thought it was odd that social services agencies almost always refused to permit black children to live with white families when white-owned businesses were legally banned from discriminating against minorities. The policy may have served the interests of the adults who enforced it, but it often deprived black children the chance to find stability. I had no trouble identifying with my racial background. I was a black teenager fed up with the nomadic existence known as foster care.”
This story is important. It is important because it highlights a discrimination that I am sure few, even SJWs, are aware happened in history. It is important because it shows the immense need for “good” foster families and role models for our youth. (Cameron, herself, admits she tries to pseudo-represent this role with the book, as she noted she wrote it to help other foster children.) It is important because while the system is “better,” per se, we still have a long way to go. I picked up Cameron’s story on a whim (thanks, Half Priced Books), and I am glad I did, for it gives an intelligent interpretation of one girl’s journey of growing up in a system that puts you at a disadvantage, when society also discriminated against you.
While the first two parts were good, I felt they dragged a bit; I truly, though, was captivated by part three, which chronicled Theresa’s experience in a group home and further displacement until she aged out of the system. The system ultimately failed her most in not giving her a reliable adult to depend on, and when she was forced into displacement again, she commented, “I studied as much as I could, but my concentration level was almost nonexistent. Having this rug pulled out from under me fortified me with the belief that I should never get too attached to anyone or anything. Not even the Catholic Church could provide me with security” (261).
Without even one solid adult in her life, Theresa was left alone. Honestly, it is surprising that she has grown to have what can only be seen as a successful adulthood. She talks further about her journey on 299: “...I thought about the many forced moved I had made. By the early 1970s, changes from the civil rights movement started to filter through the United States. More schools, government agencies, and businesses had adopted affirmative action and other anti-discrimination policies. Admittedly, they were often hard to enforce but at least they had become the law in many places. I thought it was odd that social services agencies almost always refused to permit black children to live with white families when white-owned businesses were legally banned from discriminating against minorities. The policy may have served the interests of the adults who enforced it, but it often deprived black children the chance to find stability. I had no trouble identifying with my racial background. I was a black teenager fed up with the nomadic existence known as foster care.”
This story is important. It is important because it highlights a discrimination that I am sure few, even SJWs, are aware happened in history. It is important because it shows the immense need for “good” foster families and role models for our youth. (Cameron, herself, admits she tries to pseudo-represent this role with the book, as she noted she wrote it to help other foster children.) It is important because while the system is “better,” per se, we still have a long way to go. I picked up Cameron’s story on a whim (thanks, Half Priced Books), and I am glad I did, for it gives an intelligent interpretation of one girl’s journey of growing up in a system that puts you at a disadvantage, when society also discriminated against you.
April 14, 2021
Love this book and how real it is…
September 19, 2021
This true story of life in the foster care system was heartbreaking. I felt Ms. Cameron's emotions of abandonment and rejection. Though my experience in foster care was not horrific, I know many who have suffered. The current state of the foster care system today is still not valuable especially for those who age out with no real direction. I learned that Ms. Cameron passed away. I would have loved to read more from her. May her heart be comforted in peace.
June 28, 2015
This is Cameron's story of her childhood in which she was transferred from foster home to foster home, all the while shielding herself from forming attachments or allowing herself to feel loved. I don't know much about the foster care system and of course, we hear the horror stories in the media, but I found Cameron's book to be insightful. She was never abused, starved, beaten, but she was irrevocably effected by her time in foster care. I wouldn't be surprised if many foster care children felt the same way she did -- unlovable, transferable -- and put up walls to avoid any "heartache." It may go along way for foster parents to begin understanding some of what their foster children are not saying.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes memoirs, has been in foster care themselves, (Cameron has a particularly moving note to this in just this situation at the end), or those considering being foster care parents.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes memoirs, has been in foster care themselves, (Cameron has a particularly moving note to this in just this situation at the end), or those considering being foster care parents.
September 27, 2016
A great book that opened my eyes to what it was like to grow up as a minority in the foster care system. Against all odds, Cameron found a way to be successful. I looked up her life story afterwards and the obstacles didn't stop when she came of age, but she had colleagues who supported her through the darkest days.
November 16, 2013
It was interesting and it kept me reading...
May 9, 2017
Very slow read
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews